Every month, the Origin team publishes an update to our token holders and the broader community. We hope you enjoy our April 2024 edition.
The OGV-OGN merger, new products, and new staking mechanics – get the scoop on what went down in April.
Origin’s developments in April laid the foundation for the protocol’s new trajectory in multichain yield products. From new products to a tokenomics overhaul, several announcements were made in April that will be built upon in the coming months.
Alongside these announcements, we’ve worked diligently to strengthen Origin Ether’s design, developed new features for PrimeStaked liquid restaking, and found new integrations and incentives for OETH on Arbitrum.
Some of Origin’s achievements from April include:
Let’s dive into everything that’s unfolded in April, highlighting some of the most exciting initiatives we have in store for OGN, OETH, and beyond.
One vision, one token: learn more about Origin Token’s new trajectory in multichain yield.
Origin Token underwent a complete overhaul in April, starting with the proposal to merge OGV into OGN. With the merger, OGN inherits Origin Ether and Origin Dollar and will be the sole value accrual and governance token for all of Origin’s products. Following the upcoming security audit, the OGV migration portal will open for users to convert their OGV and veOGV to OGN at a rate of 0.09137 OGN per OGV.
To set forth new value accrual mechanisms, OGN stakers passed a proposal to upgrade OGN tokenomics. The proposal introduced xOGN, the new token for staked OGN. Upon the OGV-OGN migration portal opening, token holders will be able to convert to OGN, or opt for xOGN to earn protocol revenue, boosted by incentives from Origin’s treasury.
OGN’s new tokenomics add highly requested features to its staking experience, such as being able to add to existing stakes and exit staked positions early. Moreover, the max lock time for xOGN is set to 1 year, enabling stakers to earn maximum rewards without having to lock up funds for extended time horizons.
We’ve seen substantial excitement around our Automated Redemption Manager (ARM), an early stage product that was revealed in April. The ARM aims to alleviate friction for redeeming LSTs and LRTs by offering instant, zero-slippage swaps on redeemable assets. Current redemption methods inhibit users from earning yield across ETH-denominated DeFi products, as redemptions are either too costly or too slow.
You can think of the Automated Redemption Manager as a cross between an AMM and an isolated money market. Instead of pricing assets on a bonding curve, the Automated Redemption Manager uses lending rates for the asset’s collateral to provide instant liquidity and avoid slippage.
Currently, the ARM supports stETH<>ETH swaps. The stETH<>ETH pool is integrated with 1inch and CoWswap, and has generated over $100M in pre-launch volume without any marketing. In the near term, the ARM will get additional support for Origin Ether and open its LP experience to the Origin community.
Coinciding with EigenLayer’s LST restaking initiative, PrimeStaked opened uncapped OETH deposits to primeETH. Users can now deposit Origin Ether and ETH to restake through primeETH, earning an EIGEN allocation, staking yield, and primeETH XP.
On April 29th, the Eigen Foundation announced its initial distribution of its EIGEN token. PrimeStaked users that held primeETH prior to EigenLayer’s snapshot on March 15th are eligible to claim EIGEN starting on May 10th. The snapshot taken on March 15th represents the end of season 1 distribution, with 5% of the EIGEN supply allocated to season 1. Season 2 is now underway, and 10% of EIGEN’s supply is allocated equally between seasons 2 and 3. For more information on the Eigen Foundation’s token generation event, we encourage you to read our EIGEN stakedrop guide.
We’ve actively worked on direct redemptions for primeETH in April, and we’ve prepared code to enable withdrawals on PrimeStaked. The code is under review and will be shipped shortly after the audit is complete.
Here’s how OETH and OUSD are working nonstop to earn you passive yield.
Origin Ether’s 30-day trailing APY achieved 30% higher yield than Lido’s stETH, generating 3.8% APY in April. As OETH completes its transition to a true LST, yields have temporarily decreased. This can be attributed to the protocol’s divestment from sfrxETH and its higher allocation to stETH and rETH. Once all LSTs are divested and Beacon Chain staking support is added, OETH will begin earning staking yield directly, enhanced by our Convex AMO strategy.
Origin Dollar’s 30-day trailing APY was 10.5% at the end of April. Demand for stablecoins has remained high, creating opportunities for OUSD to earn substantial yield through its lending strategies. Origin Dollar’s USDT and USDC collateral is currently allocated to Morpho Aave, while its DAI collateral earns yield from the MakerDAO DSR.
Last month, the Arbitrum DAO granted incentives for Origin Ether’s launch on Arbitrum. As part of Arbitrum’s Long Term Incentives Pilot Program, Origin Ether received 185,000 ARB (~$200,000 USD) to incentivize the use of OETH on Arbitrum for the next three months. ARB incentives will be split between leading AMMs and lending protocols to foster deep liquidity as OETH expands across Arbitrum’s ecosystem.
Also in April, Origin Ether was listed on MEXC. As its 2nd centralized exchange listing, Origin Ether is becoming increasingly accessible. While we advise all our users to own the keys to their crypto, centralized exchanges provide streamlined onramps into the Origin community. MEXC is the 11th largest crypto exchange globally, surpassing $1B in volume per day and being home to over 10 million crypto investors.
Join us in welcoming Pranesh, our new Sr. Solidity Engineer, to Origin!
Last month, the Origin team brought on a Senior Solidity Engineer to accelerate the development of Origin’s new DeFi products. Pranesh Shanmugasundaram (Pranesh AS for short) joins Origin with a long history of smart contract engineering experience, with a focus on security and building dapps on scalable EVM networks.
Also in April, Origin team members spoke at Web3 Dubai to educate attendees on opportunities in liquid staking and restaking. Origin's MENA Community Manager spoke on the DeFi panel, and the team took time to meet several protocols to discuss future integrations.
Origin’s community members received unique benefits for their participation last month. Community members with the explorer role received OGN bonuses for new integrations, as well as access to Curvance’s incentivized testnet. Curvance recently took a snapshot of users’ participation, with future rewards expected for those who claimed the Curvance partner role.
That’s all for now! We’ve been hard at work completing the OGV-OGN merger, with new products being developed in tandem. Expect the OGV-OGN migration portal to open 1-2 weeks after our security audit, tentatively scheduled to be completed on May 17th. Plus, a brand new dapp is coming to coincide with the token merger, integrating OGN, OETH, and OUSD into one unified experience!
Until then, check out some of our favorite pieces of content from April:
