Every month, the Origin team publishes an update to our token holders and the broader community. We hope you enjoy our February 2023 edition.
New Story marketplaces, app integrations, and a Bitfinex listing. Check out what we did last month.
The cryptocurrency markets showed a breath of resurgence in February, with OGN and OGV being no exception. Thanks to new partnerships and utility for Origin Dollar, OGV has seen increased interest both within DeFi and across social media. Adding to the hype, ownership of the OUSD protocol transitioned away from our multi-sig, giving OGV holders control of the OUSD governance contract. We’re also excited to see more integrations developed through apps building on top of Origin Dollar – this time around the integration is with Archimedes Finance, a leverage app for OUSD yield.
Origin Story launched new marketplaces in February, including The Alien Boy and Kiwami’s official storefronts. Our new partners and their collectors can now enjoy aggregated listings, advanced NFT analytics, and bespoke storefronts through their new white label marketplaces.
As for OGN, the token is now listed on Bitfinex! Bitfinex is the last major exchange that OGN was yet to be listed on, gaining access to millions of new users through the platform. Alongside the Bitfinex listing, Origin Story is being promoted through Bitfinex’s Learn and Earn campaign. As the campaign is still ongoing, be sure to participate on Bitfinex to earn up to 4,000 OGN for completing the Origin Protocol quiz.
Before we dive into the details, let’s take a look at what Origin Protocol was up to last month.
In February:
There was a UFO sighting over Origin’s headquarters. The Alien Boys ended up being friendly. 👽
Honoring creator revenues was a widely contested topic in February. Blur and Opensea are now competing at the expense of creators, reducing previously-honored creator royalties. Royalties are the primary avenue for NFT projects to generate revenue, and Origin Story believes that enforcing creator royalties is vital for both creators and their collections. Now more than ever, NFT collections are looking to host their own storefronts to take control over their hard-earned royalties.
In light of the marketplace wars, creators have turned to Origin Story to build their storefronts. Our partners at Roo Troop recently announced that they will block all other marketplaces besides its Origin Story storefront in order to take control over creator royalties. Not only does this benefit Roo Troop, but OGN stakers will see increased rewards from the collection’s sales thanks to increased trading volume.
Origin is thrilled to partner with new collections in February, launching marketplaces for The Alien Boy and Kiwami. Kiwami is a leader in storytelling NFTs, creating multiple manga-based collections that are now aggregated on its Origin Story marketplace.
Launched in June 2021, The Alien Boy was among the first NFT collections to emerge from NFT summer. The project is a pioneer in generative 3D-models, and its collections boasts 4 unique collections and a multitude of notable holders. Alongside its official marketplace, Origin Story hosts a bespoke NFT analytics dashboard showing community metrics and sales data.
Origin Story seeks to make NFTs accessible to everyone. While not to undermine its importance, self-custody and crypto payments present barriers for users in their current forms. We’re excited to have integrated with Crossmint, a fiat-payment and wallet provider that streamlines NFT ownership. Users can now purchase NFTs from the Pudgy Penguins marketplace using a credit card, and more marketplace integrations are slated to roll out soon.
Last but not least, we’re thrilled to have OGN listed on Bitfinex! Founded in 2012, Bitfinex is an early innovator in crypto exchanges, facilitating hundreds of millions of dollars in daily volume. OGN trading commenced on February 13th, while Origin’s Learn and Earn campaign is ongoing for the next week. Users can find the Learn and Earn campaign on Bitfinex where they can earn OGN based on their quiz scores – the highest score wins 4,000 OGN (if you’re reading this, you’ll probably score well!)
Hit the polls! The OUSD protocol is now owned and governed by OGV stakers.
Origin Dollar made huge strides in February by transitioning its protocol ownership from a multisig wallet to OGV stakers. Origin Dollar Governance (OGV) holders can vote weekly on allocations for its yield strategies, future DeFi integrations, and other upgrades to the Origin Dollar contract. We expect OUSD governance to continuously become more decentralized as new holders and DAOs begin participating in Origin Dollar governance.
We’re constantly exploring new DeFi strategies for Origin Dollar internally, but in the month of February, a novel DeFi protocol called Archimedes Finance introduced a fresh use case for OUSD. Archimedes Finance lets users take on leverage with stablecoins, using Origin Dollar to generate boosted yields. If you’re interested in leveraging OUSD to earn up to 33% APY, visit the Archimedes Finance dapp. As Archimedes is a new protocol built by an external team, be sure to do your own research before leveraging your OUSD.
As new, leverage-seeking users deposit into Archimedes Finance, its smart contract swaps DAI, USDC, and USDT into Origin Dollar, increasing the total value locked for the OUSD protocol.
In light of counterparty risk exemplified by CeFi in 2022, DAOs are seeking transparent, risk-averse yields through self-custody. Origin Dollar continues to have fruitful conversations with DAOs to onboard Origin Dollar to their treasuries. This month, Popcorn DAO converted $2 million USDC into OUSD to earn yield for its treasury; the proposal was first announced in January’s token holder update. Also this month, Origin Dollar has had ongoing calls with Rook, the leading MEV marketplace. You can get up to speed on our conversations with Rook on the Rook Forum, and make sure to stay tuned to our Twitter for when the on-chain proposal goes live.
OGN Season 2 Staking is now locked, and Season 3 starts March 9th. Nearly 80% of all OGV is locked in staking.
Both OGN and OGV saw another month in the green as the broader crypto market saw a resurgence. Thanks to increased liquidity through Curve, trading volume significantly increased for Origin Dollar Governance (OGV) in February. In turn, OGV saw a price appreciation around 25% over the last 30-days, while OGN has appreciated nearly 15% in the same timeframe.
As always, Origin Story disburses 100% of its marketplace revenue to the OGN staking rewards pool. OGN Season 2 Staking is now locked, and stakers can claim their rewards in the form of ETH and OGN starting on March 9th. Stakers have 30 days to claim their rewards – all unclaimed rewards will rollover into the Season 3 rewards pool.
Season 3 of OGN Staking commences directly after Season 2 ends on March 9th. However, those with unstaked OGN can pre-stake their tokens in Season 3 today. This is important because staking rewards are based on points earned during Season 3. Points take into account both time staked and amount of tokens, so those who stake from the get-go can claim the most rewards at the end of the season.
As a reminder, OGV buybacks are executed on a recurring basis with revenue generated from the OUSD protocol. As shown in the chart above, buybacks for Origin Dollar Governance continue to grow, and nearly 15 million tokens have already been bought back.
In effort to remain the most transparent way to earn interest on stablecoins, Origin Dollar hosts a robust data analytics dashboard for users to monitor strategy allocations, backing, user activity, and buybacks. OUSD remains fully collateralized by leading stablecoins DAI, USDC, and USDT. The most utilized protocols for earning yield over the last month were Curve, Convex, and Aave, with a portion of these funds being routed through the Morpho Aave and Morpho Compound strategies.
A product leader from an NFT platform serving top global brands joined Origin this month.
Please join us in welcoming Ariel Meranus as Origin Story’s Senior Product Manager! Ariel comes from a background in Product strategy, holding related roles at consulting and technology firms for over a decade. Prior to joining Origin, Ariel served as the Director of Product for GigLabs, an NFT solutions provider that works to bring brands like NBA, NFL, and American Airlines into web3 via NFTs.
As always, we’re on the hunt for top talent and passionate builders in web3. Our team hails from diverse backgrounds in big tech and blockchain, with many of our team members being serial-entrepreneurs themselves. While we’ve recently filled many roles for Origin Dollar and Origin Story, we’re still searching for the right person to take on:
Think you got what it takes? Shoot us a message in our Discord, or apply directly through our job listing.
We had a lot to shout about in February, and some of it may have gotten lost on your Twitter feed. To stay up to date with everything Origin Protocol, be sure to turn our Tweet notifications on, and check out our blogs on story.xyz/blog and ousd.com/blog. We regularly post long-form content on OUSD integrations, DAO proposals, and new features for Origin Story. Here are some of our favorite posts you may have missed:
Want to get in touch with us to launch your NFT marketplace? Looking to demo a product we made during innovation week? Hit us up at [email protected] to get in touch with our team!
