The countdown to Klex’s mainnet launch is on. On August 2, the Krew-incubated project invited the public to put its testnet through its paces, including smart contract interaction, ahead of an alpha release. The mainnet is expected to go live shortly after that, bringing Balancer-style portfolio management to the Klaytn network.
With Krew’s first project, KLAP, breaking records for TVL within days of its mainnet launch, there’s the confidence that Klex Finance will follow suit. The platform certainly fills a gap in the market, given the absence of smart liquidity pools and portfolio adjustment tools on Klaytn.
Announcing the inspiration behind Klex, its team explained: “We envision a new trading space enabled by a novel AMM implementation leveraging weighted pools, stable pools, and liquidity bootstrapping pools. We believe that with these essential tools, we can push DeFi on Klaytn to the next level”.
From DeFi to Metaverse
Klaytn is currently billing itself as the “metaverse blockchain for all”. While this promise may come to pass, in the here and now, there’s a stark need for DeFi primitives: the building blocks essential to every EVM network’s evolution. KLAP has plugged a gap for decentralized lending; there’s now an opportunity for Klex to do the same for portfolio management.
The codebase for the Klex platform has been derived from Balancer’s battle-tested open source code, with modifications kept to a minimum. There is nevertheless a need to rigorously trial the Klex platform on testnet before it goes live on mainnet. Compared to a conventional AMM such as Uniswap, Balancer supports pools of more than two tokens. Up to eight tokens can be included in a single pool with Klex Finance, making it easier for traders to swap between assets such as USDC, KLAY, WBTC, and the native KLEX token when it launches.
Greater Efficiency for All Parties
One of the main advantages to Klex Finance versus existing Klaytn platforms will be more efficient capital management. Swaps can be executed with lower slippage and fees; even the gas consumed per transaction will be less than that of current solutions. Klex will use Asset Managers: external smart contracts that can control the assets within a particular vault. This will allow the entity managing these assets to pursue strategies designed to maximize yield for the benefit of all LPs.
Meanwhile, the KLEX token will serve as a general governance token and be allocated to early users of the protocol. Liquidity providers can earn KLEX in addition to the pool fees they will collect. On July 26, Klaytn Lending Application (KLAP) launched its governance token, which now plays a pivotal role in the lending platform. Should the testnet program proceed smoothly, Klaytn users shouldn’t have long to wait until Klex sets its mainnet date and follows suit.
