Crossing the Rubicon: September Monthly Update
Five markets live on Optimism, app upgrades, Rubicon Pools crosses $2 million TVL; a recap of Rubicon's busy launch month!
Historically September is a poor month for financial markets, and this one was no different. Thankfully volatile prices do not affect builders focused on the long term! Our team had a very productive month, with the main highlight being the first launch of the Rubicon protocol on Optimistic Ethereum.
Rubicon on Optimism Launch Recap
Rubicon’s next-generation decentralized exchange is live on Optimism! On September 1st we deployed Rubicon on Optimism and announced our early access period, and then we announced our official launch to the public on the 20th. Check out our launch post if you have not already so you can get up to speed! It’s been about two weeks since our public launch, so here are a few cool launch stats:
More than 2500 unique addresses have traded on the Rubicon exchange
Over $2.6 million of crypto assets are providing liquidity in Rubicon Pools
With >$68k in total volume, ETH/USDC is our most popular trading pair
We are happy to see that people like using Rubicon, but we know that this is only the beginning; we have so much more to build!
Rubicon Pools Performance
September was the first full month of Rubicon Pools live on mainnet. Let’s review how these liquidity pools performed:
As of writing, over $2 million of crypto assets are locked in Rubicon Pools, being used by strategists to provide liquidity on the exchange.
Return on Investment (ROI) is measured from the inception of each pool. In other words, if you were the first to deposit into the pool, what would the returns on your initial deposit be? As you can see in the image above, each pool posted positive returns over the past month. These rates were impressive enough to have Rubicon named as the Farm of the Week by the DeFi Pulse Farmer newsletter. We are honored to hold this prestigious title.
When looking at these past performance rates, it is important to keep in mind the risks of Rubicon Pools, and of market-making in general. There is no guarantee that pools are profitable, and you should understand the risks before using them. Some of our users have found it worthwhile to spread their risk across multiple pools so they are not exposed to a single asset. It is wise to diversify your portfolio.
(Obligatory disclaimer that nothing in this newsletter should be considered financial advice, always do your own research before investing!)
Looking Forward
We are super excited about everything that our development team has in the pipeline this month. Here are a few things to look out for:
Soon we will launch our Swap UI, so traders on the Rubicon app can use a familiar interface to swap between any two supported tokens. Instead of an inefficient AMM under the hood, a router contract is finding the best possible price for your trade on the Rubicon order books. We are especially excited to launch Swap because it is the most requested feature from our users!
We are always looking for ways to improve the user experience on the Rubicon app. One of our current pain points is that users have to leave our app to bridge funds to Optimism. We are exploring solutions that will make our bridging experience seamless; we cannot reveal too much at this point, but you can expect that this month, bridging will be way easier in the Rubicon app!
The Optimism team has made some huge development breakthroughs, and this month the network will get its biggest ever upgrade with the launch of OVM 2.0*! We are excited for EVM equivalence, gas optimizations, and the improved developer experience that this upgrade will bring.
*Note that the Optimistic Ethereum network will have a few hours of downtime during the Regenesis on October 28th; we will communicate the downtime on our social media channels. Rubicon users do not need to take any action, there is no need to migrate Pools LP positions or cancel outstanding orders.
Rubicon Community Call #1
Join our team on Friday, October 8th at 1 pm EDT (UTC-4:00) for the very first Rubicon Community Call! The call will take place in the Rubicon Discord on a voice channel while we take questions from the audience in chat. Our team will provide a product update, talk about upcoming features, and answer questions from the audience. We made a POAP for the event so all attendees can show off a commemorative badge for our very first community call!
We are Hiring!
The Rubicon team is focused on bringing decentralized exchange to the masses. If you want to join us on this journey and work on the cutting edge of decentralized finance, check out our jobs page! We are currently looking for a Senior Engineer and a Quantitative Engineer to join the team; if you fit the description for either of those roles, we encourage you to apply and reach out.
Join our Community
To keep up with Rubicon, follow us on Twitter, check out our blog, and join our Discord and Telegram communities where you can keep up with our team day-to-day. And if you are inclined to check out the Rubicon protocol yourself, you can review all of our contracts on our Github. You can also reach us at contact@rubicon.finance
Alea iacta est.