Welcome to the quarterly update which, moving forward, replaces the monthly update at the start of each quarter. This allows us to reflect more broadly on progress made over the previous 3 months as well as providing an updated road map and information about our focus.
The first quarter of 2021 has been explosive for the industry as a whole with real adoption being the key characteristic differentiating the current trend from previous hype cycles. This has been no truer than within the Fuse ecosystem where, with the help of our growing community of users, token holders, and contributors, we have made significant progress towards our core objective of making open-source money a reality for the masses.
Usage and adoption metrics have improved across the board, additions have been made to our core product suite and a series of important collaborations and integrations have been launched with prominent names in the space. The work we do in this area is all designed to make the underlying platform more usable and more secure.
While we have remained laser-focused on our vision of providing robust and low-cost plug-and-play infrastructure for micro-economies and token-payment communities, we also made big strides towards increasing interoperability with other blockchain platforms and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
Analytics
On-chain transaction activity has been exceptional for Fuse Network in the first quarter of 2021, not only when compared to previous activity, but with the wider industry as a whole.
We crossed the considerable milestone of 7 million transactions with 3.98 million of those being processed in Q1. This is exponential growth, with the last quarter seeing transaction activity more than double the entirety of its previous performance.
This large increase in network usage has also not merely been driven by a few outlier days. As the chart below demonstrates, the daily average number of transactions per block on Fuse Network shot up in early February and has since then remained at consistently higher levels than before.
Head to the Fuse Explorer for more up to date information on network activity.
Fuse also registered an impressive growth curve in total value locked, which did not go unnoticed, featuring alongside other leading projects for best traction in mid-March as shown by Defi Llama.
Fuse Token
Q1 witnessed increased demand for Fuse Network’s native token FUSE on decentralized exchanges (DEX). Uniswap liquidity for the FUSE/ETH trading pair grew from around $800,000 to $1.6 million by March 31. The daily trading volume increase was even more impressive; having never risen above $100,000 before January of this year, it reached as high as $1.25 million on March 20.
FUSE also became tradable on order-book based DEX Loopring, with over $100K of liquidity posted at the beginning of March and with consistently high trading volume in the tens of thousands of dollars.
FuseSwap Growth
Another core element of the Fuse platform and ecosystem is our fast and low-cost native DEX FuseSwap. Inspired by Uniswap, FuseSwap is the place where ERC20 tokens issued on top of Fuse, as well as any other ERC20 tokens from compatible chains, can be traded freely and permissionlessly against each other.
FuseSwap’s adoption and usage have advanced dramatically in the last quarter. Combined liquidity on FuseSwap rose from around $36,000 on December 31 to $957,000 on March 31. The total trading volume went from averaging below $1,000 to consistently posting above $50,000 in March.
Products
Forming a strong foundation and providing the impetus for long term success, for any blockchain project, ultimately boils down to the quality of its products.
Here, we are also delighted to report important progress.
The Studio
Fuse Studio is the key element in Fuse’s toolbox enabling the creation and management of payment-centric communities running on the platform. Using it, anyone can launch a customized community at a few clicks of a button and create the community’s branded ERC-20 token.
During the last quarter, the Studio received a major upgrade, streamlining the community management process. Most importantly, community tokens can now be minted directly on the Fuse blockchain, instead of being first created on Ethereum, which significantly reduces costs.
FuseDollar
One of the most requested features on the platform has been a native stablecoin on Fuse. After listening to the community, we announced the first in the FuseX suite of Fuse-native stablecoins — FuseDollar (fUSD).
FuseDollar (like other FuseX stablecoins) is a fully collateralized asset; initially backed by USDC tokens, with Chainlink proof of reserve (discussed below) ensuring its 100% collateralization.
The engineering team is currently in the final stages of integrating Chainlink’s oracle functionality, required for fUSD backing to be fully auditable. Once this is achieved, anyone will be able to easily verify that their fUSD tokens are 100% collateralized.
You can read more about how FuseDollar works here.
Fuse Cash
During the last quarter, after much consideration amongst the leadership team, the Fuse team also announced a brand new core product for the ecosystem. Unlike the Fuse white-label wallet which is used predominantly as a starting point for Fuse payment communities to build their own branded mobile apps, Fuse Cash is Fuse’s answer to Venmo and PayPal. It will be directly usable by anyone wishing to make token-powered payments.
A key feature of Fuse Cash is the integration of network native DEX, FuseSwap, meaning that users are given exposure to a range of different assets through an ultra easy-to-use swapping interface. This feature, coupled with rapid, frictionless fiat onboarding via Ramp Network makes us very excited about the possibilities that Fuse Cash offers, particularly in Europe and in emerging markets.
FuseSwap liquidity mining rewards
We also introduced a number of new liquidity incentivization programs for users who contributed liquidity to eligible trading pools to earn tokens in addition to their share of transaction of 0.3% fees generated by the pool.
The list of tokens for which liquidity incentives were offered in Q1 included, among others, ORN (Orion Protocol), KNC (Kyber Network), LINK (Chainlink), GRT (The Graph), and OM (MANTRA DAO).
Please consult rewards.fuse.io to learn about the ongoing liquidity rewards programs on FuseSwap and Uniswap … and soon Binance Smart Chain-based DEXes ????.
Multichain bridge
In line with the team’s strong belief in a future in which no single public blockchain is completely dominant, the engineering team has made an important stride forward in the development of its multi-chain bridge functionality. In addition to the already functioning integration with Ethereum, Fuse Network is now also bridged to the rapidly growing Binance Smart Chain platform.
Interoperability among various platforms will be the defining feature of blockchain indusrt and we continue to explore the most promising and beneficial opportunities in this area.
Partnerships and integrations
Q1 was particularly eventful for Fuse in terms of partnerships and integrations with regard to infrastructure, DeFi and payments. Several partners have also generously provided liquidity and token incentives for participants in trading pools that involve their tokens on FuseSwap.
On the infrastructure front, we announced collaborations with industry-leading service providers Chainlink, Pocket Network, and The Graph. We also integrated Dapp.com, Staking Rewards, Unmarshal, Unstoppable Domains, Open Zeppelin, and Mintgate.
Chainlink is the recommended oracle service provider on the Fuse platform. The first use case for the Chainlink integration will involve the use of its proof-of-reserve functionality to certify the full backing of Fuse’s first native stablecoin FuseDollar by USDC tokens on Ethereum.
Pocket Network’s technology enables application developers on public blockchains to seamlessly connect to them, bypassing expensive centralized providers like Infura. Thanks to the Pocket Network collaboration, Fuse has become a paid network on Pocket, which means that those who run nodes, simplifying the connection to Fuse, will be remunerated in Pocket Network’s native POKT tokens.
The Graph is a decentralized protocol optimizing the extraction and querying of data generated by public blockchains. Fuse deployed the Graph to make its blockchain data easily available for applications and users in the ecosystem. The Fuse team is working on deploying subgraphs for its core products on The Graph’s hosted service, and Fuse dApps can now create their own subgraphs.
DeFi and Payments
In the area of DeFi and payments, notable collaborations and integrations in the last quarter were launched with Orion Protocol, Ramp Network, and e-Money.
Orion Protocol is an industry-leading cryptocurrency exchange liquidity aggregator. As part of our partnership with Orion, we will be integrating their Liquidity Boost plugin to increase the liquidity available to users of FuseSwap.
One key element defining the future adoption of Fuse and its ecosystem is the possibility of easy fiat on-ramping. The integration with Ramp Network that went live in Q1 is an important step in that direction. More developments can be expected in the area of fiat on ramping, with the launch of Fuse Cash, designed to make the process even more efficient and cost-effective.
We also entered into an important partnership in the stablecoin space. Our collaboration with leading international crypto payment provider e-Money will enable us to bring their suite of compliant, interest-bearing stablecoins to the Fuse ecosystem.
Other Partnerships
It is also worth mentioning our partnership with Boson Protocol a project which aims to disrupting the e-commerce industry by decentralizing it through the use of product, data, and trading commitment tokenization. Fuse is particularly suitable for minting and exchanging Boson Protocol’s Thing Tokens to be created for particular types of goods in the Boson ecosystem.
Ecosystem
We are also happy to observe the major communities and other projects developing on top of Fuse also continue to make progress towards achieving their objectives.
GoodDollar
The GoodDollar digital universal basic income project remains the largest project in the Fuse ecosystem by both the number of active users and transaction activity. During Q1, it consistently ranked in the top 5 of all dApps in the entire blockchain space by the number of daily active users, according to Dapp.com.
In January, GoodDollar launched its sustainable giving model which involves staking people’s charitable donations made to GoodDollar with DeFi protocols in perpetuity. The GoodDollar team has also announced the upcoming launch of the beta mobile app on Android to be added to the existing web app.
For G$ holders wishing to support the project with extra liquidity on FuseSwap, a new LP program will be launching this Saturday, April 17th on the USDC pair. More information available here.
Kolektivo Labs
The Fuse-powered Kolektivo Labs project which is building a regenerative economy on the island of Curaçao, launched the CuraDAI mobile app in February. The app allows users to cheaply and seamlessly transfer and pay in the CuraDAI stable coin pegged to Curaçao’a local currency, the Antillean guilder.
Kolektivo also recently unveiled the Food Forest project ingeniously deploying NFTs to finance the creation of a sustainable food forest in Curaçao. The NFTs offered at the successful sale represented ownership shares in the forest.
Read more about Kolektivo on our blog.
Wikibank
A Spanish charity technology platform that deploys Fuse to ensure that donations are used in the ways envisaged by donors. In particular, it has a network of participating shops and neighborhoods working to deliver fresh food to poor families. During Q1, Wikibank received a $50,000 grant from the EU, added new shops and aid beneficiaries to its network, and announced the upcoming expansion to another city in Spain, Alicante.
You can find more recent Wikibank updates in our blog post.
Spartans Program
To boost community engagement and better organize collaboration between the Fuse team and the most active community members, in January, we launched the Fuse Spartans ambassador program.
Depending on their contributions Fuse Spartans enjoy benefits, including exclusive access to our core team, exclusive swag, early access to product development information, and access to FUSE token contributions through our bootstrap pool. Applications are still open and can be submitted here.
What to expect in Q2 and beyond
Following our achievements and growth in Q1, the Fuse team is committed to carrying the same momentum into the second quarter and beyond to go even further in making token-powered payments and DeFi available and accessible to anyone.
The Fuse Cash consumer-facing wallet currently being beta-tested will take center stage in this quest as we plan to make it available publicly to the first users in the coming weeks. It will be downloadable on both Android and iOS, allowing users to send and receive money as well as swap crypto assets from directly within the app. It also boasts an easy fiat on-ramp functionality.
Our multichain and interoperability strategy will continue to accelerate during the rest of 2021. We are working on bridging Fuse Network to additional chains including the e-Money chain and other leading, highly-liquid, best performance platforms.
Initiatives are also underway to develop our DEX FuseSwap into a full-blown community-governed DeFi platform. The future platform will feature, among others, a lending protocol and a governance token. An (early) sneak peek below ????
Questions and Feedback?
If you’d like to talk to us for partnership, questions, and/or feedback, please join our Telegram, or drop us a line at hello@fuse.io. We also have a dedicated Forum for more in-depth commentary and conversations amongst community members.
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