What is Liquity (LQTY) in Simple Terms? Liquity a decentralized crypto borrowing protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain that allows users to draw interest-free loans (this is changing soon) using Ether (ETH) as collateral. The loans are paid out in LUSD, a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. Here is a detailed explanation of Liquity, its core concepts, and its importance in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
Liquity offers loans at a 0% interest rate, which is a significant departure from traditional and other DeFi lending platforms that typically charge interest on borrowed funds.
Users must maintain a minimum collateral ratio of 110%, meaning that the value of the ETH collateral must be at least 110% of the loan amount in LUSD. However, liquidity has a problem where if there is a slight depeg, your vault can be liquidated way before 110% is reached. We will explore this further in the article.
The protocol uses a Stability Pool containing LUSD to cover undercollateralized debts and ensure the system remains solvent. This pool helps manage liquidations and maintain the stability of the protocol.
Liquity operates without a governance mechanism, meaning no votes or changes are made by human intervention. The protocol is fully automated and immutable, ensuring it runs as programmed without needing ongoing adjustments.
Liquity does not run its own frontends. Instead, it outsources this to third parties, enhancing censorship resistance and decentralization. This also means that the protocol is accessible via multiple interfaces hosted by different operators.
Sources:
https://www.securities.io/investing-in-liquity/
https://docs.liquity.org/faq/general
https://blog.smlxl.io/defi-lending-concepts-part-3-rewards-2fc87e78e9c4?gi=7236d07227c8
https://coinmerce.io/en/learn/what-is-liquity-lqty/
I
LUSD is the stablecoin issued by the Liquity protocol, pegged to the US dollar. It is used to pay out loans and can be redeemed at face value for the underlying collateral at any time.
LQTY is the secondary token of the Liquity protocol. Like TheStandard's TST token, it captures the system's fee revenue and incentivizes early adopters and frontends. LQTY holders can stake their tokens to earn a portion of the fees paid for borrowing and redeeming LUSD.
LQTY is a utility crypto token within the Liquity ecosystem. It is not a governance token, meaning it does not confer voting rights or control over the protocol. Instead, LQTY is designed to capture fee revenue generated by the system and incentivize early adopters and Frontend Operators who facilitate the protocol's operations.
Liuity is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that allows users to borrow a stablecoin called LUSD against their ETH without needing a credit check. The protocol is powered by the LQTY token, which serves as a governance token and a means of incentivizing users to participate in the network. LQTY holders can vote on protocol changes, stake their tokens to earn rewards and use them to pay for transaction fees.
DeFi platforms like Liquity are essential for providing financial services to people who may not have access to traditional banking institutions. DeFi platforms offer several advantages over traditional financial institutions, including lower fees, faster transaction times, and greater transparency.
This guide will provide an overview of the Liquity protocol, including its features, benefits, and risks. We will also discuss using the Liquity protocol to borrow and lend cryptocurrencies. By the end of this guide, you will better understand Liquity and how it can be used to your advantage.
Features | Liquity.org | TheStandard.io |
---|---|---|
Zero percent interest | Yes but changing soon | Yes |
Min 110% collateral | Not really, vaults are randomly redeemed | Yes |
Collateral types | ETH | WBTC, ETH, LINK, SUSHI, GMX, RDNT, ARB |
Yield on collateral | No | Yes |
Trade locked collateral | No | Yes |
Non-custodial | Yes | Yes |
Redemptions benefit borrowers | No | Yes |
Staking | Yes | Yes |
Sell debt as NFT | No | Yes |
LUSD is a stablecoin issued by the Liquity protocol, pegged to the US dollar. It is used to pay out loans and can be redeemed at face value for the underlying collateral at any time.
LUSD is minted when users deposit ETH into their Troves. The over-collateralized ETH supports the borrowed stablecoin minted into existence, ensuring its value remains stable. THis is the same way that projects like TheStandard.io work. More value is locked away than stablecoins in circulation.
The protocol employs several mechanisms to maintain the peg of LUSD to the U.S. dollar. These include a Stability Pool and a redemption mechanism.
Protocols like Liquity or TheStandard.io make it possible to have 0% interest loans because smart contracts cut out all the inefficiencies of the legacy markets and because they don’t have lenders that expect a return. Most borrowing platforms have borrowers and lenders. The platforms attract people willing to lend to borrowers because the borrowers will pay an interest rate.
Liquity.org and TheStandard.io enable users to mint brand-new debt like a central bank. No one lends the currency. The user mints debt backed by the collateral they lock up into a smart contract. There is always more value locked up and backing the stablecoins than there are stablecoins in circulation.
However, there are problems like the fact that Liquity has seen its market cap drop because there is an incentive to dump the stablecoins because they don’t cost anything to borrow. This is even worse with Liquity's redemption feature, where the market is incentivized to de-peg the LUSD so people can liquidate vaults. This is NOT a problem with TheStandard.io because the only people who can liquidate a vault are the vault holders themselves (unless the vault falls below a 110% collateralization ratio).
The investment potential of Liquity (LQTY) coin is subject to varying opinions among analysts and depends on several factors, including market conditions, technological advancements, and regulatory developments.
Coin Edition suggests that LQTY is a good investment in 2023, citing its potential to surpass its current all-time high (ATH) and possibly reach $10 if the bullish trend continues. SwapSpace provides optimistic long-term predictions, with potential returns on investment (ROI) of 154% by 2024, 193% by 2025, and 480% by 2027, according to WalletInvestor's forecasts. Crypto.ro also offers a positive long-term outlook, predicting significant price increases by 2030, with an average price of $505.72 and a potential peak of $670. This is a very bullish outlook for the borrowing sector. If you are interested in the borrowing sector, you can also look at , which is the governance token of TheStandard.io.
https://coinedition.com/liquity-lqty-price-prediction/
SwapSpace also highlights more conservative and bearish predictions from TradingBeast and PricePrediction.net, which foresee potential price declines in the coming years, with estimates as low as $0.3514 by 2024 and $0.205 by 2025. AMBCrypto notes a bearish sentiment in the short term, with a recent price decrease and a prediction of $0.69 in 2024. However, it maintains a bullish long-term sentiment, suggesting LQTY could reach $5.07 by 2025.
https://crypto.ro/en/predictions/liquity-lqty-price-prediction/
https://swapspace.co/price-predictions/lqty
The borrowing fee for Liquity is a one-time fee that is charged when users take out a loan in LUSD (Liquity USD) against their ETH collateral. This fee is algorithmically adjusted based on redemption activity and time. Here are the key details: It normally floats between 0.5% and 5%.
Liquity charges fees at specific points in the borrowing and redemption processes. Understanding these fees is crucial for effectively managing your interactions with the platform.
https://docs.liquity.org/faq/staking
When you borrow LUSD, Liquity imposes a one-off borrowing fee, calculated as a percentage of the amount drawn (in LUSD). This fee is variable and determined algorithmically, with a minimum value of 0.5% during normal operation. Notably, during Recovery Mode, this borrowing fee drops to 0%.
When you redeem LUSD for ETH, Liquity charges a redemption fee on the amount paid to users by the system (in ETH). Redemption is distinct from repaying your loan as a borrower, which does not incur any fees.
Additionally, Liquity applies a 200 LUSD Liquidation Reserve charge when you open a Trove. This reserve serves as a safeguard to cover gas costs for the transaction sender if your Trove gets liquidated. The Liquidation Reserve is fully refundable if your Trove is not liquidated and is returned to you upon closing your Trove by repaying your debt. By understanding these fees, you can make more informed decisions about borrowing and redeeming on the Liquity platform.
No, there are no fees for revenue distribution to LQTY stakers. The Liquity protocol distributes 100% of the revenue generated from borrowing and redemption fees directly to LQTY stakers on a pro rata basis. This means that stakers receive their share of the fees without any deductions for distribution costs.
Liquity originally offered interest-free borrowing by only charging a one-time borrowing fee instead of recurring interest rates. This fee is algorithmically adjusted based on redemption activity and time, typically starting as low as 0.5%. This model allowed users to borrow the stablecoin LUSD against their ETH collateral without any ongoing interest costs, making it a unique offering in the DeFi space.
However, Liquity is transitioning to a new model with the introduction of Liquity v2. This new version will allow borrowers to set their own interest rates, moving away from the fixed 0% interest model. The primary reasons for this shift include:
The new user-set interest rate model is designed to be more adaptable to changing market conditions. This flexibility allows borrowers to choose interest rates that align with their financial strategies and risk tolerance.
By allowing user-set interest rates, Liquity aims to create a more capital-efficient equilibrium between borrowers and stablecoin holders. This approach is expected to enhance the attractiveness of loans and improve the overall efficiency of the protocol.
In Liquity v2, redemptions will be determined by the interest rate paid by borrowers rather than their collateral ratios. This change aims to split liquidation risk from redemption risk, providing borrowers with more control over their positions and reducing the likelihood of unexpected liquidations.
The new model is expected to generate more revenue from borrowing fees, which can be distributed to stability pools and secondary markets, thereby incentivizing participation and enhancing the protocol's sustainability.
The price of Liquity (LQTY) in US dollars varies slightly across different platforms. Here are some recent prices as of 20/Jun/2024:
These prices reflect the current market conditions and may fluctuate based on trading activity and market sentiment.
These historical price movements reflect the typical volatility seen in the cryptocurrency market, influenced by various factors such as market sentiment, adoption rates, and broader economic conditions.
Yes, Liquity is a decentralized borrowing protocol. It allows users to borrow the stablecoin LUSD (Liquity USD) by depositing ETH (Ethereum) as collateral. Here are some key features and aspects of Liquity:
Decentralized stablecoin protocols like Liquity and TheStandard.io are crucial for the DeFi industry because they offer greater transparency, censorship resistance, and trustlessness. Unlike centralized stablecoins, which rely on centralized entities to manage reserves and ensure stability, decentralized stablecoins are governed by smart contracts and distributed networks. This reduces the risk of regulatory interference, central points of failure, and the need to trust third-party institutions. Additionally, decentralized stablecoins enhance financial inclusivity by providing more accessible and equitable financial services globally.
There is no single owner of the LQTY token, but there is a large team behind the protocol.
LQTY can be earned in several ways:
You can always check the current market cap of LQTY token on CoinMarketCap, but as of writing this article in Jun 2024, the market cap for LQTY is around 100 million dollars.
Borrowing against your crypto is only going to become more popular as it is a great way to avoid capital gains taxes. You have not sold anything so capital gains tax does not apply in most countries. (Do your own tax research, this is NOT financial advice.) Saying that, Liquity V2 is heading towards positive interest rates, for this reason, we believe protocols like TheStandard.io with their TST token will do better in the long run. Why pay interest on loans when you don’t have to and not only that, with TheStandard.io you will actually earn interest on your collateral all without giving over your private keys.
You can buy LQTY on most DEXs on Ethereum. DEXs like Uniswap or Sushiswap have good liquidity. The other place would be something like Binance.
Yes, Liquity’s LQTY token is a standard ERC20 token, so you can easily add it to MetaMask. Simply add the token to your MetaMask by using its contract address: 0x6DEA81C8171D0bA574754EF6F8b412F2Ed88c54D. Always double-check the contract address directly on the project's website or at least on CoinGecko or CoinMarketCap to make sure it’s legit.
To make money by staking LQTY, you can stake your LQTY tokens in the Liquity protocol to earn a share of the fees generated from borrowing and redemptions. When users borrow LUSD, they pay a borrowing fee, and when redemptions occur, ETH is used to redeem the riskiest Troves. These fees are distributed to LQTY stakers in the form of LUSD and ETH, providing a steady stream of passive income. The amount you earn is proportional to your share of the total LQTY staked. Additionally, platforms like CoinUnited.io offer competitive annual percentage yields (APY) for staking LQTY, potentially up to 125% APY, enhancing your earnings further.
The total supply of LQTY token is 100,000,000 tokens.
The fee is a one-time charge that is algorithmically adjusted based on redemption activity and time, starting as low as 0.5%. This fee is applied when users borrow the stablecoin LUSD against their ETH collateral, allowing them to obtain loans without recurring interest costs. However, this will change with the next version of the protocol. You should also look at TheStandard.io DeFi borrowing protocol because they are sticking to 0% interest loans.
https://help.defisaver.com/protocols/liquity/does-liquity-charge-any-fee
Your loan has to be collateralized up to at least 110%, and it is recommended to do 210% on Liquity because if there is a depeg on the LUSD, you could get liquidated even if you have more than 110% collateral. For this reason, we recommend TheStandard.io as they have a set 110% collateral, and you can use many types of collateral, not just ETH. The upfront fee on Liquity is algorithmically determined and is between 0.5% and 5%.
The average fee for a liquity loan is around 2.5% upfront, while the average fee on TheStandard.io is 0.5% minting fee.
No, LQTY is not a stablecoin. LQTY is the native utility and reward token of the Liquity protocol, which is a decentralized borrowing platform on Ethereum. The protocol allows users to take out interest-free loans using ETH as collateral, with the loans paid out in Liquity's stablecoin, LUSD. While LUSD is a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, LQTY serves different purposes, such as incentivizing users, frontends, and stability providers, and can be staked to earn protocol fees in LUSD and ETH.
The current CoinMarketCap rank as of the latest update of this article is #421, with a market cap of 116 million dollars.
Yes, LQTY coin is a basic ERC-20 token, so you can store it on MetaMask. To do so, you can simply add 0x6DEA81C8171D0bA574754EF6F8b412F2Ed88c54D, which is the contract address.
You can buy LQTY and other borrowing protocol governance tokens like TST on most DEXs or routers like Paraswap.
There is no time limit to pay back the debt on Liquity or TheStandard.io. The only thing you have to watch out for is falling below a 110% collateral ratio. On Liquity, you must watch out for the LUSD de-pegging because random people can liquidate your loan even if it is far more collateralized than 110%. We have heard of Liquity vaults being liquidated even at 200% collateral. This is why we recommend TheStandard.io, which is truly 110% collateral.
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