WAVES, the native token of the blockchain platform with the same name, has seen a surge of well over 100% over the past week, while a stablecoin built on the platform is launching on Ethereum (ETH). The new launch establishes a port between the two competing blockchains, as well as a new gateway to Ethereum’s wildly popular decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.
The WAVES token, currently ranked 40 by market capitalization, is now the best weekly performer among the top 50 cryptoassets by market cap on Coinpaprika after seeing a 7-day gain of nearly 117% as of press time.
Despite the impressive weekly gains, however, WAVES was still down over the past 24 hours, posting a loss for the day of 9.5% as of press time (12:48 UTC).
According to an emailed press release from the team behind the Waves protocol, the stablecoin known as Neutrino Dollar (USDN) has been ported into Ethereum as an ERC-20 token, creating “DeFi interoperability between both networks.”
Per Neutrino.Protocol, USDN is an algorithmic stablecoin, soft-pegged to the US Dollar and collateralized by WAVES.
The team further wrote in the release that the Neutrino Dollar is the first asset to be created on its new Neutrino protocol, a protocol built on Waves that allows anyone to create “unique interest-bearing stablecoins.” For the Neutrino Dollar specifically, the team claimed that it will yield “a sustainable reward of 8-15% APR [annual percentage rate] when staked.”
“Holders of both USDN on Waves and its ERC-20 counterpart on the Ethereum network will share in the staking economics of Waves.protocol and will be eligible for the same reward structure. The stablecoin will be available for liquidity pools and liquidity providers, allowing token holders to participate in yield farming opportunities to generate interest rates compounded by the token’s inherent reward structure,” the press release said.
Commenting on the launch of the stablecoin on Ethereum, Sten Lockholm, Waves Association strategic advisor, said that “a large portion of the crypto community has an unsatiated appetite for DeFi,” while adding:
“They aren’t profiting from the existing DeFi ecosystem because they either can’t navigate the complex nature, or they don’t have resources to dedicate to price exploration and swaps. Through Neutrino, we can offer a quick path for both Waves and Ethereum community members to earn consistent rewards with minimal effort and risk, and/or maximize their returns through opportunistic DeFi activities.”
Although still less known than competing smart contract platforms like Ethereum, Tezos (XTZ), and Cardano (ADA), the Waves platform has had some success in securing big partnerships, including those with other blockchain projects such as Tron and Ontology.
As reported last month, the team behind the protocol has also managed to secure a “strategic cooperation” with Microsoft’s Russia office that will focus on “corporate blockchain solutions and cloud technologies.”