What is Stella? All You Need to Know About ALPHA

Stella, a DeFi protocol, offers 0% cost-leveraged strategies and lending services to boost yields and DeFi usage on DEXes and money markets.

In the rapidly evolving world of decentralized finance (DeFi), introducing leveraged strategies has presented both opportunities and challenges. A leverage system that can drive increased usage of decentralized exchanges (DEXes) and money markets is crucial for the sector’s growth. These components are foundational to DeFi’s infrastructure, enabling more protocols and innovations to emerge.

However, the concept of a 0% cost to borrow raises concerns about risk management and sustainability within these systems. Such a model, while attractive for maximizing yields, necessitates careful consideration of its long-term viability and impact on the DeFi ecosystem. This is where Stella (ALPHA) positions itself, aiming to navigate these complexities.

What is Stella (ALPHA)?

Founded in 2020 by Tascha Punyaneramitdee, a seasoned professional with a background at Band Protocol, Tencent, and Jefferies, ALPHA initially emerged to innovate within the DeFi space. Punyaneramitdee, alongside Nipun Pitimanaaree and Arin Trongsantipong, spearheaded the development of groundbreaking leveraged DeFi mechanisms, including the notable Alpha Homora protocol, which achieved a peak TVL of $1.9B. Their work introduced fundamental advancements such as the tokenization and collateralization of LP tokens, setting the stage for further DeFi evolution.

In a strategic move to refine their focus on leveraged DeFi, the team transitioned from Alpha Venture DAO to Stella, retaining the ALPHA token. This rebranding in June 2023, marked by the launch on Arbitrum, signified a dedication to redefining leveraged DeFi through a unique 0% borrowing cost and a Pay-As-You-Earn model. Stella’s innovative approach aims to balance the dynamics between borrowers and lenders, fostering a mutually beneficial ecosystem and catalyzing the next phase of growth in the DeFi sector by encouraging broader utilization of DEXes and money markets. This pivotal shift underscores Stella’s commitment to pioneering a sustainable and inclusive future for leveraged DeFi.

How Does Stella Work? Pay-As-You-Earn Model (PAYE)

Stella’s Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) model marks a significant evolution in the leveraged DeFi sector, fundamentally altering the landscape for borrowers and lenders alike. This model diverges from traditional interest rate mechanisms by eliminating borrowing costs upfront and aligning participants’ incentives through a yield-sharing framework. The PAYE model ensures that borrowers, or ‘leveragoors,’ only incur a fee when their leveraged positions yield profits, thereby fostering a more equitable and growth-oriented DeFi environment. This approach mitigates the risk of negative APY due to high utilization and paves the way for sustainable DeFi yields in a market less characterized by exorbitant returns.

Source: docs.stellaxyz.io

Stella Strategy

Stella Strategy, pivotal in Stella’s model, offers leveraged strategies without borrowing costs, amplifying trading positions and yields across DeFi protocols. The revolutionary zero-cost borrowing framework enhances capital efficiency and opportunities for higher yields. Upon closing profitable positions, leveragoors share a portion of the yield with lenders, integrating a pay-for-performance aspect into the borrowing experience and encouraging responsible leverage.

Introducing Hypernova, an upgrade to our DeFi protocol, adds flexibility, higher yields, and a broader asset range. It introduces two strategy types: Hyper and Standard. Hyper-Strategy targets users seeking maximum yields through new and trending protocols, allowing asset borrowing from the Hyper-Lending Pool. This strategy, designed for high-risk, high-return opportunities, provides access to innovative strategies like the Leveraged Pendle LP Strategy on Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs), with potential yields of up to 30% using single-sided ETH.

Meanwhile, the Standard Strategy adopts a more conservative approach, focusing on established DEXes and major assets, offering flexibility and stability for users. This diverse strategy suite ensures Stella Strategy remains at the forefront of leveraged DeFi, enabling users to navigate the ecosystem with strategic precision and optimal yield potential.

Source: docs.stellaxyz.io

Stella Lend

Stella Lend enhances the platform by allowing users to lend their assets into lending pools, thereby earning real yields as their funds support the leveraged strategies of borrowers. Integrated with the Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) model, Stella Lend distributes yields from successful strategies to lenders, directly linking lending and borrowing sides of the platform and removing traditional caps on lending APY. This fosters a system where lenders benefit from borrowers’ dynamic yield-generation, incentivizing lending and boosting the DeFi ecosystem’s liquidity and stability. Stella becomes a hub for conservative investors and strategic borrowers alike.

Adding to this, Stella Lend incorporates robust precautionary measures to protect user funds and mitigate risks within each lending pool. These measures ensure a risk-controlled environment, countering smart contract risks effectively. Each strategy and underlying asset has a specific borrowing cap, further enhancing safety and stability.

The Hypernova upgrade introduces two new lending pool types: Hyper and Standard. The Hyper-Lending Pool targets users exploring new DeFi spaces, providing liquidity for the Hyper Strategy with access to new and trending assets. Conversely, the Standard Lending Pool offers a more traditional approach, focusing on major, well-established assets for users preferring the Standard Strategy. These pools provide stable and reliable yields, aligning with Stella’s mission to offer diverse and safe yield-generating opportunities, reinforcing its position as a versatile and secure platform for DeFi participants.

In conclusion, Stella’s PAYE model represents a transformative approach to leveraged DeFi, seamlessly integrating Stella Strategy and Stella Lend to create a balanced, sustainable ecosystem. By eliminating borrowing costs and instituting a yield-sharing mechanism, Stella aligns the interests of leveragoors and lenders, fostering a community where success is shared and financial incentives are directly tied to performance. This model addresses the fundamental challenges of traditional IRM-based lending, offering a solution that not only enhances yield potential but also ensures the long-term viability of leveraged DeFi strategies. Through Stella, the DeFi landscape is set to evolve towards more inclusive, efficient, and mutually beneficial practices, heralding a new era of innovation and growth.

Stella Use Cases

Stella’s innovative Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) model and dual-component structure of Stella Strategy and Stella Lend present a groundbreaking approach in the DeFi ecosystem, catering to a wide array of financial strategies and needs. Here are some key use cases:

• Yield Farming on Leverage: Users can amplify their yield farming returns by leveraging their positions at 0% borrowing cost, accessing higher yields on DeFi protocols without the traditional interest burden.
• Liquidity Provision: Lenders contribute to liquidity pools, earning passive income through real yields generated from borrowers’ successful leveraged strategies, enhancing capital efficiency within the ecosystem.
• Risk Mitigation: The PAYE model, coupled with robust precautionary measures, ensures a risk-controlled lending and borrowing environment, minimizing exposure to smart contract vulnerabilities and market volatility.
• Portfolio Diversification: Through Hyper and Standard lending pools, users access a broad spectrum of assets, from stable and well-established to new and trending, enabling tailored risk and return profiles.
• Innovative DeFi Strategies: The introduction of Hypernova allows users to explore emerging strategies and assets, pushing the boundaries of traditional DeFi yields while focusing on risk management and capital preservation.

Stella stands as a beacon for conservative investors and aggressive yield seekers, redefining leverage and lending in the DeFi landscape.

What is the ALPHA Coin?

ALPHA is the token linked to the Stella (ALPHA) DeFi leveraged protocol. Its maximum supply is capped at 1 billion units, of which 846 million (84.60%) are already in circulation (February 2024).

The ALPHA Coin is the foundational cryptocurrency of the Stella protocol. This ERC-20 token, launched with a circulating supply of 174.1 million out of a total supply of 1 billion, is designed to integrate deeply with the Stella ecosystem, offering a wide array of benefits and functionalities across multiple blockchain networks including Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Avalanche C-Chain, and Arbitrum. The tokenomics of ALPHA are structured to allocate resources towards protocol development, ecosystem incentives, and stakeholder rewards, establishing a robust framework for growth and sustainability.

Token Allocation

• Binance Launchpad Sale: 10.00% of the total token supply, enabling early public investment through a recognized platform.
• Binance Launchpool: 5.00% of the total token supply, offering users a way to earn ALPHA by staking BNB, BUSD, or other tokens.
• Private Sale: 13.33% of the total token supply, allocated to early investors who supported the project’s initial stages.
• Liquidity Mining: 20.00% of the total token supply, designated for users providing liquidity to the protocol, enhancing its stability and usability.
• Team & Advisors: 15.00% of the total token supply, reserved for those who have contributed to the development and advisory of the protocol.
• Ecosystem: 36.67% of the total token supply, dedicated to future protocol initiatives, partnerships, community incentives, and ecosystem growth efforts.

Source: docs.stellaxyz.io

Use Cases

• Protocol Security and Governance: By staking ALPHA, token holders contribute to the security of the Stella protocol, acting as a financial backstop while gaining governance rights to influence protocol decisions. Upon staking, ALPHA holders receive sALPHA, symbolizing their stake and voting power within the ecosystem. This system not only automatically compounds staking rewards, enhancing the staked value over time but also introduces an unbonding period of 30 days for unstaked ALPHA, ensuring a commitment to protocol security. Following this period, a 72-hour window is provided to claim the unstaked amount, further securing and aligning the interests of stakeholders with the long-term success and stability of the Stella protocol.
• Revenue Sharing: Stakers are entitled to a share of protocol fees and yields, with 25% of leveragoors’ yield cuts and 50% of Stella protocol fees distributed to them, irrespective of the blockchain network Stella operates on.
• Access to New Projects: Staking ALPHA provides early access to tokens from projects incubated by Stella, allowing participants to engage with high-potential Web 3.0 projects from the outset.
• Enhanced Yield Opportunities: ALPHA holders can leverage the Stella Lend and Stella Strategy components for increased yield potential, benefiting from the protocol’s innovative financial models without incurring borrowing costs.
• Cross-Chain Functionality: The utility of ALPHA extends across several major blockchain networks, enabling users to partake in Stella’s offerings on Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Avalanche C-Chain, and Arbitrum, thereby enhancing its accessibility and use case scenarios.

In summary, ALPHA Coin’s integration within the Stella protocol presents a multifaceted approach to DeFi, combining security, governance, and revenue-sharing mechanisms with cross-chain capabilities to foster a vibrant ecosystem for leveraged DeFi strategies.

Stella Main Features

In addition to its core features, Stella introduces several supplementary elements that further reinforce its commitment to providing unparalleled opportunities for DeFi enthusiasts. These features include Strategy Exposures, a Yield Vault, and an Automated Market Making Strategy, all of which contribute to Stella’s reputation as a DeFi trailblazer.

Strategy Exposures

Stella’s Strategy Exposures enable users to execute liquidity-providing strategies with ease. The Long Strategy allows users to capitalize on their bullish outlook by gaining from asset price rises and trading fees. Conversely, the Short Strategy allows users to profit from bearish market views as the asset’s price drops. The Neutral Strategy balances both long and short exposures on assets, minimizing net exposure to market movements. Stella also incorporates Uniswap V3’s “concentrated liquidity” concept, enabling users to earn trading fees within selected price ranges, optimizing yield strategies with varying risk-return profiles.

Yield Vault

The Yield Vault accumulates shared yields in an intermediate vault and distributes 3% daily to lending pools as APY. This mechanism ensures a steady yield stream for lenders, preventing system gaming by large, instant deposits and promoting fair yield distribution, fostering a balanced and secure lending environment. By implementing this gradual distribution, Stella enhances the sustainability and integrity of its lending ecosystem, ensuring long-term benefits for all participants.

Automated Market Making Strategy

Stella’s collaboration with Camelot and Gamma Strategies introduces the Automated Market Making Strategy, offering leveraged and automated market making opportunities. Users can benefit from up to 600% yield through concentrated liquidity AMMs and active liquidity vaults. This integration maximizes capital efficiency, provides 1-click strategies automated by Gamma Strategies, and offers a better leverage experience.

Stella sets a new standard for leveraged DeFi engagements, catering to seasoned traders and newcomers in the DeFi space with innovative features that simplify complex operations and maximize yield potential.

Is ALPHA a Good Investment?

While ALPHA’s 0% borrowing cost is undeniably attractive, its long-term sustainability may raise questions. While advantageous, the platform’s unique model could face challenges as it relies on yield sharing from leveraged strategies to pay lenders. With a Total Value Locked (TVL) of around 6 million (February 2024), Stella’s DeFi presence, although not massive, surpasses many direct competitors. Investors should consider the platform’s innovative approach, monitor its growth, and assess its ability to maintain appealing returns in a dynamic DeFi landscape. As with any investment, due diligence and risk assessment are essential.

How to Own ALPHA?

To own ALPHA, you can use the services of a centralized crypto exchange. Start by creating a Gate.io account, and get it verified and funded. Then you are ready to go through the steps to buy ALPHA.

News on Stella

According to what was reported on Stella’s official Medium channel, dated 11 January 2024, Stella is forging ahead with its mission to revolutionize ‘Leveraged DeFi.’ In an exciting development, Stella has joined forces with prominent names like Camelot, Plutus, and Silo to explore the Arbitrum ecosystem further. This collaboration opens up new possibilities for leveraged strategies and lending assets within the Arbitrum network. Leveragoors can now access five new leveraged strategies and three additional lending pools. Stella’s commitment to enhancing yield potential and integration improvements continues, promising an exciting future for the platform and its users.

Take Action on ALPHA

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