Take stock of the 8 projects worth paying attention to in the Metis ecosystem

Original author: Nancy, PANews

The veteran Layer 2 project Metis has attracted much attention for its aura of “Vitalik Buterin Mother”, and the recent surge in currency prices and TVL has made it the object of heated discussions in the market again. In this article, PANews will analyze and review the market performance and latest progress of Metis, as well as the eco-projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars in eco-fund incentives.

Ranked among the third largest Layer 2, technology and ecological incentives are advancing together

Recently, Metis’ outstanding market performance has sparked heated discussions in the community. L2B EAT data shows that as of January 17, Metis’ TVL has exceeded $990 million, an increase of nearly 55.2% in the past seven days, second only to Arbitrum One and OP Mainnet, ranking third in Ethereum’s L2 lock-up position. Meanwhile, CoinGecko data shows that the price of $METIS has increased by about 396.8% over the past 30 days.

As the star project of the last cycle, Metis has received $1 million in angel and seed rounds and $3 million in Series A funding, and has quickly made a name for itself in the Layer 2 circuit because of its friendship between founder Elena Sinelnikova and Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin’s mother, Natalia Ameline. Looking at the L 2B EAT data, Metis once soared by more than $700 million in TVL (total lock-up position) during 2022, but has been declining since then.

Until nearly a month, affected by the Favourable Information of the Ethereum Cancun upgrade, Layer 2 has become the focus of the current market. Among them, Metis is to seize the market with technical narratives such as decentralization sequencers and huge financial incentives.

The sequencer is an important component in the Layer 2 architecture, which can sort and drop hundreds of transactions into a single transaction for Layer 1 confirmation, thereby reducing the cost and transaction speed of sending data to Layer 1, but the centralization problem brings the risk of single point of downtime and monopoly risk, so projects including Arbitrum and Optimism have listed Decentralization sequencers as the future development direction.

Metis bills itself as the first Decentralization Sequencer and revenue-sharing Optimistic Rollup, which adopts a revenue sharing model with all node operators, allowing Token holders to stake their assets to earn income and mining rewards, but sequencer operators entering the sequencer pool need to stake at least 20,000 $METIS.

According to the latest news, MetisDAO has voted on a proposal to “Testnet sequencer Decentralization and launch community testing”, which aims to DecentralizationTestnet the sequencer infrastructure deployed on it and launch community testing to help Metis developers stress test the new architecture, with the first season of community testing launching on January 15. And Metis’ product focus in the first quarter of 2024 is also focused on the launch of decentralization POS sequencers.

In addition to technology advancement, Metis also announced the launch of a $100 million fund “Metis Ecological Development Fund” at the end of 2023 to accelerate the development of the ecosystem, which will allocate 4.6 million $METIS for sequencer mining, retrospective funding, new project deployment and other causes. The fund’s fund allocation plan is scheduled for the first quarter of 2024 and is expected to be distributed to users developing Non-fungible Tokens, Decentralized Finance, as well as security projects on Metis, among others. According to the latest price of $METIS, the fund holds these Tokens worth up to $540 million.

The Metis ecosystem is still in its early stages, and most of them are low-Market Cap projects

According to the official website of Metis, the Metis ecosystem projects are still in their early stages, with only 87, covering many fields such as cross-chain interaction bridges, Decentralized Finance, Non-fungible Tokens, DEX, GemeFi, and infrastructure. PANews took stock of 8 noteworthy ecosystem projects, the vast majority of which have a Market Cap of less than $30 million.

However, behind the surge in TVL, the Metis ecosystem is also considered to have a “false boom”. As previously reported by PANews, despite the amazing MetisTVL, relatively few actually use the Metis Blockchain compared to other Layer 2 networks. From the perspective of TVL fund distribution, only a small part is used to develop its Decentralized Finance ecosystem, and half of it is used for the lending protocol Aave. At the same time, half of Metis’ TVL comes from newly minted Tokens, and most of the growth also comes from soaring Token prices.

Wagmi（WAGMI）

Wagmi is a suite of Decentralized Finance products developed by renowned developer Daniele Sestagalli and Sestagalli’s rebranding of Popsicle Finance, a cross-chain interaction yield platform, with the aim of deploying a DEX exchange that allows for the creation of permissionless pools. Wagmi was recently officially deployed to Metis with a $2 million grant from the Metis Ecosystem Development Fund, the first official grant from the Metis Ecosystem Development Fund. Not long ago, Wagmi also announced a partnership with DWF Labs, which purchased 26.6 million WAGMI for 500,000 USDT ($0.01879 average price).

CoinGecko data shows that as of January 17, the price of HUM was nearly $0.022, and the circulating Market Cap exceeded $30.81 million.

Hera Finance（HERA）

Hera Finance, an AI-powered multi-chain DEX aggregator designed to provide a user-friendly experience and powerful development tools for developers to make seamless swaps in on-chain programs, has been integrated with Arbitrum, Metis, Avalanche, Base, BNB Chain, Ethereum, Fantom, Mantle, and Optimism.

CoinGecko data shows that as of January 17, the price of HERA was about $5.71, and the circulating Market Cap was about $22.526 million.

NetSwap（NETT）

Netswap is a DEX running on Metis Andromeda that uses the same AMM model as Uniswap and offers multiple features such as trading, liquidity mining, staking, and Launchpad. DeFiLlama data shows that as of January 17, NetSwap’s TVL reached $12.84 million, and TVL has risen 260% in the past month, making it the second largest native project after Maia DAO.

CoinGecko data shows that as of January 17, the price of NETT was about $1.63, and the circulating Market Cap exceeded $14.011 million.

Tethys Finance（TETHYS）

Tethys Finance is a Decentralization Trading and Lending protocol launched in 2021 to provide the Metis Andromeda network with fast, secure, reliable, and advanced native Decentralization trading applications to handle a variety of transaction needs. Late last year, Tethys Finance launched TethysUSD, a yield-based Stable Coin.

CoinGecko data shows that as of January 17, the price of HUM was about $0.71, and the circulating Market Cap exceeded $7.571 million.

Hermes（HERMES）

Hermes is a DEX launched in 2022 and is a fork version of Solidly designed to provide users with low-cost and near-zero slippage trading. Currently, Hermes has launched V2, which allows users to exchange between any chain by using centralized and unified liquidity. Hermes’ Token, HERMES, can be used for voting, staking, and boosting rewards.

CoinGecko data shows that as of January 17, the price of HERMES was about $0.079, and the circulating Market Cap was about $7.386 million.

Maia DAO（MAIA）

Maia DAO is the first Decentralization community-owned reserve currency protocol on Metis, including DEX Hermes, transparent automated Liquidity full-chain strategy TALOS, and full-chain Liquidity protocol Ulysses. According to DeFiLlama data, as of January 17, Maia DAO’s TVL exceeded $14.93 million, an increase of 155% in the past month.

Maia DAO’s Token MAIA adopts the method of community fair launch, and after staking, you can obtain rights and interests such as voting, governance and dividends, and the official website shows that 60.4% of the Tokens are in a pledged state.

As of January 17, MAIA’s price was around $37.7, with a fully diluted valuation of $6.791 million, according to CoinGecko data.

Hummus Exchange（HUM）

Hummus Exchange is a Decentralization AMM for unilateral staking designed to exchange Stable Coin USDT, USDC, and DAI on the Metis Blockchain, eliminating Impermanent Loss risk for liquidity providers and providing traders with ultra-low Slippage.

CoinGecko data shows that as of January 17, the price of HUM was about $0.032, with a circulating Market Cap of more than $3.567 million.

Revenant（GAMEFI）

Revenant, the first decentralization gaming platform for gamers, game developers, and investors on the Metis network, has launched its first flagship game, Battle of Olympus.

CoinGecko data shows that as of January 17, the price of GAMEFI was about $1.63, and the circulating Market Cap exceeded $3.076 million.