Dialogue with Maverick COO Ada: How to Build a One-Stop Liquidity Operating System in the DeFi Space?

Interviewer: Grapefruit, ChainCatcher

Guest: Ada, Maverick COO

Editor: Marco, ChainCatcher

On the evening of June 19, Maverick V2 was launched as scheduled. Due to this positive news, the MAV token surged over 10% on that day.

Maverick has been striving to improve LP yield and capital utilization efficiency.

High capital efficiency means that, with the same amount of liquidity, the funds in the pools on the Maverick platform can generate more trading volume. The more trading volume the pools have, the more LP yield can be directly converted.

Ada, who has achieved outstanding results in traditional finance and now serves as Maverick COO, stated in an interview with ChainCatcher that Maverick V2 makes the platform not just an AMMM or DEX solution provider, but a one-stop liquidity operating system (LiquidityOS).

She explained that the concept of LiquidityOS proposed by Maverick is analogous to Apple's iOS operating system, supporting developers to customize and develop any liquidity tools and solutions on the platform.

On Maverick V2, token project teams can solve all liquidity-related issues in one place, from the initial liquidity construction layout to the selection of incentives for liquidity growth, and finally to enhancing liquidity stickiness.

Data shows that Maverick ranks among the top three in trading volume across multiple chains, and its products have been recognized by core DeFi players. When new Layer2 networks launch and choose to introduce DEX or AMM, they prioritize selecting from Uniswap, Curve, and Maverick. Additionally, Maverick V2 has attracted well-known projects like Lido, Swell, EtherFi, Ethena, USDe, and Liquity for collaboration and deployment.

Building a One-Stop Liquidity Operating System Like Apple's iOS

1. ChainCatcher: What does the "one-stop liquidity operating system (LiquidityOS)" concept that Maverick V2 focuses on specifically refer to? What are the differences between V1 and V2?

Ada: The "one-stop liquidity operating system (LiquidityOS)" is analogous to "Apple's iOS operating system." Besides DEX, Maverick aims to meet the needs of any token project team and liquidity providers (LPs) to complete liquidity layout, incentives, and earning needs on the platform in one go.

For example, any token project team can create a liquidity pool on Maverick, guiding the desired liquidity distribution through precise liquidity incentive measures, and obtaining additional token emission incentives through the veMAV model. For LPs, they can browse and manage multiple farming opportunities and liquidity across chains on the Maverick platform while also receiving additional MAV token rewards.

On the Maverick platform, users can perform various operations related to liquidity and also support building their own liquidity management products, which is the biggest difference between V2 and V1.

Maverick V2 is not just an AMM solution provider; it is more about attracting DeFi startup teams or developers and supporting them to customize and develop liquidity tools and solutions on the platform.

2. ChainCatcher: What pain points and difficulties does the Maverick V2 product aim to solve?

Ada: We mainly want to address two pain points:

The first is the liquidity growth issue during the early launch of new projects. Currently, there is no efficient method for growing on-chain liquidity in the crypto market, and the earnings for LP providers are often disproportionate to their capital costs. Token project teams often attract liquidity providers by offering token incentives, which is akin to renting liquidity, resulting in high rental costs and a lack of a reasonably designed token emission incentive model.

Maverick V2 aims to help more tokens expand liquidity in a more reasonable and efficient manner.

The second pain point is the fragmentation of liquidity between Layer2 and Layer1 networks. Whether for users, LPs, or project teams, there is a need to lay out liquidity across multiple chains, and there has not been a good solution for efficiently and profitably laying out multi-chain liquidity.

The ultimate goal of the Maverick product is to create a one-stop ultimate liquidity solution that helps developers or users solve all liquidity-related issues on the platform.

New Features of Maverick V2: Low Gas Fee AMM, Customizable Programmable Pools, ve Tokens

3. ChainCatcher: What are the core functions of the Maverick V2 product? What major upgrades and improvements have been made? What are the reasons driving product improvements?

Ada: The Maverick V2 version has updated four core parts, including: optimized high capital efficiency V2 AMM, customizable programmable pools (Programmable Pools) for developers, a new incentive distribution method for MAV tokens called veFlywheel, and a ve token model factory called veFactory.

First, the optimization of the AMM product. The V2 AMM has undergone code optimization updates, significantly reducing the Gas fees for each transaction.

Testing data shows that the Gas fee for each transaction on Maverick V2 is less than half of that of Uniswap V3 and Balancer, and one-third of Curve, making it the AMM with the lowest Gas fees in the current market.

Under V2, LPs earn 30%-40% more in trading fees than in V1, and with additional incentive measures, LP stickiness is higher, providing a foundational tool for forming a virtuous cycle between token LP providers and project communities.

The second product is the programmable pools (Programmable Pools), which support developers in customizing trading pools based on their needs. This can be compared to Uniswap V4's Hooks (which can be understood as a plugin) product, and this feature will enhance the composability of the entire Maverick product and ecosystem.

Programmable pools allow anyone to build special, customized trading logic on top of this pool.

Compared to Uniswap Hooks, Maverick's original programmable pools will launch earlier, with lower Gas fees and easier product construction.

The third product is the new incentive distribution model for MAV tokens—ve token growth flywheel veFlywheel, which aims to help project teams adjust token emission incentives based on their token pool operation conditions and guide the distribution of liquidity.

Currently, the ve token model in the market has two main issues: first, ve is mostly a game for oligarchs and large holders, with some projects accumulating a large amount of ve tokens to control token emission rights, which is very unfriendly to new projects; on the other hand, there is the issue of excessive token emissions. Emitting tokens through ve for liquidity incentives often loses value for the entire ecosystem after about two years.

V2's veFlywheel guides incentives through matching, with two main matching mechanisms for distributing MAV tokens: Direct Match and Vote Match. Direct Match can match about 100% of MAV token incentives, which can be given to specific liquidity pools and customized emission durations; based on Direct Match, the "Vote Match" function can be applied to enhance incentives, increasing rewards to 2-3 times the original.

The fourth innovative product is veFactory (also known as the ve token minting factory), which allows any project team to create and issue veTokens with one click. For example, Swell can directly deploy its tokens as ve models on the Maverick platform through the veFactory.

4. ChainCatcher: What is the working mechanism of the "programmable pools and AI-DEX" introduced in V2? Can you explain with some specific use cases?

Ada: Programmable pools allow pool creators to deploy specific trading logic in dedicated contracts, with only one access entry (Accessor) address. Only those with access address permissions can change the trading logic, fees, or add/move liquidity operations in the pool.

Developers can design various programs on programmable pools, which can be applied to multiple scenarios.

Specific use cases include:

AI liquidity pools, also known as AI DEX, mainly refer to developers integrating AI trading logic into specific liquidity pools for trading flow processing.

Dynamic fee optimization: Developers can flexibly change the fee rates of liquidity pools based on trading volume, token prices, and oracle data.

One-sided trading pool LPing: Supports the creation of one-sided directional trading liquidity pools. This is very common in LST and LRT protocols, where project teams only accept native asset exchanges to LST or LRT.

KYC pools: Mainly refer to liquidity pools with KYC requirements, such as RWA project teams, stablecoins, or credit products, which will provide relevant KYC tools.

5. ChainCatcher: How do the innovative features of Maverick V2 work together? What specific application scenarios are there? What practical benefits can they bring to users and project teams?

Ada: For project teams, such as Swell with swETH and rswETH assets, they can create several different liquidity pools on Maverick, such as creating a dynamic fee adjustment pool through programmable pools to help the LRT asset rswETH maintain a stable peg to ETH. Additionally, they can apply the veFlywheel mechanism to increase liquidity incentives for the pool and deploy their SWELL tokens as veSWELL through the ve factory, providing additional incentive emissions for users holding veSWELL to deepen the liquidity pool's depth and stickiness.

For users, the UI of Maverick V2 has undergone a complete redesign and optimization. Users can not only see all the liquidity pools across chains on one page, compare and analyze the yield of different pools, but also perform cross-chain liquidity layout operations with one click.

Moreover, projects like Lido, Swell, EtherFi, and Ethena will lay out liquidity pools on Maverick, allowing users to achieve multiple benefits.

6. ChainCatcher: How does Maverick V2 address the liquidity fragmentation issue currently present in the DeFi market?

Ada: On one hand, the MAV token is a cross-chain token developed using Layerzero's full-chain technology OFT. If the veMAV incentive policy is used, native MAV can be crossed to any chain, deploying incentive emissions across multiple chains.

On the other hand, C-end users can filter and manage the yields of multiple liquidity pools across chains on one page in Maverick, managing asset liquidity across different chains with one click.

Maverick Places Greater Emphasis on Capital Efficiency Metrics

7. ChainCatcher: Since its launch on the Ethereum mainnet in March last year, Maverick has been operating for over a year. How has Maverick's operation been during this period?

Ada: For Maverick, the success of a liquidity platform is not only measured by TVL but also by the capital efficiency of liquidity and whether it is actively used.

Currently, many DEX platforms have static TVL that is not being utilized or demonstrating any capital efficiency. In terms of capital efficiency, Maverick has always been far ahead, and its achievements have been validated by the market.

For instance, with a TVL of less than $40 million, Maverick surpassed Curve in trading volume on Ethereum, ranking second in the entire network; on zkSync, although Maverick's TVL is only $50 million, its trading volume ranks first on the entire chain, with over 50% of the trading volume occurring on the platform most of the time; and it ranks among the top three in trading volume on the Base chain.

8. ChainCatcher: In June last year, Maverick completed a $9 million strategic financing with a valuation of $200 million. Have the operational data met expectations? What support has been provided by the investment institutions?

Ada: Maverick's data performance has been quite impressive.

Before Maverick launched, the products in the DEX or AMM space were basically Uniswap and its forked products, Curve and its forked products.

Now, when a new Layer2 launches and introduces AMM or DEX products, they will choose from Uniswap, Curve, and Maverick, indicating the recognition of Maverick products by real DeFi developers and core players.

Investment institutions have provided significant support for the Maverick team's expansion, recruitment, and business development.

9. ChainCatcher: What is the size of the Maverick team?

Ada: The Maverick product advisory and legal team has more than 20 members, with about 10 core developers. Most members are based in the United States, and the team members have backgrounds more inclined towards academic research and technical development, with the CTO achieving remarkable accomplishments in AI and cybersecurity, holding over thirty related patents.

10. ChainCatcher: What positive impacts will the launch of Maverick V2 have on the DeFi liquidity market? What changes will it bring to the MAV token?

Ada: First, we expect growth in the TVL on the platform. In the past, Maverick did not have any emission incentives targeting TVL growth.

Secondly, we hope to create a sustainable impact on the overall understanding of liquidity in DeFi, allowing liquidity to be used more sustainably and efficiently.

Specifically, this means that token project teams can layout liquidity more precisely, while LPs can receive more tangible and sustainable returns.

For the MAV token, the main use cases have been developed, such as MAV being locked into veMAV, which can then be used to vote on the distribution of liquidity incentive emissions for the liquidity pools. Once there are more specific use cases for the token, its true value is more likely to be discovered.

DeFi is the Cornerstone of Blockchain Industry Development

11. ChainCatcher: Some opinions suggest that the current DeFi product mechanism design is overly complex and difficult to understand, making it unfriendly for users. What are your thoughts on this?

Ada: From the perspective of the overall development of the DeFi market, if we want to present explosive growth, the prerequisite is to have a complete infrastructure. Technological innovation in products often occurs on these infrastructures, which is indeed a correct direction for development.

Currently, DeFi market products are also focused on the development of infrastructure. The product mechanisms have thresholds for users, mainly because the market promotion and education for C-end users have not kept pace with the development of DeFi products.

At present, Maverick has made attempts in product aspects, such as optimizing the user operation interface to make it simpler and easier to use; we have also collaborated with some developers to create bot tools for novice users unfamiliar with LP operations, helping users automatically deploy liquidity combinations with one click.

12. ChainCatcher: What are your views on the future development trends of the DeFi market?

Ada: In the use cases of blockchain, DeFi is the cornerstone product of on-chain economy, and diverse on-chain behaviors rely on the trading markets provided by DeFi infrastructure.

In the long run, DeFi has already validated the market's feasibility as a blockchain use case, but DeFi should not only be compared with on-chain use cases but should also be compared horizontally with the entire financial market.

Currently, compared to traditional finance, although the overall traffic of DeFi is still small, the future prospects are very large.

Many traditional finance practitioners believe that for finance, the on-chain transparency and lack of intermediaries in DeFi can solve many problems in traditional finance.