Argo — CRO liquid staking on Cronos
The best way to stake your CRO for the highest yields on Cronos.
Gm #Crofam Argonauts,
Firstly, the Argo team would like to thank the massive support that we have received on Twitter since we first posted our [REDACTED] announcement.
Today we will reveal what Argo is all about. Sit tight because we have massive amount of alpha to unpack.
What is Argo
Argo is a liquid staking protocol on Cronos, empowering Cronos users to stake their CRO and earn staking rewards. Users will receive a liquid stake CRO (bCRO) which can be used across Cronos DeFi applications to earn additional yields — read on to discover bCRO utility.
To fully understand the value proposition that Argo brings to the table, one has to first understand the fundamentals of staking CRO and the underlying issues with staking today.
Fundamentals of Staking CRO
Proof of stake (PoS) chains like the Crypto.org Chain gives you the ability to stake your tokens (in this case CRO) to secure the network in exchange for staking rewards — currently 11–13% staking APY. Crypto.com App Earn allows users to stake and lock their CRO for 2–6% staking APY.
Staking CRO is essentially the “risk-free” rate for CRO on Cronos, as it is the safest way to earn yields on your CRO and provides a consistent and sustainable return rate (not ponzinomics). However, while staking is safe and attractive, there are its drawbacks.
Problems facing CRO Stakers on Cronos today
There are three main problems facing CRO Stakers on Cronos today:
1. Staking CRO is tedious
If you have CRO on Cronos and want to stake, it is technically not possible today. You will have to manually bridge the CRO over to crypto.org chain. You will then have to choose the right validator to stake with based on multiple metrics. You will then have to active monitor the validator to make sure that it is not raising it’s commission rate which reduces your yield.
2. Staking CRO is illiquid and capital inefficient
Staking CRO bears minimal risk and earns you ~12% APY staking rewards. However, staked CRO cannot be traded and transferred and will be “locked” into the validator.
Unstaking CRO will result in you having to undergo a 28 days unstaking period before you have control of your CRO again. During this 28 days, your CRO is also not earning any yields or rewards.
3. Staking CRO comes with an opportunity cost of potentially losing higher yields
While staking CRO is an attractive and safe way of earning yields on your CRO, you will be giving up the benefit of using the CRO on VVS or MMF to earn liquidity provision yields.
You are thus left with a painful dilemma: Stake (and lock) your CRO for 28 days to earn low-risk staking rewards or yield farm CRO across Cronos to earn liquidity mining rewards.
We are long time yield farmers, we know this opportunity cost is painful, and we are here to remove this pain.
Ser, what is liquid staking?
Argo’s liquid staking is a staking innovation and an improvement to traditional CRO Staking.
Liquid Staking allows you to earn DeFi yields on top of staking yields
Liquid staking enables CRO holders/stakers to earn DeFi yields while simultaneously earning CRO staking rewards. Depositing your CRO into Argo will instantly get you bCRO tokens (the liquid staking derivative), which is always redeemable for the CRO that you deposited plus any CRO staking rewards you earned.
You can then use bCRO across Cronos DeFi applications like CRO. Provide liquidity in a bCRO-CRO pool in our DEX partners (to be revealed) or lend out bCRO in our money market partner. This way you will be earning BOTH staking rewards and yield farming rewards! The above examples are just 2 of the multitude of utilities that bCRO will have.
Liquid Staking gives you liquidity and freedom over your staked CRO
You can easily swap between CRO and bCRO tokens anytime you like on our DEX partners, giving you full liquidity and control over your CRO staking position. No longer any 28-days lockup period from unstaking CRO!
Liquid Staking Benefits to CRO Stakers
To summarize, Argo’s liquid staking on Cronos brings a number of benefits to CRO stakers:
- Simplicity: One-click stake CRO on Cronos (Not possible before)
- Staked CRO Liquidity: Stake CRO without the 28-days unbonding/unstaking delay
- Capital Efficiency: Earn CRO staking yields plus additional DeFi yield farming yields across Cronos (LP, borrow, lend, trade, lossless pools, options, etc.).
- Active Validator Management: Maximize staking rewards as we actively redelegate to the most profitable Crypto.org chain validator nodes.
- Minimize Slashing Risk: CRO will be staked and diversified across multiple high quality validators, reducing slashing risk and penalties.
How does liquid staking and bCRO work?
bCRO utility and value
When staking CRO with Argo, you will receive a staked CRO (bCRO) in return. Argo will then stake your CRO across high quality Crypto.org Chain validators and monitor commission rates to ensure you get the most optimal staking APY.
bCRO = CRO + Staking Rewards (+ use it across DeFi to earn more yields)
You can then use your bCRO across Argo’s DeFi partners on Cronos to earn additional yield farming rewards.
How about staking rewards? bCRO is a yield bearing asset which accrues the underlying CRO staking yields, and will have an ever increasing exchange rate against CRO. As such, when you exchange bCRO back to CRO on Argo, you will get back a larger CRO balance, reflecting your staking rewards earned.
Wen launch ser?
Testnet -> Mainnet: We are currently in our testnet phase and are performing rigorous testing to ensure that our contracts are safe and secured. We will also be undergoing a full audit before launch (Safety first!). Our expected mainnet launch date is in late March / early April.
Airdrop: Yes, there will be an airdrop. (We will be using a new airdrop model to align long-term incentives — more to be announced soon)
Public Sale: Yes, there will be a public sale with a major DEX partner on Cronos.
Innovative Launch Model: But before these, we will be introducing an innovative launch model that we will be revealing in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, sit tight and be active as we will be running multiple campaigns going towards launch.
Why Cronos?
Market Potential: ~4b $CRO is currently locked on the crypto.org chain and are illiquid and capital inefficient. That itself presents a huge opportunity for Argo to capture and increase the capital efficiency of CRO across the board. Liquid staking brings massive value to the Crypto.com, Crypto.org, and Cronos ecosystem and will significantly increase the TVL of Cronos. We aim for bCRO to be the capital efficient version of CRO on Cronos.
Scalable and Affordable: Cronos’ average gas fee is on average 0.5–1 CRO for simple transactions, while the network itself can handle more than thousands of transactions per block.
Instant Finality: Built on top of the Tendermint core, transactions happening on Cronos are thus finalized as soon as a block is created.
Tapping into the Crypto.com ecosystem: Cronos gives us the possibility to access a massive retail user base within the Crypto.com ecosystem. There are many avenues to stake CRO across the Crypto.com ecosystem and we aim to be the top of mind protocol for CRO staking on Cronos.
Connect with us, Argonauts.
We are building a family here at Argo. Join our socials, keep up with our latest news, and chat with us, we look forward to answering any doubts and questions.
Be an #Argonaut today.
Discord link to be revealed soon — OG roles await.
