Alpha Finance Lab (ALPHA)
An Ecosystem of DeFi products on Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum.- Alpha Finance Lab is focused on researching and building in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) space. Alpha Lending, the first product built by Alpha Finance Lab, is a decentralized lending protocol with algorithmically adjusted interest rates built on Binance Smart Chain.
- The ALPHA token is the native utility token of the platforms. Current and planned use cases of the ALPHA token includes liquidity mining, governance voting, as well as staking.
- Alpha Finance Lab aims to work on the following:
- Allowing Sustainable yield-generation.
- Alleviating impermanent loss in liquidity provision.
- Building privacy-preserving token swaps.
- Allowing lending with fixed interest rates.
- The project has raised 1.67MM USD via private token sales at 0.0125 USD / ALPHA.
Key metrics (as of September 29th 2020)
| Ticker | ALPHA |
|---|---|
| Initial Circulating Supply | 174,136,442 ALPHA (17.41%) |
| Total Token Supply | 1,000,000,000 ALPHA |
| Binance Launchpool Allocation | 50,000,000 ALPHA (5.00%) |
| Binance Launchpad Sale Allocation | 100,000,000 ALPHA (10.00%) |
| Binance Launchpad Sale Price | 0.02 USD / ALPHA |
| Binance Launchpad Sale Amount Raised | 2.00MM USD |
1. What is Alpha Finance Lab (ALPHA)？
Alpha Finance Lab is a cross-chain DeFi platform, focusing on building an ecosystem of products that will interoperate and bring alpha to users across different blockchains starting with Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Ethereum.
Alpha Lending, the first product built by Alpha Finance Lab, is a decentralized lending protocol with algorithmically adjusted interest rates.
The ALPHA token is the native utility token of the platform. Token holders can earn a share of the network fees by staking ALPHA tokens to cover any default loans. The ALPHA tokens can also be used for liquidity mining and governance voting.
Alpha Finance Lab will implement governance on two levels via a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO): product-level governance and Alpha Finance-level governance. Product-level governance will allow ALPHA token holders to vote on key parameters of specific Alpha products. Alpha Finance-level governance will allow ALPHA token holders to vote on how the portfolio of Alpha products interoperate.
Recent news
- September 2020: Launched Alpha Lending testnet on Binance Smart Chain.
- August 2020: Rebranded to Alpha Finance Lab.
- May 2020: Participated and won the Cosmos Cross-Chain hackathon.
2. Existing product
Alpha Finance Lab is a DeFi platform that is building an ecosystem of products that will interoperate across both BSC and Ethereum.
The project's first product, Alpha Lending, is a decentralized, pool-based lending protocol. Users can earn interest by supplying supported assets on the protocol. Assets deposited by lenders will be transferred into a smart contract that aggregates the total liquidity of each asset into a pooled fund, which is available for borrowers to borrow. The interest borrowers pay is distributed proportionally to lending liquidity providers.
Source: Alpha Finance Lab Whitepaper.
Lending
Source: Alpha Finance Lab Whitepaper.
If a user wishes to be a lender, he/she can deposit one of the supported assets, such as BNB, into the protocol. Once deposited, the user will receive alTokens (such as alBNB), which are interest-bearing tokens that represent the user’s share of his/her BNB deposited. Interest the lender receives is accrued every block on BSC.
Borrowing
Source: Alpha Finance Lab Whitepaper.
Before a user can borrow, he/she has to first deposit assets that can be used as collateral on the protocol. Upon depositing such assets, the user receives alTokens. Each asset that can be used as collateral has an assigned Loan-To-Value (LTV) ratio. For instance, if the LTV for BNB is 75%, the user who deposits and uses BNB as collateral can borrow any asset up to 75% of the value of BNB deposited.
Interest rate
The asset utilization rate, or how much of the total deposited amount is borrowed, will determine the interest rate borrowers pay. In general, a higher utilization rate corresponds to a higher cost of borrowing.
Risk & liquidation
Source: Alpha Finance Lab Whitepaper.
A borrower bears the risk of liquidation when the total value of borrowed assets exceeds the maximum value the user can borrow. Due to the volatile nature of asset prices, users are recommended to borrow at a value less than the maximum value that they can borrow to avoid liquidation.
Technical infrastructure
An overview of the project's overall technical infrastructure is shown below:
Source: Alpha Finance Lab Whitepaper.
Lending Pool Contract: handles user behaviors within the lending pool, including functions like deposit, borrow, repay, withdraw and liquidate.
Lending Pool Configurator: provides configuration functions for Lending Pool and implements the configuration of token pools, including pool configuration and interest rates calculation.
alToken Contract: manages the minting and burning of alTokens. alToken represents a user’s lending position or the share of deposited amount to total liquidity of that asset.
Price Oracle: responsible for querying the latest price of an asset from BandChain.
3. Token sales and economics
3.1 Token allocation
| Token Name | ALPHA |
|---|---|
| Binance Launchpad Sale | 10.00% of the total token supply |
| Binance Launchpool | 5.00% of the total token supply |
| Private Sale | 13.33% of the total token supply |
| Liquidity Mining | 20.00% of the total token supply |
| Team & Advisors | 15.00% of the total token supply |
| Ecosystem | 36.67% of the total token supply |
3.2 Token sales data
| Token Name | ALPHA |
|---|---|
| Private Sale Allocation | 133,333,334 ALPHA |
| Private Sale Token Price | 0.0125 USD / ALPHA |
| Amount Raised Private Sale | 1.67MM USD |
| Binance Launchpad Sale Allocation | 100,000,000 ALPHA |
| Binance Launchpad Sale Token Price | 0.02 USD / ALPHA |
| Binance Launchpad Sale Amount Raised | 2.00MM USD |
3.3 Token governance and use of funds
As of writing, the Alpha Finance Lab team has used approximately 20.00% of funds raised according to the allocations below:
- 65.00% - Technical and business development
- 15.00% - Marketing
- 5.00% - Operations
- 15.00% - Legal
The Alpha Finance Lab team holds its funds in stablecoins and fiat currencies. Funds are stored in multisig-wallets and USD bank accounts. Movement of funds requires the approval of 2 executives of Alpha Finance Lab.
ALPHA token supply distribution (%)
ALPHA token release schedule
3.4 ALPHA token overview and use-cases
The ALPHA token has the following planned and current use cases:
- Liquidity mining: Users will be able to earn ALPHA token as rewards for providing liquidity in Alpha Lending.
- Staking: ALPHA token holders will be able to deposit tokens into a smart contract, which utilizes these tokens to cover any default loans. Users who stake their ALPHA tokens will receive a portion of the platform's revenue.
- Governance voting: Governance will be implemented on two levels via a DAO: product-level governance and Alpha Finance-level governance. Product-level governance will allow ALPHA token holders to govern key protocol parameters of specific products, while finance-level governance will allow ALPHA token holders to govern how the portfolio of Alpha products interoperate.
4. Project team
5. Roadmap, updates, and business development
Original roadmap and achievements
| Planned Date | Milestone | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 2020: Q3 | Launch of Alpha Lending testnet | Announcement |
| 2020: Q4 | Launch of Alpha Lending mainnet | N/A |
Products are in active stealth development and will be announced just prior to product launches.
6. Alpha Finance Lab's activity and community overview
Alpha Finance Lab aims to develop a global community. While the core team is mostly based in Asia, Alpha Finance Lab aims to expand their reach with an incentive program for builders to join and contribute to the project.
Current community growth strategies of Alpha Finance Lab include:
- Hosting DeFi conferences, workshops, and meetups to engage with potential users.
- Providing online and face-to-face product education sessions.
- Publishing bi-weekly technical updates via blog posts.
- Actively engaging with the community via social channels.
Future community growth strategies of Alpha Finance Lab include:
- Launching the Alpha Partner Program to promote integrations and partnerships.
- Launching liquidity mining programs on Alpha Lending and future products.
- Launching joint liquidity mining with ecosystem partners.
Community and social channels (data as of September 29th 2020)
Discord | 48 Members
Twitter | 264 Followers
Telegram | 126 Members
Telegram Announcement | 13 Members
Blog