November 2022: Convex Goes Cross-Chain
Back in February, Curve Finance enabled boosting of pools on other chains outside of Ethereum main-net. Since then, Curve has provided a home for LPs on Arbitrum, Polygon, and Optimism just to name a few. Curve pools on other chains are eligible for gauges just like any traditional pool on Ethereum.
Through the bi-weekly gauge weight votes, Convex has been providing vlCVX holders the option to vote for these pools to receive a portion of CRV emissions on other chains. However, LPs on side-chains/L2s did not previously have any ability to get the socialized boost Convex provides for LPs on Ethereum. Convex Finance is now taking the next step, and starting the expansion to additional chains as well. First stop: Arbitrum!
How it works:
Convex Finance on Arbitrum will look and feel very similar to Convex on Ethereum. The process for providing liquidity and staking on Convex are the same as before; provide liquidity on Curve, stake LP tokens on Convex to get the socialized boost, and claim rewards.
How to get there:
Visit www.convexfinance.com and filter on “Arbitrum One” pools.
With the addition of Arbitrum pools, convexfinance.com now has a cross-chain interface. Pools and interface elements on both Ethereum main-net and Arbitrum will both be visible. Users will be prompted to switch chains to interact with their respective pools.
Claiming rewards from Arbitrum pools is simple as well, and centrally located on the “Claim” page.
Some notable differences on the Arbitrum version of Convex:
- An updated smart contract for distribution of LP rewards tokens means no trailing 7-day payout on pool rewards. This is possible due to gas costs on Arbitrum being orders of magnitude lower than Ethereum. This also means no need for an automated “harvester” to collect and distribute rewards as is needed on Ethereum.
- LP tokens for Convex pools on Arbitrum are transferable between addresses.
- CVX rewards will not be minted as a ratio of CRV earned as they are on Ethereum. CVX rewards for LPs on Arbitrum will be distributed according to the ratio of votes for pools in the bi-weekly vlCVX gauge weight votes. These CVX tokens will be sourced from the “Liquidity Mining” portion of tokens (see “Tokenomics” page from Convex Documentation). Further details on this dynamic below as it pertains to Ethereum main-net pools as well.
Integrations on Arbitrum
Convex Finance is bolstered by a great community. Many projects/DAOs have integrated with Convex in some fashion on Ethereum main-net over the past year and a half.
As Convex branches out onto other chains such as Arbitrum, opportunities for additional integrations open up. Projects on Arbitrum are encouraged to reach out for potential integration ideas.
Launched in October, Sentiment.xyz is a borrowing/lending market on Arbitrum. Integration with Convex is coming soon to allow users to gain access to leveraged positions. In the mean-time, you can check out their documentation and whitepaper here.
Additional Pool Incentives
When Convex launched in May 2021, the CVX token emission schedule stated that 25% of the supply was slated for Liquidity Mining rewards. At launch, these token emissions were incentivizing liquidity in two Sushiswap pools (CVX/ETH and CRV/cvxCRV). Since migrating away from the Sushiswap pools, Convex has been re-directing some of these emissions to the Curve pool equivalents instead, as well as directing some towards incentives for vlCVX voters in gauge-weight votes.
Convex is working on a framework to be able to direct a portion of these tokens to be used as additional rewards for LPs. Tentatively, these CVX tokens will be distributed to pools based on their vlCVX vote weight (not Curve.fi vote-weight) in the bi-weekly gauge weight votes on Snapshot. The additional rewards will apply to pools on Ethereum, both normal and Frax pools, as well as pools on Arbitrum (and other future chains). Full details around this system are still being worked out and subject to change.
Some older pools are unable to receive additional CVX incentives directly. Convex would like to invite projects with pool IDs below 40 to get in touch to work on a case by case solution.
Front-End Updates
Aside from the additions to accommodate Arbitrum and future cross-chain pools, further updates were made to the look and feel of convexfinance.com. Improvements to the website should help things feel more responsive and smooth. Additionally, the names of the pools on Convex should now reflect the names of the underlying tokens.
With this change comes another exciting update; pools that obtain a gauge and are added to Convex via the pool manager contract will be automatically added to the list on the website. Previously, making pools visible on the front-end required some manual intervention even after they were available on-chain.
