Linear (LINA), or Liner Finance, is a cross-chain decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol built to stake assets.
The hope is that Linear staking can generate liquidity that will enable trading of liquid assets. They claim Linear has many liquid assets that can finance spot crypto trades, commodities trades, index trading, and digitally structured products. I think digital or digitally structured products refer to synthetic assets such as stablecoins.
They built Linear’s ecosystem around four decentralized applications (DApps), the Linear Buildr, the Linear.Exchange, Linear Swap, and Linear Vault. Linear Buildr allows users to stake, build, and claim using Linear (LINA) tokens.
The Linear.Finance (LINA) Ecosystem
Buildr users earn staking rewards and a pro-ratia share of Linear.Exchange trading fees. Linear Buildr users can build Liquity USD (LUSD) stablecoins. Users build LUSd by collateralizing LINA tokens for use on Linear.Exchange or in other DeFi protocols and exchanges. Linear Buildr users can receive weekly rewards they can use to build additional LUSD.
The Linear.Exchange is Linear’s custom-built proprietary trading exchange. They claim you can trade liquid assets (Liquids) instantly with unlimited liquidity and no slippage. Users can diversify liquid asset holdings and use curated thematic Digital Traded Indexes. They let Linear.Exchange users purchase Liquids with LUSD built from collateralized LINA or LUSD purchased on other exchanges.
The Linear Vault helps users earn passive income by locking LUSD and liquidity protocol tokens to earn interest paid LUSD, Binance USD (BUSD), and LINA tokens. However, the Linear Vault staking pool reward program is over. Yet they claim users could earn a 46.6263% annual percentage yield through the LUSD-BUSD LP Token Pool. Users who add liquidity through the Linear Vault can get a Deposit LP Token.
How Hackers could Takeover the Linear Finance Ecosystem
A Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), the Linear DAO governs the Linear ecosystem. Token holders govern the DAO via voting.
Speculators must know that fraudsters can take over DAOs by hacking and vote fraud. For example, hackers created enough fake votes to seize the Tornado Cash (TORN) DAO and steal up to one million TORN worth $4.42 million in May 2023.
Crooks could use similar tactics to takeover the Linear DAO and mint fake LINA or steal LUSD.
Linear’s Partners
Linear Finance works with many partners and investors. The partners include the Hex Trust licensed digital asset custodian in Hong Kong. Hex Trust provides asset custody and infrastructure services for decentralized finance with a bank grade platform. I guess Hex Trust stores Linear’s digital assets and provides infrastructure support.
Speculators should know that Hex Trust is in Hong Kong, which is part of the People’s Republic of China. Hence, the Ministry of State Security’s secret police or the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) can walk in anytime and take any asset or data they want. Vulnerability to a Communist secret police force is obviously a risk and a security hole.
Linear investors include Black Edge Capital, Huobi Global, CMS, DuckDAO, Evernew Capital, GBV, #Hashed, Kenetic, MoonRock Capital, NGC Ventures, Soul Capital, and Vendetta Capital. Linear Strategic Partners include 3Commas, Band Protocol, BitMax, Ellipti, imToken, Moonbeam, Nevos, Panopy, PieDao, Slow Mist, Winkcrypto, Xangle, Gargarin, Tellor, and Umbrella.
Media Partnerships and Fake News
Interestingly, Linear has media partners including Chain News, CoinDesk, forkast.news, NASDAQ, PANews, and The Block. I think this is a questionable practice. Skeptics will say that Linear is buying or trying to influence media coverage, which is a less-than-ethical practice.
Linear’s media partners show why speculators need to distrust the “news.” To explain, the media partnerships can degenerate into a corrupt and incestuous relationship. In that relationship, promoters and developers pay producers and writers to promote their products with fake or slanted news.
Such partnerships corrupt the news because many writers barely make a living. Hence, there is a powerful incentive to take developers’ money.
What Value Does Linear Offer?
Mr. Market has a strong interest in Linear (LINA). For example, Linear was the eighth most trending cryptocurrency on 5 June 2023, CoinMarketCap estimates.
Appealingly, LINA’s Coin Price grew by 33.58% in the 30 days that ended on 5 June 2023. Linear’s Market Capitalization grew by 139.94% in the 24-Hours between 4 June and 5 June 2023. Linear Finance had the 287th largest Market Cap and the 28th largest 24-Hour Market Volume on 5 June 2023.
CoinMarketMap gave LinearFinance (LINA) a 1.467₵ Coin Price, an $80.22 million Market Capitalization, a $146.905 million Fully Diluted Market Cap, and a $90.32 million 24-Hour Market Volume on 6 June 2023. They base those numbers on a 10 billion LINA Total Supply and a 5.541 billion LINA Circulating Supply.
In contrast Liquity USD (LUSD) had a $1.01 Coin Price, a $281.66 million Market Cap, a $1 million 24-Hour Market Volume, and a $282.001 million Fully Diluted Market Cap on 6 June 2023. They base those numbers on a 279.246 million LUSD Circulating and Total Supply. Liquity USD had the 221st largest Market Cap and the 428th largest 24-Hour Market Volume on 5 June 2023.
Hence, LinearFinance and Liquity both offer actual value. More importantly, LUSD’s Market Capitalization shows Liquity can generate enormous amounts of liquidity. Hence, I think Linear can generate cash and value.
A Defi Protocol to Watch
I think speculators who want a DeFi Protocol that could grow need to investigate LinearFinance. Plus, Linear has some interesting attributes including a partnership with a licensed custodian in one of the world’s top financial centers, Hong Kong.
Hong Kong was the world’s fourth-ranked financial center in March 2023, Statista estimates. Statista ranked Hong Kong ahead of Shanghai, Paris, Chicago, and Beijing. Only three financial centers, New York, London, and Singapore, were ahead of Hong Kong.
Moreover, Hong Kong is now in the People’s Republic of China. That could be an advantage because the People’s Republic is the world’s largest manufacturing center and second largest economy.
In the final analysis, Linear Finance and LUSD are DeFi products to watch.
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