Synthetix, Kwenta launch v3 perpetuals on Arbitrum

Synthetix has launched its v3 liquidity platform on Arbitrum, an Ethereum layer-2 after a series of product delays prompted a governance overhaul at the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, Synthetix told Cointelegraph on Oct. 24.

Kwenta, a perpetuals exchange, will be the first DeFi protocol on Arbitrum to use Synthetix’s v3 liquidity infrastructure, Synthetix said.

Synthetix, which specializes in providing liquidity for decentralized exchanges (DEXs), is betting that accepting multiple token types as trading collateral will differentiate v3 in Arbitrum’s competitive DeFi ecosystem.

Kwenta already partners with Synthetix on other blockchain networks. The perpetuals DEX has hosted more than $32 billion in trading activity across dozens of chains, according to Kwenta’s website.

Perpetual futures, or “perps,” are a type of derivative that allows traders to buy or sell an asset at a future date with no expiration.

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Governance shakeup

DeFi protocol GMX currently dominates Arbitrum’s decentralized perps market with nearly $390 million in TVL.

“Arbitrum is the home of DeFi derivatives. There’s no doubt about that. There’s a large number of protocols there, [and] the competition is fierce,” Losquadro said in August.

Among other alleged shortcomings, “[d]elays in development […] prevented Synthetix from capturing market narratives, user attention and product adoption,” the proposal said.

Celermajer took charge of strategy as a Synthetix core contributor after the restructuring, Synthetix said in an Oct. 4 blog post.

Synthetix is also reorganizing as a foundation to “streamline and improve our capabilities regarding business activities that require signing contracts with partners,” among other potential benefits, the blog said.

“If we start to execute relentlessly—get multi-collateral up, communicate our progress, and implement the foundation structure—people will see activity returning to the protocol at a quick pace,” Celermajer told Cointelegraph in an interview.