Here we are with another MetalSwap Recap, this time for April 2024. The MetalSwap team and contributors are working diligently as we look ahead to the upcoming months and the development of new features continues day by day.

The mainnet for NFT staking feature is on its way, along with other updates, but for now, let's summarize what has already been accomplished in April.

As always, the recap will be divided into the following major areas:

• Project Updates

• R&D and Blog Post

• Development Preview

Project Updates

In this section, we examine the main achievements of the past 30 days:

Brand-new Swap Competition

After a long wait, as announced in the last MetalSwap recap for February, the new Swap Competition has begun, featuring very attractive prizes. 

It was decided to award more than 1000 USDC to the top twenty positions, adding an additional incentive of 3300 OP in the form of liquid rewards for all open positions.

The competition started on April 17 and will last for 30 days, until May 17.

At this point, the rankings are already quite competitive, but with some smart moves, it’s still possible to secure excellent positions and gain very juicy prizes.

Premium 50% Reduction

Another significant development in April was the reduction in the cost of the premium to open a position within the dApp.

Thanks to the update of the Proto-Danksharding, the cost was reduced by about 50%, making operations much more economical for all users utilizing MetalSwap.

Mumbai Testnet Update

The Mumbai testnet for the NFT staking feature has been concluded as it was deprecated by the Polygon team. This means that the public testing phase has ended, and the NFT staking feature is very close to its final release.

R&D and Blog Post

Now, let's review April's articles:

MetalSwap Knowledge - Halving Approach

Most of this month's articles touched on the topic of halving as this has been the focal point in the crypto world in recent weeks. With this article, the first in a mini-series, we aimed to bring our community closer to the halving event, introducing all the key concepts and information about this significant event.

MetalSwap Knowledge: Halving Altcoins Strategy

In this second article of the series related to Bitcoin's halving, some practical strategies were explained that could be implemented using MetalSwap's hedging contracts.

MetalSwap Knowledge: Halving Impact in the DeFi Market

This article involved more research and analysis of future trends that could arise from Bitcoin's halving. Through the study of past cycles, trends and patterns that could repeat within the DeFi sector were identified.

MetalSwap Knowledge: Gold vs. Bitcoin ETF Spot Launch

The series on Bitcoin halving concluded with this extra article regarding the comparison between gold spot ETFs and those of bitcoin. We suggest reading this article as it reveals very interesting outcomes.

MetalSwap Knowledge: Trading without the Funding Rate

In this last article of April, a new use case for the MetalSwap dApp was presented, applicable in periods where the funding rate is very high and thus making dApps like MetalSwap, which do not require this fee from their users, the most economical to operate on.

Development Preview

Let’s see what awaits us in the coming weeks.

NFT Staking Live on Optimism

The release of this new feature has experienced some slowdowns also due to the deprecation of the Mumbai testnet. 

Despite this, development is continuing and this feature should soon be released on the Optimism mainnet, bringing new liquidity and use cases to the XMT token on this chain.

Exciting New Developments

As mentioned in the introduction, the team and contributors are working hard on exciting new developments for MetalSwap. We advise always checking the official forum and sharing your opinions on the many topics discussed each week. 

In this way, you can not only learn about the future of this dApp but also influence it through your ideas and suggestions.

-The DeFi Foundation

✎ What is MetalSwap?

MetalSwap is a decentralized platform that allows Hedging Contract on financial markets with the aim of providing coverage to those who work with Digital Asset and an investment opportunity for those who contribute to increase the shared liquidity of the project. Allowing the protection for an increasing number of operators.

With Hedging Contract we enable hedge swap transactions through the use of Smart Contracts, AMM style.

It's great to Hedge the Risk of Price volatility with MetalSwap dApp !