As we approach 2025, it's time to reflect on our journey since 2018.
We've faced challenges, celebrated triumphs, and remained committed to our vision of building the foundation for on-chain financial applications.
Read on to learn more about the history of NUTS Finance: (1/16)
2/ Beginning with some history, it all started with the NUTS Platform: a middleware solution for smart contract developers to launch their apps with minimal overhead.
1 year was spent building this platform, however, it never passed the validation stage and was not released.
3/ That didn't stop us from building our second idea: @ACoconutDAO
Development for ACoconut started in 2019, and it was destined to become a tokenized BTC aggregator, accepting all forms of tokenized BTC and issuing its own unified token: acBTC.
4/ The rise of ACoconut was impressive:
- Launched on Ethereum Mainnet in Sept. 2020.
- Raised $500k from select angels.
- Protocol expanded to BSC (now known as BNB Chain).
- A crowdpooling event was hosted on DODO DEX and raised an additional 294,000 BUSD.
5/ After the initial launch phase, ACoconut went on to reach a peak TVL of $70M in April of 2021.
Unfortunately, this validation of our success was quickly followed by a massive liquidity exit during the crypto winter of late 2021 to early 2022, forcing us to close the protocol.
6/ But before ACoconut closed its doors, we were invited by the Web3 Foundation to build something new. Something on Polkadot. Something called @TapioFinance
7/ The network configuration of Polkadot + Kusama actually led us to create two protocols, named Tapio and Taiga respectively.
These protocols were designed to aggregate all forms of liquid-staked DOT/KSM and issue a unified token: tDOT (or tKSM).
8/ Although the launch of Tapio and Taiga were successful, we still suffered the collateral damage of the Acala aUSD exploit in August 2022.
However, something impressive to note was our protocol's integrity during that event, which maintained its peg throughout the exploit.
9/ After that aUSD exploit, and the fall of network activity in the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems, we faced a troubling dilemma.
To continue moving forward, we replaced Tapio with Taiga, leaving Kusama.
This allowed us to pivot Tapio into the Ethereum and L2 ecosystems.
10/ But during the construction of Taiga and Tapio, NUTS was invited by Acala to build a money market to drive adoption for aUSD. From this idea, @PikeFinance was born.
11/ Pike was destined to become the leading hub for DOT and tDOT liquidity, providing depositors with ample aUSD and driving adoption of that asset. In Q1 of 2023, Pike repositioned itself to serve the wider crypto economy using services like @wormhole for interoperability.
12/ With the help of some key technology partners, Pike dominated the narrative of cross-chain lending and interoperability.
Pike Beta launched in February of 2024.
13/ After the successful launch of Pike Beta, our team conducted a token presale, allowing our community to enter the ground floor of the token launch.
This resulted in a successful raise of $6.45M for Pike Finance, securing our position in the cross-chain economy.
14/ Shortly following our presale and the launch of Pike Beta, @PikeFinance suffered two security exploits in April 2024. All affected users have been fully repaid as of May 2024, and our restitution plan can be found here: https://mirror.xyz/pikedao.eth/klLV4rRqNYxjRQp0NAfVLboLYtX98P9iYOOf06FUapg
15/ Looking Ahead: How does NUTS Finance plan to navigate the New Year?
Our focus remains unchanged: to drive progression for DeFi by building innovative on-chain financial primitives.
We're confident our team has the capabilities to execute our vision.
16/ To learn more, check out our blog with more information on the history of NUTS Finance: https://medium.com/nuts-foundation/nuts-finance-journey-recollection-e6b62cd53911