Themes, statistics, and analysis from the fourth quarter of 2022
Introduction
Continuing on the same trajectory as Q3, Q4 was a tumultuous period for cryptoassets as many service providers proved to have poor risk management, weak governance and in some instances malicious intentions. One major theme of Q4 was contagion, as weak financial conditions spread like wildfire across many service providers. These ripples propagated outwards from FTX entering bankruptcy, with platforms like Gemini Earn and BlockFi halting withdrawals. Even companies who exercised prudent risk management have felt the weight of the bear market, with many announcing rounds of layoffs, which has offered opportunities for WOO Network to expand through hiring top talent and capturing more volume market share.
On a macro scale, central banks have continued implementing their contractionary policies through raising rates further. Fortunately for cryptoasset markets, a weaker dollar and softer than expected CPI print in December provided some reprieve. While significant uncertainty looms ahead, many market commentators have called for peak inflation and now remain fixated on unemployment data. Provided domestic labor markets do not soften significantly and the global economy doesn’t enter a deep recession, risk markets like cryptoassets may be poised to rebound in 2023.
Despite the significant headwinds throughout Q4, the industry saw several greenshoots for adoption and technological progress. For example, pro-crypto entrepreneur Elon Musk acquiring Twitter likely cemented the social media platform as the main forum of discourse for cryptoassets. Technology giants like Google Cloud accepting crypto payments and Instagram integrating with Polygon and Solana for NFTs demonstrate that a light remains at the end of the tunnel. The Ethereum community made significant progress towards finalizing the improvement proposals to be included in the Shanghai update, which is anticipated to go live in Q1 2023.
All in all, Q4 bore similar resemblance to 2018 where the hangover of the last bear market climaxed and the short-term minded and opportunistic actors were washed out. The stage has been set for 2023 to allow builders to focus on shipping the next wave of features and products that will shape the next bull market.
WOO X
The second half of Q4 was dominated by themes around transparency, as WOO X released a first-of-its-kind live transparency dashboard. There were 6 main product updates this quarter, with notable deliveries including a leaderboard, user profiles, order entries such as bracket orders and trailing stops, more fiat currency on-ramps, KYC improvements, a blog, campaign pages, faster log-in and registration tools, and the aforementioned transparency dashboard.
WOO X listed 5 spot markets and 6 perpetuals markets. However, due to decreased liquidity in global markets, WOO delisted 23 spot and 8 perpetuals markets, bringing the total to 90 spot and 64 perpetuals. Delisting low volume and less-liquid markets is a routine process that helps bring up trust scores on ranking sites like CoinGecko whilst maintaining the highest standard of user experience.
A strategic roadmap for Q1 was released, as the focus shifts to improving tokenomics and bolstering core trading features on WOO X, as well as improving the DeFi offering with WOOFi and WOOFi Dex.
WOOFi
WOOFi has exceeded every expectation this quarter, setting a record-breaking 7-day trading volume of $189M and expanding to both Arbitrum and Optimism - bringing the total number of supported networks to six. Coupled with this came WOOFi Earn’s new multi-chain UI, enhanced price execution with sPMM v2, and many other successes:
- A place in the top 10 DEXs by 24-hour volume on DeFi Llama
- The greatest 7-day buyback of WOO to date (278,614)
- An all-time high TVL of $9.4M
- 5 new Supercharger vaults
- The transition of WOOFi DEX from testnet to mainnet
- The launch of the WOOFi Wizard NFT and Discord channel
- Co-hosted Twitter Spaces & podcasts with L1s including Arbitrum and Fantom
- The addition of 2 new WOOFi brokers - Odos and My Meta Farm
- Almost 5,000 lottery tickets were claimed in WOOFi’s BAB token lottery
- WOOFi’s Arbitrum adventure saw 7,000 participants in less than 2 hours
- WOOFi’s Winter Wonderland NFT achieved more than 24,000 mints
- More than 32,000 NFTs were claimed in WOOFi’s campaign with Odos
The WOO token
All statistics in this report are accurate as of January 10, 2022.
The tokenomics revamp saw a dynamic shift in supply changes. After burning 705m WOO, the total supply decreased to 2.25b. Bringing ecosystem rewards into circulation means that in addition to holders having more clarity and transparency, the token now has lower inflation with the circulating supply now making up 1.63b, or 72% of the total supply. Ecosystem rewards, despite being calculated as part of circulation, are now largely secured in a vesting smart contract, unlocking linearly until Q1 of 2028.
There are over 32.4k unique on-chain addresses spanning the Ethereum, BNB Smartchain, Avalanche, Polygon, Fantom, NEAR, Arbitrum, Optimism, and HECO networks, an increase of 15% from the previous quarter. Ethereum holds 41% of those addresses, with Polygon addresses growing by nearly 50%. WOOFi continues to drive WOO growth on-chain, having now bought back and distributed 2.66m WOO all-time.
Staking
79m WOO are staked in WOOFi, with Polygon, Avalanche, and BSC representing around 27% each. In Q1, WOOFi will look to have its first major shift in staking with the release of an improved staking model.
Tokenomics
Prior to the burns, the most notable impact to supply was the ending of seed round vesting. This represented a significant increase each quarter that is now fully vested, drastically decreasing the rate of inflation. Series A investors now make up less than 3% of the locked supply. Due to a lack of transparency and compliance concerns around burns, the monthly burning of WOO will end. WOO Network will work to decrease the rate of inflation and focus on increasing demand for WOO by adding utility and targeting mass adoption for its suite of products.
In 2023, all other burning mechanisms will cease. Instant unstake fees on WOO X will accumulate and eventually be returned to WOO X users, increasing real yield on the platform. More details of this will be provided later in 2023.
HR and legal
26 new talents joined the company in Q4, with the majority of hires made in Europe. Growth, tech and internal operations teams welcomed the bulk of the new company joiners. With many other companies forced into involuntary down-sizing, WOO Network is in a strong position to hire experienced talents from throughout the tech industry.
WOO Network acquired the Taiwan AML registration via Wootech Taiwan Ltd. and Polish VASP registration in Q4. During that time, WOO Network also became a member of prominent local fintech associations in those regions. KYC levels were revamped on WOO X to simplify access to the platform. In the following year, legal effort will be dedicated to continuously working to obtain licenses suitable for a global exchange and enhancing overall compliance for WOO X through cooperation with the regulators across different jurisdictions.
Community
Q4 was nothing short of an eventful quarter for WOO Network’s community growth. WOO Force saw 50 new applications throughout the quarter, now boasting members in 21 countries around the world. With WOO DAO transitioning to focus on community engagement via WOO Force, this area has potential to effectively grow regional communities and extend the reach of growth initiatives.
WOO Force saw major upgrades to working structures, with the development of content bounties, and an upgraded community manager program. WOO Force’s stats for Q4 are as follows:
- 27 pieces of original content published
- $59,944 in rewards earned for WOO X referrals, content, and initiatives
- 12 AMAs held with projects in local regions
- Over $500 million in volume through WOO Force member’s referral codes
- Over 2,000 new community members across regional WOO Network Telegram groups
If you would like to join this select group helping WOO Network grow, you can find out more information in this article.
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