Over the last couple months, a lot of discussion around LeoDex took place. This was culminated with a Spaces kicking off the addition of SPS and DEC, from the Splinterlands game, to the application.
This was an important step forward as it provides a ramp in and out of one of the most popular Web 3.0 games there is.
That said, LeoDex is much more than simply an adjunct for Splinterlands. It is a true DEX that allows for L1 swapping, bringing together multiple chains. By tying into the Maya Protocol, an entirely new world opens up for Hive. At the same time, we are going to see further expansion when THORchain is incorporated into Maya.
For now, let us look at where things stand.
One of the big issues that regularly confronted people on Hive was the ability to enter and exit the ecosystem. For many, it was not an easy process.
LeoDex now addresses this issue. We already see the ability to easily move from HIVE into other coins or tokens. Over the next couple months, this is going to expand.
On the Hive side of things, we are told that HBD along with other Hive Engine tokens will be added. This is going to be a major step forward.
We also see the basic throughput occurring on Hive Engine, with the SWAPHIVE:LEO diesel pool as the main artery.
Through this, LEO is also resident on Maya, with a liquidity pool located there. Thus, a swap from HIVE to any Maya supported coin or token is possible.
Naturally, the reverse is also true. Once can go from USDC, as an example, into HIVE.
You will notice that my input is $33.26 of HIVE and the output is $33.94 of USDC. There is actually a negative transaction fee when moving out of HIVE for the timing being.
We also see how there is the ability to go from SPS (I don't have any in my wallet so it is not going to the fees).
As we can see, this looks a lot like other DEX such as Uniswap.
The big problem for the entire Hive ecosystem is connecting to fiat. We are all aware of the lack of listing on centralized exchanges.
This means that, for many, there is no direct way into (or out of) fiat.
Earlier, I did some testing to see what it would take to get to fiat. For this, I wanted to get to my Coinbase account. This is a popular exchange in North America since Binance is not really an option, especially in the US.
The process was rather simply. I was able to go from Hive to Leo. From there, I flipped to CACAO which was then moved into USDT.
For this exercise, I did a number of trades to test the process.
Once I was in USDT, I simply sent it to my Coinbase address where it was converted into USD.
This is a feature that was sorely needed on Hive. I am not sure we can understate the importance of this.
Most of us aware that Uniswap is one of the big fish when it comes to DEX. Actually, this is a protocol along with a front end. From this perspective, it is both Maya and LeoDex together.
Either way, Uniswap is enormous.
Just skipping through the different versions listed on CoinGecko, we see how big it is. The 24 hour volume is into many hundreds of millions. This is all Ethereum based so there are ones that align with the different forks such as BASE and Arbitrum. There is also V2 and V3 versions.
Just guessing, I would say we are looking at more than $400 million in the last 24 hours in trading volume.
Obviously, we are not going to compare LeoDex to that. However, it does point out the enormous potential that exists.
We have often discussed the flywheel effect related to this. LeoDex is a digital platform, capable of capturing activity and spreading it throughout the DEX. For example, more activity leads to more transactions, which helps the rankings. There are also fees which then used to enter permanent liquidity into the Maya pool.
On the other end, as more LEO is bridged across, that helps to provide depth to the diesel pool. Both of these moves will enable larger transactions in the future.
This, naturally, means the process is repeated, only using bigger numbers. As we can see from the Maya page, the ability to stand out is certainly there.
We can see the number of swaps is growing, with #3 on the list as the next target. The total swap volume leaves this a bit lower, probably due to the fact that many are still testing things out. Either way, another $21K in volume over the next one up will move LeoDex higher.
With streaming swaps slated to be added to Maya, this could change the entire premise of utility of Maya. It provided a huge boost to Thorchain when it was added. Perhaps we will see something similar with this protocol.
