FRAX Deploys Decentralized Stablecoin Infrastructure on NEAR Protocol

Frax Finance announced the launch of FRAX stablecoin on NEAR via Ref Finance and Burrow through FraxFerry and the Rainbow Bridge. This marks a significant milestone for Frax as its first major venture into a non-Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) ecosystem. 

Frax Finance is the second-largest issuer of decentralized dollar-pegged stablecoins and an industry leader for DeFi infrastructure.

The NEAR ecosystem and Frax contributors will now collaborate through ongoing in-depth research and protocol integrations. One of the biggest opportunities between the two teams will be the introduction of short-term treasury yields on NEAR using sFRAX, a yield-bearing asset that tracks the Federal Reserve’s Interest on Reserve Balance (IORB).

In the coming months, Frax will natively issue their suite of assets, FRAX, sFRAX, frxETH, and sfrxETH on NEAR and Fraxtal, along with exploring opportunities around NEAR LSTs. Other protocols on NEAR will also be able to explore these exciting frontiers with Frax. While NEAR supports various stablecoins, the decentralized Frax platform sets itself apart by offering additional features like yield and LSTs. These offerings can be utilized by NEAR’s DeFi protocols for novel ventures. 

This deployment is led by Ref and Burrow and will soon expand to other protocols. Ref Finance is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform built on NEAR Protocol, designed to facilitate the swapping, lending, and borrowing of digital assets. It is a multi-purpose DeFi platform that integrates various financial mechanisms, offering users a comprehensive suite of DeFi tools. Burrow is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform on the NEAR blockchain, offering non-custodial, pool-based lending and borrowing services.

Highlighting the Incentive Campaign

To boost activity and foster growth of Frax on NEAR, Ref will introduce an incentive program offering rewards for Liquidity Providers (LPs) in the USDC/FRAX and NEAR/FRAX pools, as well as the Curve style stableswap pools.

The proliferation of native stablecoins is crucial to the growth of DeFi as it facilitates effortless access to liquidity between protocols for users across various types of exchanges. This allows for more seamless interactions with different projects across the Web3 ecosystem, effectively removing bottlenecks and promoting a smooth trading experience. This also advances the NEAR ecosystem vision of Chain Abstraction, streamlining usability and defragmenting liquidity and UX across all of Web3. Moreover, native stablecoins will significantly enhance the visibility of the NEAR Ecosystem’s Total Value Locked (TVL) within the market.

On Burrow, borrowers and lenders will earn incentives for using USDC, USDT, and FRAX. Additionally, Burrow will offer rewards for NEAR and liquid staked NEAR, with more details to be announced soon.

This incentive campaign will be expanded  to other qualifying DeFi protocols and primitives after the initial rollout on Ref and Burrow. 

If you’re new to NEAR, you can find free resources for building apps, deploying smart contracts,creating blockchain operating system(BOS) components, and more on the DevRel resources page. Checkout the official documentation of Frax to learn more about protocol and other technical specifications.