You may have heard of Ribbon finance. A few months back it was the talk of the town due to some unforeseen circumstances. Some industrial-style Sybil attackers from a very value-add VC farmed the airdrop and proceeded to dump their rewards. The bad actors were caught as Gabagool and Sisyphus highlighted their destructive activities through some thorough on-chain analysis. With the funds returned and the treasury loaded things were looking very bright for the young project.
Following the drama there was a flurry of activity, whales bought heavily on the promise of Ribbon’s incredible potential. But alas, there was another unforeseen demon that entered the battle. “The One Tick Farmer”.
The Ribbon team had hardcoded the two-month liquidity mining programme utilising the Uniswap v3 Staker contract. This meant that anyone providing liquidity could lay claim to the much-coveted $RBN rewards. The caveat was that the more concentrated the position, the more rewards you could earn. This sounds great, and it truly was to start. There were super high APR’s to be had as trading volumes were high and the price remained semi-stable.
But as the programme continued and smaller accounts got knocked out of range, it became clear who was in control. “The One Tick Farmer”, was capable of moving the price range to where they wanted it. The direction was down as that’s where the liquidity was thinest. Dumping $RBN for ETH, set new positon, rinse and repeat. Creating a new Uniswap v3 position on Mainnet is an expensive affair due to the current gas restraints, so small accounts left never to return to the LM battlefield.
The One Tick Farmer has been controlling the $RBN price action for almost two months now.
But there is hope.
The Bull Case
End of liquidity mining programme: 7th December, this is when price discovery can really begin. No longer will the price remain in the ‘one tick zone of doom’, no longer will the infinite sell wall block the ever eager Ribbon bulls.
Ribbonomics: this month, sRBN will be upon us. It combines some of the best ideas from other DeFi projects to deliver more sustainable and long-term utility for RBN holders. Step one is Curve style vote locking and reward boosting capabilities. Step two, in the new year, is AAVE style protocol backstop, taking on some risk to receive more rewards.
Sustainable yield: TVL continues to grow despite the lack of incentives, yes, there are no governance token subsidiaries! People want sustainable yield!
With more vaults and strategies to come and a huge TAM for the taking, this will continue to grow.Avalance: Ribbon is going multichain and AVAX is next on the agenda:
And it’s much sooner than people think:
Ribbon Treasury: DAO treasuries are very overweight in their own token. Selling covered calls is an incredible way for the DAO’s to earn yield on their treasury assets. It’s a win-win and offsets risk to the DAO. When one bold project decides to take this step, I believe many will follow.
Revenue: Increasing all the time, and will continue to do so as the vault caps get gradually increased and as more assets get added. This leads to more profits going back sRBN holders.