Dex Finance, founded in 2020, is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) offering a range of financial products with market yields. The core products consist of the Dex Money Market, dexIRA & dexETF. ^[1][2]

Products

Dex Money Market

Dex Money Market is an algorithmic reserve protocol with multi-step auto-compounded strategies, Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) rewards, and bonding mechanisms used to allow investors to purchase Money Market tokens at a discount by buying with a preselected list of currencies, including dexIRA & dexETF. ^[3]

Money Market Technology

The Money Market relies on a balance between circulating supply and treasury-backed assets. After presale, the only new supply of USDEX going into circulation comes from the regulation pool (boardroom).  In the traditional model, these tokens would be dispersed to boardroom stakers immediately after every epoch based on the TWAP. ^[14]

In the Money Market model, the stakers do not receive USDEX. Instead, the protocol takes in all of the newly minted USDEX and then only sells enough to bring it back to peg. Once the protocol sells the correct amount of USDEX, those tokens (which are now counted within the circulating supply) can be bought or sold –  so the protocol never sells (or puts into circulation) more than the treasury can buy back at the peg price.  ^[14]

The profits from the sale of those USDEX tokens are then converted to dexETF tokens and redistributed back to dexSHARE stakers. If these stakers decide they want to sell those rewards at this point they can do so all they want as this has no impact on the price of the peg token. - the documentation states^[14]

The Money Market protocol controls the supply of peg tokens by only selling when the price is optimally above peg and only selling an amount that can be covered by treasury-backed assets so the USDEX that was previously sold can be bought back if needed. ^[14]

USDEX

USDEX (part of a multi-token token system) is an algorithmic stablecoin with a built-in stability mechanism that aims to maintain its price to 1 USDC token and is used as a medium of exchange. USDEX is the native token of the Money Market protocol. The built-in stability mechanism within the protocol aims to maintain USDEX’s peg of 1 USDEX = 1 USDC. ^[3][14]

In May 2023, DEX Finance announced the USDEX migration which involves transitioning from the algorithmic stablecoin USDEX to the fully decentralized, fully-collateralized USDEX+. Users deposited their USDEX tokens into the migration contract. Each USDEX deposited received a $1 valuation and earned approximately 20% APR on their outstanding principal until the principal was released as USDEX+. ^[17][18]

dexSHARE

dexSHARE is a measure of value in the Money Market Protocol. dexSHARE holders have voting rights (governance) on proposals to improve the protocol and future use cases within the Money Market protocol. ^[3]

In May 2023, dexSHARE was re-branded to gDEX, the governance token of DEX Finance which was facilitated through a 1–1 migration process available for stand-alone dexSHARE and/or users in the VAULTS. ^[13]

gDEX Token

On March 28, 2023, the gDEX (governance of DEX Finance) token was introduced as the single governance token of DexFi & launched on Arbitrum.^[13]

gDEX (formally dexSHARE) awards holders the right to cast votes on major decisions regarding the use of treasury funds, the allocation of boosts and bribes, etc. Holders can also participate in the platform's governance and benefit from the fees generated by the index funds. ^[12][13]

The total supply of gDEX remains the same as the total supply of dexSHARE - 101,500. The token remains eligible to be staked in regulation VAULTS to earn revenue from all DexFi products. The dispersal of revenue to gDEX stakers is fully automated and decentralized and the fees from DexFi products are accounted for in intervals and automatically sent to the rewards contract. ^[13]

80% of the total supply is allocated to gDEX stakers, 10% to automated liquidity zaps, and 10% to the treasury investment fund.^[13]

dexIRA

dexIRA, launched on the BNB Chain in July 2021, is an individual retirement account designed for decentralized exchanges. It consists of an automated BNB redistribution, multi-currency dividend rewards, buyback protocols, and tokenomics that promote long-term holding and wealth generation. Using dexIRA services, customers can opt for other cryptocurrencies, but BNB is the default one.^[4]

dexIRA carries a 30% sales tax for all “non-qualified” distributions. The tax is split between rewards pool, liquidity pool, and proprietary buyback protocol. Investors have the option to have fees waived for “qualified” distributions—and thus tax-free and penalty-free—if they haven’t sold any dexIRA tokens within one year. ^[4]

dexETF

dexETF allows users to build a portfolio with a non-custodial crypto management protocol. dexETF is a crypto investment method whereby the first ETF combines top large-cap choices with select DEX brand tokens. There are also plans for additional ETF funds to be created based on community governance through the DAO. This approach allows investors to shape the inclusion of tokens within future funds collectively. ^[5]

deETF Tokens

An ETF token is a token whose value is formed from the price of the assets within it. This token serves to diversify funds and is already divided into a list of coins. The price of this token changes depending on the price of the assets within it. Fund tokens in an ETF are visible by expanding the fund and looking at the list. ^[6]

dexPAD

dexPAD is a project that aims to provide new project creators with multiple services and technologies needed to succeed, including an Initial Decentralized Offering (IDO) platform, community support, and other platform solutions. ^[7]

"Projects launched on dexPAD are 100% fairly allocated. Allocation is based on the amount of dexIRA tokens held prior to a given launch. The numbers of tokens held per tier will be used for governance." - the website stated^[7]

dexPAD uses a tier-based system to determine the amount of dexIRA tokens needed to secure a seat for the allocation. Tier 1 includes a dex holding of $100K, Tier 2 — $500K, Tier 3 — $1 million, and Tier 4 — $5 million. ^[7]

dexVAULTS

dexVAULTS simplifies the advanced trading strategies employed by experienced investors. The task of Dex Finance Vaults is to collect liquidity pool pairs of tokens on different Dexes, combine them into one smart contract (vault), and then negotiate them (profit collection and reinvestment). Once the vault with the specified LP pairs has been created and the user credits his funds to them, they are allocated according to the specified shares. Immediately after the investment, rewards are credited, which the user can automatically (if the Auto-harvest threshold is met) or manually collect, part of which is reinvested and part of which is credited as Profit to the account. ^[8]

Each vault consists of 1 to 3 farms, which differ in both the level of risk and the percentage of rewards accrued. Using Dex Finance users can either invest in stableLP and earn rewards or combine different LPs to create a balanced level of risk and APY of the vaults. ^[8]

Cross-Chain Vault Migrations

The Vault Migration feature introduced on April 14, 2023, allows users to move between vaults on different blockchains with three transaction approvals, making yield farming even more accessible. ^[16]

Before the update, users had to withdraw from a vault, find a safe bridge, ensure there was enough gas on the new chain, and then deposit into a new vault to move funds between blockchains. ^[16]

But now, due to the collaboration with the Synapse team, users can migrate to a vault on a different blockchain directly within the dexVAULTS platform, and receive extra gas tokens on the new chain. dexVAULTS also charges no fees for deposits, migrations, or withdrawals including cross-chain vault migrations. ^[16]

dexVAULTS & dexETF Launch on Canto

On February 13, 2023, dexVAULTS and dexETF launched on the Canto blockchain. ^[15]

Canto blockchain has a Free Public Infrastructure (FPI) which means dexVAULT investors will keep more of their money by paying fewer swap fees. Canto’s FPI includes a decentralized exchange (DEX) offering no-fee swaps among six core tokens (CANTO, NOTE, ETH, ATOM, USDC, and USDT). The Canto DEX cannot be upgraded (its contracts are immutable), has no official interface (anyone can build dAPPs to utilize it, including dexVAULTS and dexETF), and runs in perpetuity without the ability to implement fees. ^[15]

Canto also has a fee split model called Contract Secured Revenue (CSR) which provides additional revenue opportunities for the DexFinance treasury. The advanced auto-rebalancing, auto-compounding, and auto-take-profit features of each dexVAULT require up to 200 transactions within each vault harvest. The gas fees required to make these transactions are sizeable across the entire dexVAULTS ecosystem. ^[15]

DEX Finance's Migration

On May 9, 2023, Dex Finance announced its migration plan and launch on Arbitrum as the team transformed the project into a real-yield, blockchain-based SaaS company. A migration dashboard was made available for users to deposit their dexIRA, dexSHARE, and USDEX tokens. ^[17][18]

Team

Dex Finance was co-founded in July 2020 by Jake^[9], the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Matt^[10] the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) while Mark Allen^[11] serves as the Chief Operations Officer (COO) of the company. The team consists of software engineers, marketing professionals, traders, and legal personnel. The core members own and operate a full-stack media company that provides services including web development, media production, and digital marketing. ^[1]