Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

Model of an Open, Decentralized Computational Network with Incentive-Based Load Balancing ArXiv ID: 2501.01219 “View on arXiv” Authors: Unknown Abstract This paper proposes a model that enables permissionless and decentralized networks for complex computations. We explore the integration and optimize load balancing in an open, decentralized computational network. Our model leverages economic incentives and reputation-based mechanisms to dynamically allocate tasks between operators and coprocessors. This approach eliminates the need for specialized hardware or software, thereby reducing operational costs and complexities. We present a mathematical model that enhances restaking processes in blockchain systems by enabling operators to delegate complex tasks to coprocessors. The model’s effectiveness is demonstrated through experimental simulations, showcasing its ability to optimize reward distribution, enhance security, and improve operational efficiency. Our approach facilitates a more flexible and scalable network through the use of economic commitments, adaptable dynamic rating models, and a coprocessor load incentivization system. Supported by experimental simulations, the model demonstrates its capability to optimize resource allocation, enhance system resilience, and reduce operational risks. This ensures significant improvements in both security and cost-efficiency for the blockchain ecosystem. ...

A mathematical framework for modelling CLMM dynamics in continuous time ArXiv ID: 2412.18580 “View on arXiv” Authors: Unknown Abstract This paper develops a rigorous mathematical framework for analyzing Concentrated Liquidity Market Makers (CLMMs) in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) within a continuous-time setting. We model the evolution of liquidity profiles as measure-valued processes and characterize their dynamics under continuous trading. Our analysis encompasses two critical aspects of CLMMs: the mechanics of concentrated liquidity provision and the strategic behavior of arbitrageurs. We examine three distinct arbitrage models – myopic, finite-horizon, and infinite-horizon with discounted and ergodic controls – and derive closed-form solutions for optimal arbitrage strategies under each scenario. Importantly, we demonstrate that the presence of trading fees fundamentally constrains the admissible price processes, as the inclusion of fees precludes the existence of diffusion terms in the price process to avoid infinite fee generation. This finding has significant implications for CLMM design and market efficiency. ...

Advancing DeFi Analytics: Efficiency Analysis with Decentralized Exchanges Comparison Service ArXiv ID: 2411.01950 “View on arXiv” Authors: Unknown Abstract This empirical study presents the Decentralized Exchanges Comparison Service (DECS), a novel tool developed by 1inch Analytics to assess exchange efficiency in decentralized finance. The DECS utilizes swap transaction monitoring and simulation techniques to provide unbiased comparisons of swap rates across various DEXes and aggregators. Analysis of almost 1.2 million transactions across multiple blockchain networks demonstrates that both 1inch Classic and 1inch Fusion consistently outperform competitors. These findings not only validate 1inch’s superior rates but also provide valuable insights for continuous protocol optimization and underscore the critical role of data-driven decision-making in advancing DeFi infrastructure. ...

Rebalancing-versus-Rebalancing: Improving the fidelity of Loss-versus-Rebalancing ArXiv ID: 2410.23404 “View on arXiv” Authors: Unknown Abstract Automated Market Makers (AMMs) hold assets and are constantly being rebalanced by external arbitrageurs to match external market prices. Loss-versus-rebalancing (LVR) is a pivotal metric for measuring how an AMM pool performs for its liquidity providers (LPs) relative to an idealised benchmark where rebalancing is done not via the action of arbitrageurs but instead by trading with a perfect centralised exchange with no fees, spread or slippage. This renders it an imperfect tool for judging rebalancing efficiency between execution platforms. We introduce Rebalancing-versus-rebalancing (RVR), a higher-fidelity model that better captures the frictions present in centralised rebalancing. We perform a battery of experiments comparing managing a portfolio on AMMs vs this new and more realistic centralised exchange benchmark-RVR. We are also particularly interested in dynamic AMMs that run strategies beyond fixed weight allocations-Temporal Function Market Makers. This is particularly important for asset managers evaluating execution management systems. In this paper we simulate more than 1000 different strategies settings as well as testing hundreds of different variations in centralised exchange (CEX) fees, AMM fees & gas costs. We find that, under this modeling approach, AMM pools (even with no retail/noise traders) often offer superior execution and rebalancing efficiency compared to centralised rebalancing, for all but the lowest CEX fee levels. We also take a simple approach to model noise traders & find that even a small amount of noise volume increases modeled AMM performance such that CEX rebalancing finds it hard to compete. This indicates that decentralised AMM-based asset management can offer superior performance and execution management for asset managers looking to rebalance portfolios, offering an alternative use case for dynamic AMMs beyond core liquidity providing. ...

Global Public Sentiment on Decentralized Finance: A Spatiotemporal Analysis of Geo-tagged Tweets from 150 Countries ArXiv ID: 2409.00843 “View on arXiv” Authors: Unknown Abstract Blockchain technology and decentralized finance (DeFi) are reshaping global financial systems. Despite their impact, the spatial distribution of public sentiment and its economic and geopolitical determinants are often overlooked. This study analyzes over 150 million geo-tagged, DeFi-related tweets from 2012 to 2022, sourced from a larger dataset of 7.4 billion tweets. Using sentiment scores from a BERT-based multilingual classification model, we integrated these tweets with economic and geopolitical data to create a multimodal dataset. Employing techniques like sentiment analysis, spatial econometrics, clustering, and topic modeling, we uncovered significant global variations in DeFi engagement and sentiment. Our findings indicate that economic development significantly influences DeFi engagement, particularly after 2015. Geographically weighted regression analysis revealed GDP per capita as a key predictor of DeFi tweet proportions, with its impact growing following major increases in cryptocurrency values such as bitcoin. While wealthier nations are more actively engaged in DeFi discourse, the lowest-income countries often discuss DeFi in terms of financial security and sudden wealth. Conversely, middle-income countries relate DeFi to social and religious themes, whereas high-income countries view it mainly as a speculative instrument or entertainment. This research advances interdisciplinary studies in computational social science and finance and supports open science by making our dataset and code available on GitHub, and providing a non-code workflow on the KNIME platform. These contributions enable a broad range of scholars to explore DeFi adoption and sentiment, aiding policymakers, regulators, and developers in promoting financial inclusion and responsible DeFi engagement globally. ...

CLVR Ordering of Transactions on AMMs ArXiv ID: 2408.02634 “View on arXiv” Authors: Unknown Abstract This paper introduces a trade ordering rule that aims to reduce intra-block price volatility in Automated Market Maker (AMM) powered decentralized exchanges. The ordering rule introduced here, Clever Look-ahead Volatility Reduction (CLVR), operates under the (common) framework in decentralized finance that allows some entities to observe trade requests before they are settled, assemble them into “blocks”, and order them as they like. On AMM exchanges, asset prices are continuously and transparently updated as a result of each trade and therefore, transaction order has high financial value. CLVR aims to order transactions for traders’ benefit. Our primary focus is intra-block price stability (minimizing volatility), which has two main benefits for traders: it reduces transaction failure rate and allows traders to receive closer prices to the reference price at which they submit their transactions accordingly. We show that CLVR constructs an ordering which approximately minimizes price volatility with a small computation cost and can be trivially verified externally. ...

Loss-Versus-Fair: Efficiency of Dutch Auctions on Blockchains ArXiv ID: 2406.00113 “View on arXiv” Authors: Unknown Abstract Milionis et al.(2023) studied the rate at which automated market makers leak value to arbitrageurs when block times are discrete and follow a Poisson process, and where the risky asset price follows a geometric Brownian motion. We extend their model to analyze another popular mechanism in decentralized finance for onchain trading: Dutch auctions. We compute the expected losses that a seller incurs to arbitrageurs and expected time-to-fill for Dutch auctions as a function of starting price, volatility, decay rate, and average interblock time. We also extend the analysis to gradual Dutch auctions, a variation on Dutch auctions for selling tokens over time at a continuous rate. We use these models to explore the tradeoff between speed of execution and quality of execution, which could help inform practitioners in setting parameters for starting price and decay rate on Dutch auctions, or help platform designers determine performance parameters like block times. ...

Exploring the Impact: How Decentralized Exchange Designs Shape Traders’ Behavior on Perpetual Future Contracts ArXiv ID: 2402.03953 “View on arXiv” Authors: Unknown Abstract In this paper, we analyze traders’ behavior within both centralized exchanges (CEXs) and decentralized exchanges (DEXs), focusing on the volatility of Bitcoin prices and the trading activity of investors engaged in perpetual future contracts. We categorize the architecture of perpetual future exchanges into three distinct models, each exhibiting unique patterns of trader behavior in relation to trading volume, open interest, liquidation, and leverage. Our detailed examination of DEXs, especially those utilizing the Virtual Automated Market Making (VAMM) Model, uncovers a differential impact of open interest on long versus short positions. In exchanges which operate under the Oracle Pricing Model, we find that traders primarily act as price takers, with their trading actions reflecting direct responses to price movements of the underlying assets. Furthermore, our research highlights a significant propensity among less informed traders to overreact to positive news, as demonstrated by an increase in long positions. This study contributes to the understanding of market dynamics in digital asset exchanges, offering insights into the behavioral finance for future innovation of decentralized finance. ...

Deep Learning for Dynamic NFT Valuation ArXiv ID: 2312.05346 “View on arXiv” Authors: Unknown Abstract I study the price dynamics of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and propose a deep learning framework for dynamic valuation of NFTs. I use data from the Ethereum blockchain and OpenSea to train a deep learning model on historical trades, market trends, and traits/rarity features of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs. After hyperparameter tuning, the model is able to predict the price of NFTs with high accuracy. I propose an application framework for this model using zero-knowledge machine learning (zkML) and discuss its potential use cases in the context of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. ...

Decentralized Finance: Protocols, Risks, and Governance ArXiv ID: 2312.01018 “View on arXiv” Authors: Unknown Abstract Financial markets are undergoing an unprecedented transformation. Technological advances have brought major improvements to the operations of financial services. While these advances promote improved accessibility and convenience, traditional finance shortcomings like lack of transparency and moral hazard frictions continue to plague centralized platforms, imposing societal costs. In this paper, we argue how these shortcomings and frictions are being mitigated by the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. We delve into the workings of smart contracts, the backbone of DeFi transactions, with an emphasis on those underpinning token exchange and lending services. We highlight the pros and cons of the novel form of decentralized governance introduced via the ownership of governance tokens. Despite its potential, the current DeFi infrastructure introduces operational risks to users, which we segment into five primary categories: consensus mechanisms, protocol, oracle, frontrunning, and systemic risks. We conclude by emphasizing the need for future research to focus on the scalability of existing blockchains, the improved design and interoperability of DeFi protocols, and the rigorous auditing of smart contracts. ...