Since the launch of the Merlin Chain's independent network Merlin Chain, the TVL has reached an astonishing level within 30 days, being referred to as the "mysterious power from the East" and rightfully becoming a hot commodity. With the launch of M-Token on March 19th, liquidity exceeding $3.2 billion is set to be released, and various ecological projects within the Merlin system have subsequently announced important actions.
With over 200 Dapps spanning various tracks, the choices can be overwhelming. Which one to choose? How to charge? This article will list five projects worth focusing on from the perspectives of fundamentals, economic benefits, and integration with the Merlin ecosystem, aiming to be detailed and easy to understand. Here are the highlights:
Focused on the Merlin ecosystem, DaaS supported by iZUMi, MerlinSwap
Web3 original god game Dragonverse Neo produced by MOBOX, the head of the Binance Smart Chain game
BTC native engraving tool invested by Merlin official UniCross
Derivative trading protocol selected for the Binance MVB accelerator plan Surf Protocol
Stablecoin with excessive collateralization known as "MakerDAO + Compound" of Bitcoin bitSmiley
DeFi: Merlin Swap
Highlights Summary
The team has been deeply involved in the DeFi field for many years and has launched multiple products and innovations in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Deep cooperation with Merlin Chain, occupying a strong position in the DEX ecosystem.
Previously launched Meme coins $VOYA and $HUHU through MerlinSwap have shown good market performance.
Team Background
The DeFi team iZUMi Finance, which supports MerlinSwap, has previously launched multiple products and innovations such as Liquidbox and Iziswap Pro in the Ethereum ecosystem, providing leading liquidity mining models and DL-AMM models to improve on-chain transaction capital utilization and user experience.
In December 2021, iZUMi tokens were listed on exchanges such as Bybit, Kucoin, MEXC, Gate.io, and BingX.
Funding: Backed by over 20 funds and individual investors including Hashkey Capital, GSR, Gate Labs, and Bixin Ventures.
Product Business
The MerlinSwap Protocol provides DaaS (DEX as a Service) for the Merlin Chain ecosystem, featuring:
1) Cutting-edge DL-AMM model: Utilizing advanced liquidity algorithms for fast and efficient asset swaps to increase asset utilization and optimize returns.
2) Adaptive liquidity mining: Providing static and dynamic liquidity mining options, allowing users to implement dual incentives within any price range to maximize underutilized liquidity.
3) Silky user experience comparable to CEX.
Community & On-chain Performance
As a veteran DEX project, iZUMi has achieved top trading volumes on multiple ETH L2 deployments, with nearly $9 million in on-chain trading volume per day. In recent months, MerlinSwap has facilitated over $200 million in transactions on Merlin Chain and rewarded over 400,000 early users of $VOYA through airdrops.
Economic Model & Latest Developments
Whitepaper link: https://docs.merlinswap.org/
The first BRC-20 token $VOYA, which was fairly launched through MerlinSwap, has performed remarkably well in the market, with a trading volume exceeding $42 million within seven days and a wallet count of 339,000, surpassing NVDA, SORA, and JUP on Solana. Therefore, the community has high expectations for the release of the native token $MP by MerlinSwap.
On March 18th, MerlinSwap announced the whitepaper and economic model, and will issue the token $MP on Merlin Chain, with a maximum supply of 21,000,000,000 tokens, of which 6% is for public sale, 24% for trading rewards, and 20% for airdrops.
MerlinSwap will commence the airdrop on March 27th, initially distributing a total of 840 million (4%) esMP tokens to the community, with the remaining 16% of the airdrop share to be determined through community proposals and voting in the future. The remaining tokens can be exchanged for $MP at a 1:1 ratio on MerlinSwap. Additionally, MerlinSwap revealed plans to empower Merlin ecosystem assets such as $VOYA and $HUHU in the future. The initial 4% token airdrop includes:
- 3% airdrop allocated to early traders on MerlinSwap
- 0.4% airdrop allocated to liquidity providers (LP) on MerlinSwap
- 0.2% allocated to the Merlin Chain ecosystem's Launchpad MerlinStarter
- 1% airdrop allocated to the iZUMi community, including holders of $iZi and $veiZi
More details: MerlinSwap Airdrop Details
Game: Dragonverse Neo
Highlights Summary
- The first 3D open world game on BTC, known for its high-quality gameplay, breaking the stereotype of "rough applications in the BTC ecosystem".
- Backed by Binance Labs investment and Binance Launchpool project, a leading game in the blockchain gaming industry with over 6 years of experience.
- Global operations with a community primarily consisting of overseas players, expected to bring highly active and high net worth overseas gaming users to the BTC L2.
- The free and fair-launched inscription Dragon Ball has become one of the top assets in the BRC-420 market value within a month.
- Will build a game L3 on Bitcoin and issue native tokens for use in the game and L3, providing high freedom and imagination for empowering ecosystem assets.
Team Background
The team behind Dragonverse Neo is MOBOX, well-known in the gaming Dapp industry, starting game development as early as 2018. From the famous Ether Legends to one of the hottest blockchain games, ChainZArena, to the current high-quality Dragonverse Neo, MOBOX is one of the few successful and continuously developing OG game teams that have navigated through bull and bear markets and continue to embrace new narratives.
In 2021, MOBOX went public through Binance Launchpool, with over 200,000 token holders.
Funding: Binance Labs, Animoca Brands, DWF Labs
Product Business
Dragonverse Neo is MOBOX's first game in the Bitcoin ecosystem, known for its exquisite art and smooth visuals, with a grand world view and popular gameplay mechanics inspired by mythical creatures, Zelda, Genshin Impact, and Pokémon, as well as powerful UGC tools for rapid iteration and user involvement.
From the official Twitter-released gameplay demo, it's hard not to be drawn to its strong anime style at first glance. Unlike traditional games with a single mechanism, Dragonverse Neo adopts an open economic design, allowing different mini-games and economic models to coexist and resonate in the open world. This provides great potential for empowering a series of assets in the Merlin Chain and MOBOX ecosystem, offering significant space and freedom.
In addition to the game, MOBOX also revealed plans to build a game-specific L3 on BTC L2, aiming to provide one-stop support from infrastructure to game production and distribution for game projects and creators interested in deepening their presence in the Bitcoin ecosystem. The derived gameplay on the chain, such as game nodes and private servers, may bring new sources of income and wealth effects to on-chain users.
Community & On-chain Performance
MOBOX has accumulated a strong community base. The current number of $MBOX token holders has exceeded 200,000, and on-chain metrics such as trading volume consistently rank first among BNB Chain gaming projects.
On February 3rd, MOBOX fairly launched the inscription Dragon Ball (龙珠) on BRC-420, with a total supply of 100,000 tokens. Without any pre-launch promotion, the overwhelming demand caused the Bitcoin network to crash that evening. As of the time of writing, the floor price of Dragon Ball is $136.15, with a market value of $13.6 million, ranking fourth among all assets in BRC-420. As a first attempt in the Bitcoin ecosystem, the successful issuance of Dragon Ball is a good start.
It is worth mentioning that MOBOX has a rare foundation that most Bitcoin ecosystem projects find difficult to achieve in a short time—global operations. MOBOX's product line supports dozens of small languages, including Portuguese, Turkish, and Russian. Since the days of Ether Legends, European and American players have accounted for more than half of the user base, including big spenders and asset holders, which is quite remarkable. People often joke that Bitcoin and Ethereum represent the clash of Eastern and Western forces, with the Chinese community being a strong force in the Bitcoin community. It cannot be denied that the majority of Bitcoin projects currently cater to Chinese users. Perhaps games are a good medium to bridge the gap of language and culture, allowing MOBOX to bring highly active and high net worth overseas gamers to the Merlin ecosystem and showcase the power of the Bitcoin community to the Western world.
Economic Model
It is reported that Dragonverse Neo will issue native tokens on BTC, and the specific mechanism will be revealed in the upcoming whitepaper. According to official disclosures in an AMA session, it is confirmed that the game's native token will become the ecological cornerstone, with Dragon Ball serving as the golden key that connects the game and the entire MOBOX L3 ecosystem, closely related to the economic model and gameplay.
Latest Developments
Dragonverse Neo will release its whitepaper in late March, followed by the fair launch of the native token. The game is expected to officially launch on Merlin Chain in April.
Infrastructure: UniCross
Highlights Summary
- Deep collaboration with Merlin Chain and official investment from Merlin Chain.
- The team has extensive experience in BTC Ordinals and successful product experience with BTC Inscription.
- The official release of the UniCross Genesis collection performed excellently, with a market value exceeding $10 million.
Team Background
The UniCross team members have deep experience in BTC Ordinals and the EVM ecosystem, accumulating knowledge of BTC protocol assets and product development capabilities, as well as rich experience in smart contract development.
The founding team members have built the largest inscription casting platform in the BTC Ordinals ecosystem, with casting volume exceeding 25% of the total inscriptions, and Marketplace trading volume exceeding 5000 BTC.
Product Business
UniCross is a platform that supports the casting of BTC L1 assets on BTC L2, enabling the casting, trading, and launching of BTC L1 assets on Layer 2.
Casting: Supports the casting of assets from multiple BTC L1 protocols on Layer 2, including BRC-20, Runes, ARC-20, BRC-100, and BRC-420. Currently, it supports BRC-20 and Runes protocol assets.
Trading: Provides a Marketplace for order book trading, and stToken trading is currently open.
Swap: Offers the swapping of stTokens and cross-chain BTC assets' ERC-20 Tokens.
LaunchPad: Provides the launch of BTC L1 assets on L2.
UniCross has excellent product capabilities, including the following advantages:
- User-friendly: Casting across chains is completed in one step, with simple operations to complete casting in two steps and trading in three steps.
- Multi-asset payments: Supports payments with BTC, BRC-20, and more BTC protocol assets, as well as multi-chain assets.
- Multi-chain: Will support over 90% of BTC Layer 2 and more other public chains in the future.
- Instant trading: Casting on Layer 1 is completed, and instant trading is available on the Marketplace without waiting for cross-chain completion.
- Better liquidity: BTC L1 assets will have better liquidity on the infrastructure of BTC Layer 2.
Community & On-chain Performance
Previously, UniCross issued the UniCross Genesis collection through the Ordinals protocol and airdropped it to all users who participated in the internal testing. As of the time of writing, the floor price is 0.115 BTC, with a market value reaching as high as $10 million.
Latest Developments & Ecosystem Collaboration
On March 20th, UniCross officially launched on the Merlin Chain mainnet, supporting multiple asset payments including BTC, WBTC, iUSD, Voya, HUHU, RATS, MMSS, BTCs, AINN, and more.
In addition, UniCross announced that it will launch the LaunchPad within this week (before March 24th) and initiate the first phase of the launch: the first rune token on Merlin Chain, $RUFI. $RUFI introduces the concept of "inscription-token exchange," supporting a 1:1 exchange of BRC-20 tokens for Runes tokens. It is reported that 25% of $RUFI will be airdropped to Merlin Chain users, and 75% will be fairly launched.
As a native on-chain tool for BTC, UniCross has established extensive cooperation with BTC ecosystem projects, including MerlinSwap, Bitsmiley, Surf Protocol, Influpia, and other Merlin ecosystem projects, as well as RATS, MMSS, AINN, BTCs, and other BRC-20 communities, expanding more possibilities in asset payments, liquidity solutions, application scenarios, and more.
Derivative: Surf Protocol
Highlights Summary
- One of the projects in the Binance MVB Accelerator Program, with investments from well-known institutions such as ABCDE.
- The first native derivative project on Merlin Chain, designed with many mechanisms adapted to the BTC ecosystem (LP single asset liquidity provision, Satoshi-based margin mode, etc.).
- Demonstrates good innovation (reuse of LP certificates, pre-market trading of unreleased projects, etc.).
Team Background
The Surf Protocol team consists of founders and core members from top industry institutions such as Amber and Huobi, and as one of the most valuable developers in Binance's MVB Accelerator Program, it has received investments from well-known institutions such as ABCDE and Inception Capital.
Product Business
An unlicensed AMM derivative trading protocol focused on BTC L2. Its product roadmap not only includes derivative trading but also extends to pre-market trading, spot leverage trading, and more, catering to users' different needs from multiple angles.
As a native BTC L2 project, Surf Protocol has implemented many innovative mechanisms adapted to the BTC ecosystem in its product design, including:
- LP single asset liquidity provision
- Reuse of LP certificate funds
- Satoshi-based margin mode
- Meaning of the spot pool mode
- Pre-market trading market for unreleased projects
Community & On-chain Performance
As of the time of writing, there are no traceable on-chain data.
Economic Model
Surf Protocol has not yet announced a token issuance plan. There are currently two ways to play:
1) Leverage trading, supporting up to 50x leverage.
2) Financial management, becoming an LP, depositing a single coin into the liquidity pool, and earning transaction fees.
It is reported that in the initial stage, priority will be given to the listing of larger and more stable market value currencies such as $BTC, $ETH, $ORDI, $SATS, and a focus on contract leverage trading in derivatives. Later, options and more products will be included.
Latest Developments
On March 20th, Surf Protocol announced the launch of the testnet, with further developments to be awaited.
Stablecoin: bitSmiley
Highlights Summary
- The "MakerDAO + Compound" of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
- Its over-collateralization mechanism has leverage properties, thereby increasing the capital utilization of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
- The free minting of the discovered bitDisc-Black NFT card market has performed well, and early participants may receive potential airdrops.
Team Background
It has received investments from several top institutions including OKX Ventures, ABCDE, CMS, ArkStream Capital, and Foresight Ventures.
Product Business
bitSmiley is a BTC-native over-collateralized stablecoin project, currently including the following product lines:
1) BitUSD: A decentralized stablecoin protocol. Users can generate bitUSD by depositing Bitcoin into bitSmiley's smart contract. If they need to withdraw the deposited Bitcoin, they need to repay the generated bitUSD and pay a certain fee. If the price of the collateral falls below a certain threshold, it will trigger liquidation and be executed on BTC L2.
2) Lending protocol bitLending: A fully decentralized peer-to-peer lending protocol. Users can choose to lend any bitRC-20 tokens, including bitUSD, using high-value and highly liquid cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin as collateral.
Community & On-chain Performance
bitSmiely has launched the OG NFT bitDisc series as a credential for early participants, divided into two series, including a total of 100, invitation-based bitDisc-Gold, and a total of 10,000, Free Mint-launched bitDisc-Black.
As of the time of writing, the floor price of bitDisc-Black is $3,467.79, with a market value of $34.67 million, and has officially joined the Merlin Chain's staking mining activity, Merlin Seal.
Economic Model
Portal: bitSmiley White Paper
It is reported that the OG NFT bitDisc, as a credential for early participants, may be empowered for potential airdrops and points in the future.
Latest Developments
On March 13th, bitSmiley announced the launch of staking for M-bitDisc-Black on bitSmiley to earn bitJade and unlock a series of benefits. On March 19th, bitSmiley announced the start of the closed beta testing on the testnet.
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