Astar Network and Acala Announce Partnership in a Major Boost to DeFi on Polkadot

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Polkadot’s innovation hub Astar Network is thrilled to announce a partnership with the leading DeFi network Acala to supercharge DeFi on Polkadot. The two leading parachains have come together to launch the “Astar x Acala DeFi Rising ” program to unlock new opportunities and rewards for developers.

Astar and Acala DeFi Rising

Acala’s suite of flexible financial products that serve the Polkadot network are pivotal to the booming ecosystem of dApps on Astar. The collaboration will enable developers to build on Astar’s vibrant DeFi ecosystem using Acala-native assets like aUSD, LDOT, and ACA, while receiving extra ACA and additional rewards from various Astar ecosystem teams.

Bette Chen, co-founder of Acala, said:

“With Acala, we have built a DeFi app-chain to provide products like aUSD to other networks in the Polkadot ecosystem and broader Web3 space. Our deep integration with the Astar team is very exciting for us as we look to help accelerate the growth of Astar’s strong DApp ecosystem with aUSD liquidity and cross-chain use cases.”

Acala is a DeFi network powering financial applications on Polkadot and home to aUSD, the de facto stablecoin of the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems. Acala’s suite of DeFi products include the recently launched liquid staking, which allows users to stake DOT tokens on the relay chain to ensure security while staying liquid with LDOT – a token backed by staked DOT.

The DeFi Rising program is the first step towards a thriving DeFi ecosystem leveraging the power of Astar’s Cross-Consensus Messaging Format (XCM) to execute trustless and decentralized cross-chain transfers.

Sota Watanabe, founder and CEO of Astar Network, said:

“This collaboration is the first official campaign conducted by major Polkadot parachains in the ecosystem. As it has been the case in the past, Acala and Astar will lead the Polkadot ecosystem and create multichain use cases together. This partnership is our first step to prove the value of trustless Polkadot bridges (XCM) and create the future of multichain dApps.”

Establishing Astar as the future of smart contracts for multichain requires having deep liquidity of institutional-grade assets, like aUSD and LDOT, for builders to work with. Astar developers can build new dApps on top of Acala’s reliable assets. In return, the Astar ecosystem will build the early use-cases needed for aUSD mass adoption across the multichain future.

Projects adding utility to aUSD on Astar Network can apply for Acala’s $250 million aUSD Ecosystem Fund and SpaceLabs program. The $250 million aUSD Ecosystem Fund supports early-stage startups building applications with strong stablecoin use cases on any Polkadot or Kusama parachain. It is seeking Solidity or Substrate-based applications driving yield or utility for aUSD, including money markets, DEXs, derivatives, asset management, DAOs, payments, and other use cases.

Acala is a decentralized finance network powering the aUSD ecosystem. The core product, Acala USD, is a decentralized, multi-collateral, crypto-backed stablecoin serving as the native stablecoin of the Polkadot ecosystem. Acala’s Ethereum-compatible blockchain has built-in DeFi protocols for application developers to leverage, including a trustless staking derivative (liquid DOT — LDOT), a decentralized exchange, and the EVM+, a hybrid EVM offering fully Ethereum-compatible development environment plus full compatibility with Substrate.

Acala is a decentralized finance network powering the aUSD ecosystem. It’s a Layer-1 smart contract platform that’s scalable and Ethereum-compatible.

Astar Network is The Future of Smart Contracts for Multichain. Astar Network supports the building of dApps with EVM and WASM smart contracts and offers developers true interoperability, with cross-consensus messaging (XCM). We are made by developers and for developers. Astar’s unique build-to-earn model empowers developers to get paid through a dApp staking mechanism for the code they write and dApps they build.

Astar’s vibrant ecosystem has become Polkadot’s leading Parachain globally, supported by all major exchanges and tier 1 VCs. Astar offers the flexibility of all Ethereum and WASM toolings for developers to start building their dApps. To accelerate growth on Polkadot and Kusama Networks, Astar SpaceLabs offers an Incubation Hub for top TVL dApps.

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