Liquidity As A Service

Fluo Finance
5 min readJul 24, 2023

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Liquidity: The Ultimate Game Changer

When it comes to exchanges, centralized or decentralized, liquidity is the name of the game. Exchanges are willing to pay a premium for liquidity, even if it’s not the most capital-efficient option. Why? Because high liquidity means better prices, lower slippage, and faster order execution — the dream combo for any trader.

Enter Liquidity as a Service (LaaS). It’s become a crucial solution for both centralized and decentralized exchanges, ensuring smooth operations, reduced slippage, and price stability. In this blog post, we’ll dig deep into why liquidity is so essential in the crypto market, especially in perpetual contracts. Plus, we’ll explore how Fluo Finance is stepping in to offer Liquidity as a Service, benefiting the entire DeFi ecosystem.

The Challenge of Perp Liquidity

All exchanges, be it centralized or decentralized, aim to attract traders by ensuring sufficient liquidity. Higher liquidity means better pricing, less slippage, and quicker order execution — qualities that draw users in.

While there’s no shortage of liquidity on spot markets due to the boom of DeFi liquidity pools, perpetual contract liquidity hasn’t grown at the same pace. Perpetual contracts, also known as perpetual swaps, are derivatives that mimic the behavior of underlying assets without expiry dates. They play a crucial role in price discovery by providing continuous trading and a true reflection of an asset’s market value.

The Shift to Derivative Markets: Spot vs. Futures

In the ever-evolving world of cryptocurrency trading, there’s a significant shift happening — a move from spot markets to derivative markets. Derivatives, such as futures contracts, are gaining popularity among traders, and it’s reshaping the trading landscape.

If we take a look at the figure below (Source: CryptoRank), it becomes evident that futures volume has not only caught up with spot volume but has actually outperformed it. This trend signifies a fundamental change in how traders approach the crypto market.

So, what’s driving this shift? Why are traders increasingly turning towards derivatives like perpetual contracts? The answer lies in the rising interest and potential offered by derivatives, particularly perpetual contracts.

The Rise of Perpetual Contracts: Fueling the Need for Improved Perp Liquidity

Perpetual contracts are taking the crypto market by storm. These derivative products offer continuous trading without any expiration date, making them highly attractive to traders looking for more flexibility and freedom in their positions.

As the open interest rates on derivatives soar, more and more crypto traders are embracing perpetual contracts for their trading activities. The continuous trading feature, absence of an expiry date, and the potential for profit have contributed to the popularity of perpetuals.

As the adoption of perpetual contracts increases, so does the need for improved liquidity. Higher liquidity is vital to ensure that traders can execute their orders quickly, with minimal slippage, and at fair market prices. Without sufficient liquidity, traders may face challenges in entering and exiting positions smoothly, which can impact their overall trading experience.

Recognizing the significance of perp liquidity, projects like Fluo Finance are stepping up to provide Liquidity as a Service. By offering robust liquidity solutions for perpetual contracts, they aim to address the growing demand and ensure that traders have a seamless and efficient trading experience.

The Rise of Perpetuals in Price Discovery

Perpetual contracts are a big deal in the cryptocurrency market for several reasons. Firstly, they have no fixed maturity date, allowing continuous trading without the need to roll over positions at expiry. This continuous stream of trading data leads to better price discovery.

Secondly, perpetual contracts are designed to closely track the spot price of the underlying asset. To achieve this, most perpetual contracts have a funding mechanism that encourages the contract’s price to converge with the spot price over time. This convergence helps maintain an accurate reflection of the asset’s true market value.

Moreover, perpetual contracts are highly liquid instruments, attracting many traders due to their continuous trading and absence of an expiry date. This high liquidity not only benefits traders with quick and efficient order execution but also contributes to better price discovery. As a result, the perpetual contract’s price becomes a valuable reference point for the underlying asset’s price, enhancing overall market efficiency.

Perpetual contracts also create arbitrage opportunities between different trading platforms and between the perpetual contract market and the spot market. This helps reduce price discrepancies and further contributes to efficient price discovery.

Lastly, traders and investors use perpetual contracts for speculation and hedging purposes, providing valuable information about market sentiment and future price movements.

The Power of Liquidity in DeFi

Liquidity is the lifeblood of a healthy and efficient market, and that holds true for DeFi and crypto. It ensures that assets can be bought and sold without causing significant price fluctuations, reducing slippage, and boosting overall market efficiency.

High liquidity can also lead to lower price volatility, making it more attractive to institutional investors and mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies.

In the DeFi world, liquidity pools are the backbone of various protocols, enabling lending, borrowing, and trading of assets. Liquidity as a Service ensures these protocols have access to sufficient funds for smooth transactions and financial services.

Liquidity also plays a crucial role in yield farming and incentivization. By offering rewards to liquidity providers, DeFi projects encourage them to deposit assets into liquidity pools, creating a more vibrant ecosystem.

Moreover, liquidity is essential for new tokens looking to gain traction and adoption. With adequate liquidity, tokens are less prone to price manipulation and can easily be traded and integrated into different platforms.

Fluo Finance: A Promise of Liquidity

Fluo Finance’s vision to provide Liquidity as a Service holds the potential to revolutionize the DeFi landscape. By addressing the liquidity challenges faced by various protocols and platforms, Fluo Finance aims to create a more efficient and vibrant ecosystem.

Fluo Finance is an omnichain liquidity management protocol designed to build market-making strategy vaults. Fluo is the first liquidity management protocol that can deploy automated market makers across perpetual markets while rewarding liquidity providers.

Fluo || Make Markets, Make Money

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