Folks Finance’s crosschain expansion to leading networks is now live, marking the arrival of a new-standard platform for onchain lending and borrowing.
xChain Lending (xLending) is the solution to liquidity fragmentation issues which have crippled the crypto industry — specifically the DeFi industry — since before 2022. As the difficulty of creating new blockchains has lowered, the DeFi community has been forced to choose which networks to spread their capital between. Ultimately, this has led to a reduction in liquidity for every user and app, disorganized portfolios, and frustrating experiences. xLending fixes these problems.
No Wrapping, Bridging, or Fragmentation.
Using Folks xLending, you’ll be able to unify your portfolio under one account, combining the value split between all your crypto addresses. Come in from your favorite blockchain, using a wallet you’re comfortable with, and deposit assets which will begin collecting yield immediately. After depositing, you can borrow assets on any connected chain. For example, you can deposit ETH on Base, then borrow AVAX on Avalanche. Folks’ loan systems are highly flexible, allowing you to combine assets as collateral and borrow multiple different assets in the same loan.
Just like a centralized exchange, each asset stays in its native state and on its native chain — Folks does not wrap anything, keeping your portfolio simpler and cleaner. But unlike a centralized exchange, Folks is built on smart contracts from the ground-up, offering the best of both worlds.
By utilizing industry-leading infrastructure, Folks has crafted an elegant system which allows multiple networks to be accessed at the same time, from the same app. Chainlink CCIP and Wormhole are the rails for crosschain messages, which connect each address in your account and sync up their value; Circle’s CCTP gives life to a unified, multichain USDC pool, allowing for USDC to be borrowed in amounts higher than have ever been possible.
Every asset deposited on Folks, with the exception of USDC through CCTP, does not leave its native network. That means there is no bridging of native assets in the design of xChain. AVAX stays on Avalanche, ETH stays on Ethereum, and so forth.
Folks has selected six elite networks for initial deployment: Avalanche, Base, and Ethereum for day-1 (September 24th, 2024), and BNB Chain, Arbitrum, and Optimism following shortly after. The plan is to integrate more top blockchains, including non-EVM, for unmatched access by the end of 2024.
Humble Beginnings, Big Ambition: History of Folks
For many of you, this may be the first time you’re learning about Folks, but the protocol has been live since April 2022, and is currently the largest app on Algorand, offering lending and borrowing, liquid staking, loan looping, and many other tools. On Algorand, Folks has built a full DeFi suite. xChain is the first step in expanding that suite to the wider crypto ecosystem, with intention to integrate more DeFi essentials to complete the xChain product line, as was done on Algorand.
Mainnet Incentives
Beginning on September 24th, Folks’ Galxe page will be live with Subway Riders: All Aboard quests, which will grant you NFTs for taking action during the mainnet launch! These quests will be a mix of social tasks — like, comment, retweet, etc. — and onchain tasks — deposit, borrow, etc. Collect NFTs from Galxe to convert into bonuses during Folks’ upcoming campaigns!
Subway Riders: All Aboard by Folks Finance | Galxe Quest
Join Subway Riders: All Aboard by Folks Finance on Galxe. Earn rewards to enhance your web3 presence and reputation.
Security and Audits
Before launching xChain Lending, Folks completed an audit with Ottersec, as well as two public bug bounties on Immunefi through the Boost program. Folks also has an ongoing bug bounty on Immunefi worth up to $100,000.
