beVELO
Last Update: August 2023
From June 2023, Velodrome has migrated to its V2 protocol, and $VELO V1 has been retired in favour of $VELO V2. To continuing earning from $beVELO, all users are advised to redeposit in the beVELO Migration Pool, where earnings are paid out in $VELO V2.
What is $VELO?
$VELO is the native token of Velodrome Finance, a decentralised trading and liquidity marketplace native to the Optimism blockchain. It rewards holders with a share of the platform's revenues and also acts as a governance token for its weekly pool incentives gauge. $VELO has a fixed supply and decaying emissions model.
Users can stake and lock their $VELO tokens on Velodrome for a fixed period between 1 week and 4 years, to receive a vote escrow NFT ("veNFT"), which is used to record the amount of veVELO held by the user. Accumulating veVELO provides users with three benefits: (1) a share of the trading fees from swaps using the platform's liquidity pools; (2) the ability to direct $VELO emissions distributed to platform liquidity providers; and (3) the opportunity to earn bribes from external parties by voting for their incentivised liquidity pools. $VELO staking can can be done through Velodrome's web app.
veVELO is non-transferrable and the amount held by a given user decreases steadily to zero as the lock period moves towards its completion. Users also cannot liquidate or transfer their locked $VELO positions until the end of the time lock.
In June 2023, Velodrome migrated from $VELO V1 to $VELO V2.
What is beVELO?
$beVELO is a Beefy-escrowed version of $VELO V1, staked for veVELO to take advantage of the various benefits offered to Velodrome stakers.
The token is fully backed 1:1 by $VELO V1, which can be redeemed where tokens are available in the reserve. This reserve fills up on several circumstances:
when new users deposit $VELO into $beVELO, if below the required reserve amount at the time; and
if the contract's staked $VELO V1 is left to gradually unlock.
How does one get $beVELO?
You can mint $beVELO on the $beVELO vault page at a 1:1 ratio. There is also a Velodrome liquidity pool for swapping between $beVELO and $VELO V1, though in light of the migration to $VELO V2, there is limited liquidity and a risk of high slippage when using this pool.
How does $beVELO work?
When you mint $beVELO, the contract will immediately try to stake and lock the deposited $VELO into veVELO, subject to the required reserve being maintained.
If the contract's $VELO reserves at the time of minting exceed the required reserve amount (which is currently 20% of the contract's veVELO), the contract can stake any excess $VELO into veVELO. If the $VELO reserves are under the required reserve amount, then the deposited $VELO will be added to the reserve to cover the current shortfall.
Once the contract's $VELO is staked and locked into veVELO, it receives $VELO V2 rewards paid out by Velodrome's protocol. As the $beVELO contract perpetually re-locks its $VELO V1 deposits, it always strives for the maximum amount of voting power and benefits. $VELO V2 rewards are regularly harvested and returned to holders in the beVELO Migration Pool.
How can I earn with my $beVELO?
Once you're holding $beVELO, you can stake it in our beVELO Migration Pool to earn $VELO V2. $VELO V2 rewards are paid out directly rather than autocompounded as the underlying $VELO V1 has been retired.
But what about fees?
Beefy strives to maintain some of the lowest yield-optimizing fees, and charges standard fees on its $beVELO vault.
Can I vote with my $beVELO?
No. All $VELO voting power will be used by Beefy to vote in the weekly liquidity pool incentives gauge.
Votes will typically be directed either to the liquidity pools offering the most in trading fees and bribes, or to the liquidity pools which support our $BIFI token (e.g. BIFI-OP LP). Voting on Velodrome's incentivised liquidity pools takes place on its web app.
If you are interested in proposing a bribe to Beefy, please reach out to the Core team on Discord, Telegram or Twitter to find out more.
What's this I hear about migration?
In June 2023, Velodrome retired their original $VELO V1 token as part of the upgrade to their V2 web app, and adopted the new $VELO V2, which provides a range of additional features. As a result, Beefy has retired and redeployed many of the existing Beefy Velodrome vaults. Users can swap their V1 tokens for V2 at a 1:1 ratio on the Velodrome app.
For $beVELO, the new protocol design does not include functionality for $VELO V1 liquid-staking derivatives, meaning the product cannot be upgraded. Instead, Beefy has implemented a $beVELO Migration Pool, which allows users to get the benefit of the its $VELO V1 voting power, and rewards paid out in $VELO V2. All users are urged to redeposit their $beVELO into the Migration Pool to continue earning following the migration.
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