Aura Finance - Community Newsletter (October 28th, 2022)
Hello and welcome to the 9th community Newsletter for Aura Finance. In this newsletter we will go through some interesting developments, new vaults and plenty of community generated content. The quality of the threads mentioned in this newsletter are probably at an all time high and this indicates increased exposure and increased attention on Aura Finance and what is being achieved!
The big news for Aura Finance is undoubtedly our ascension to the top 20 DeFi protocols for Total Value Locked. If you include only Ethereum protocols then we are sitting at #15! This is an extremely impressive feat for a protocol that launched in the worst month of the bear market and Aura Finance can now proudly claim over 1/2 Billion Dollars currently locked up and more deposits coming in every day. This is extremely positive for the entire ecosystem as greater exposure means more eyeballs on what we are delivering as a community and more interest in the Aura token and AuraBAL more broadly.
There is also plenty going on in both the DeFi world and in the Balancer wars. To stay up to date with the latest developments make sure to follow some of the great content creators in this newsletter and stay engaged!
Community News
The community continues to create great content across a number of different mediums! If you would like to see your work included in one of our community newsletters then ensure you tag Aura Finance!
Callen@cvant_ has done an excellent thread on veBAL, Aura Finance and the recent votes to include Balancer LP positions as collateral on Aave. The thread also includes an excellent description of what Aura finance and Balancer vetokenomics are all about. A really detailed and well written thread, highly recommended! https://twitter.com/cvant_/status/1585472923363471361
Marek Z. Akapu @JamminBlender is a big GraviAURA fan and loves the Aura ecosystem. This tweet builds on some of the recent Badger DAO tweets for upcoming unlocks. https://twitter.com/JamminBlender/status/1585398350433902592
Patrick | Dynamo DeFi @Dynamo_Patrick has provided a quick update to his community of followers about the recent rise of BAL and Aura Finance for both TVL and volume. https://twitter.com/Dynamo_Patrick/status/1585305274327257090
DefiLlama.com @DefiLlama has featured Aura Finance too! The recent thread covers off on Auraâs huge milestone in reaching the top 20 of DeFi protocols for TVL! https://twitter.com/DefiLlama/status/1585006100230901760
Elbagococina @elbagococina has also tweeted as well as putting in an application for becoming a member of the delegate council. The tweet covers off on the recent TVL with a likely wstETH and rETH explanation. https://twitter.com/elbagococina/status/1585485189165289472
Strife @0xStrife has been deep diving into Tapioca DAO and Aura Finance after reading some threads from Small Cap scientist. Keep up the research and tell the community what you learn and what you love about Aura Finance. https://twitter.com/0xStrife/status/1585479841104777216
Steve @SuperKiwiana has been farming and watching Aura Finance. Strong views that Aura may indeed be a better play than CVX! NFA of course! https://twitter.com/SuperKiwiana/status/1585350478187008001
Ipor intern @ipor_intern has apparently promised a future deep dive thread on Balancer and Aura Finance. We are looking forward to it! https://twitter.com/ipor_intern/status/1585349024554823681
Degen Camp @DegenCamp has also been retweeting us about the recent Stargate entrance to the Aura Wars. Hopefully we will see some more analysis of Aura in some future newsletters and updates! https://twitter.com/DegenCamp/status/1584878041318449153
0xNigiri.eth@Nigiri0x has put Aura Finance in the list for some of the best yields and farming. https://twitter.com/Nigiri0x/status/1584707516482494464
ZrowGz.lens 
@zrowgz has minted their first Rare NFT! Well done. These NFT are rewards for those who re-lock their Aura and this fine tweeter has managed to score themselves a very cool Rare! https://twitter.com/zrowgz/status/1584573238738571266
c(Chr0m) @Chromff9 has done a number of great tweets on Aura and Balancer. Chrom is a contributor with Aura Finance but threads like this need to be shared to keep people up to date and promote awareness! https://twitter.com/Chromff9/status/1584496550700494850
MatTheFi(
,
) @matthefi loves the low risk yields available for the COMP/wstETH pool on Aura Finance. https://twitter.com/matthefi/status/1584403599207329792
Nach211 - CFO of Goblin Town @phitsoaster keeps teasing the community with leaks about Jones DAO and Arbitrum. Multi chain huhâŚ.? https://twitter.com/phitsoaster/status/1584373479448907777
Subcaptain (,) @I_am_Subcaptain is sending positive vibes and a handshake wish to hit a cool Billion in TVL. Thanks! https://twitter.com/I_am_Subcaptain/status/1584193655459323904
WhaleStats (tracking crypto whales) @WhaleStats has informed the worlds that Aura in fact sits at number 9 for the most used smart contracts for the top 500 whales. https://twitter.com/WhaleStats/status/1583730173207203840
MatthÎw Graham 
@Matthew_Graham_ is a big believer in the opportunity available in the Balancer and Aura ecosystem. The Curve wars are apparently cooling down and this tweet is all about the next opportunity! https://twitter.com/Matthew_Graham_/status/1583058283824263168
YouTube
YouTube is the home of longer form content for Aura Finance, especially for news and updates.
Cryptology news has done a quick video on vetokenomics and covers off on Aura Finance and Balancer. What Are Ve Vote Escrowed Tokens and Why Should You Care - YouTube
Trantor has completed a community focused update on Aura Finance for the month of October as well as videos based on the Aura Helper series. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgUmvBsRISqeDyiC-P0K-2w
Aura News and Defi Stories.
Aura Ecosystem Grants
The Aura Ecosystem Fund Grants committee continues to review new applications for grants. If you are interested in helping the Aura ecosystem grow and you have an idea, head over to the forum and make a proposal for funding!
The Aura Helper Series.
After completing a successful grant application, te Aura Helper series of videos has been launched. These videos cover off on the basics of using Aura Finance with âhow toâ videos that explain things like delegation, how to deposit into a LP, how to withdraw etc. There are more videos coming with explanations of how to use vote locking and how to get AuraBAL. To check out the videos simply search for Aura Finance on You Tube!
Aura hits ½ Billion TVL. Enters DeFi Llama top 20
Aura finance has recently achieved an enormous milestone having entered the DeFi top 20 for Total Value Locked. This places Aura ahead of other famous protocols like Yearn Finance, Stargate and many others. Check out the full list here https://defillama.com/. What this increased TVL means is greater fee capture for Aura Finance and in turn greater veBAL accumulation for Aura Finance.
Aura Delegate Council Voting begins
Aura Finance has recently commenced voting on the inclusion of 4 new members for the delegate council. The delegate council is responsible for reviewing and voting on Balancer proposals, as well as Aura Finance proposals, using the accumulated voting power that Aura Finance manages. The council currently consist of contributors but will ideally be widened and made better with the inclusion of DeFi natives from across the community. To track the latest head over to snapshot and take a look!
Jones DAO
Jones DAO has recently released an interesting âhats offâ episode where they hint at their plans to work with Hidden Hand to build on top of Aura Finance. This might be the start of their veJONES journey and it is great to hear they are doing it by building on top of Aura Finance. Recent updates indicate they will be announcing their Aura Finance related plans on 7 November! There is some great Alpha in the episode including what you will be able to do with your Jones tokens by the end of November, check it out on Spotify.
Balancer TVL grows
As a social yield aggregator with strong links to Balancer DAO, it is of course important to always look at what is happening in the broader Balancer ecosystem. Notably, Balancer TVL continues to grow with a 1 month growth of over 17% at the time of writing. This is a notable achievement and sees Balancer currently at number 11 in terms of defi Llama TVL rankings. New gauge requests continue to pour in as projects from Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon and Arbitrum seek gauge to support their liquidity. Recent gauge requests include Stargate finance, multiple chain gauges for Lido and Rocket pool and hints of even Tron seeking a gauge for their USDD. As Balancer grows, so too does Aura Finace
The Un-Lockening Updated
As we discussed in the last newsletter, the big unlocks for the initial airdrops and bootstrapping phases have now mostly come and gone. Notably the price action remained relatively calm throughout with FUD playing out in much the same way it did for the CVX un-lockening. What has been particularly interesting to see has been the excitement that the Aura Meditator NFT for re-lockers has generated. Each NFT is essentially bound to the individual with unknown future utility, but the simple fact is they are cool and we want one. Plus we all wanted to re-lock anyway because the returns on Aura tokens are better than anything on offer anywhere else! Especially in the growing Balancer ecosystem.
Sturdy Finance and wstETH
Sturdy Finance have developed a product that allows for leverage investing with your wstETH LPs on Aura. This would increase the APY from 7% to 30% approximately but of course there is significantly more risk. NFA but nice to see things being built on top of Aura Finance.
New Gauge Pools
There have been a series of new vaults added to the Aura gauges after recent Balancer governance. Each of these vaults provide greater benefit to the ecosystem and to the overall options for staking rocket pool ETH and Lido ETH. These new vaults include:
The rETH/ bb-a-USD pool
The Badger / rETH pool
The wstETH/COMP
The wstETH/ bb-a-USD pool
Eco-system Governance
To get the latest on Aura governance updates head over to the Aura Discord and track the channel âGovernance updatesâ. Be on the lookout for the âOfficial Newsletterâ coming soon!
Disclaimer
This newsletter is not official Aura correspondence and is written by community members.