Not long ago Pirex went live, offering a new range of benefits for CVX / vlCVX holders. In this blog post we’ll outline what those benefits are and why users should consider using Pirex going forward.

Current State

Like any good Convex bull would know, CVX holders can get the most out of their position by “vote locking” their CVX in return for vlCVX. vlCVX is an illiquid representation of CVX that is locked for up to 17 weeks. During that period, users can delegate their vlCVX to Votium to receive bribes from various protocols participating in the Curve Wars.

As of this writing, the APR from locking CVX and collecting bribes is 54% (source). First, this yield is paid in various governance tokens, which (due to gas costs) prices out small holders from taking full advantage of the yield. Second, vlCVX is illiquid, as highlighted before, which means users are stuck with their CVX position for the 16-17 weeks and don’t have the opportunity to leverage that locked CVX for other opportunities. Third, there’s no opportunity for users to monetise future rewards or give protocols the ability to pre-purchase future votes.

Pirex solves all three of these problems.

pxCVX Yield Opportunities

Through so-called “Easy Mode,” smaller depositors can maximize their CVX yield with zero manual intervention. This works by automatically compounding users’ pxCVX into more pxCVX through a pounder vault built in collaboration with Llama Airforce. Those wishing to convert their CVX for uCVX directly can do so and the protocol will automatically lock the CVX for pxCVX and deposit it into the vault for uCVX. This is hands down the easiest way to earn compounding yield on your CVX.

But it doesn’t stop with Easy Mode. We will soon be launching what we call “Standard Mode.” CVX can be deposited in Pirex for pxCVX. The Pirex protocol takes this CVX and continually re-locks it for vlCVX (unless an unlock is initiated). Each pxCVX is backed by 1 vlCVX.  Every two weeks (one pxCVX epoch), those holding pxCVX can claim bribe revenue that Pirex claims, e.g., from Votium or other sources. pxCVX holders do not have to claim bribe revenue every epoch — they can let the revenue accumulate before claiming.

Last, but not least, we will launch what we call “Expert Mode.” Expert Mode allows users to tokenize (and trade) their future pxCVX yield/vote events. To use Expert Mode, users can stake their pxCVX, choose how many rounds of gauge votes they wish to tokenize, and receive in exchange spxCVX and Futures Notes for each of the future gauge votes.

A user can choose to tokenize their future gauge votes as either a Reward Futures Note (RFN), which can be used to claim bribe revenue in the future, or a Vote Futures Note (VFN) which can be used to vote on a gauge vote in the future. RFNs and VFNs can be exchanged 1:1 for one another and can be traded on the Pirex marketplace. This futures platform gives users the ability to monetise future rewards and gives protocols the ability to pre-purchase future votes.

pxCVX Liquidity

We wouldn’t launch a liquid vlCVX wrapper without liquidity. To bootstrap the pool we provided 25,000 pxCVX and 25,000 CVX:

Anyone who wishes to take advantage of pxCVX / CVX trade volume can also become an LP. We’re also in the process of pursuing a CRV gauge for this pool, making it more attractive for LPs.

Note: pxCVX trading below peg represents a unique arbitrage opportunity as all pxCVX is 100% backed by CVX + any yield earned during the 16 week epoch. For users wishing to earn extra yield, acquiring pxCVX if it’s trading at a discount would do just that.

Get Started

To learn more, please refer to the Pirex documentation which outlines in more detail how Pirex works. To see Pirex’s fee breakdown, go here.

What are you waiting for, anon? Start using Pirex today.