Baseline started with a crazy idea: crypto deserves better tokenomics that protect and reward holders. In 2024, we put this to the test, showing what’s possible with Baseline mechanics. Let’s reflect on what we’ve built, learned, and what’s next.

YESv1 - stability through thick liquidity

In March, we launched $YESv1 - our proof-of-concept of Baseline mechanics - with the following features:

• BLV - a baseline value that guarantees a floor price

• Automated market-making that increases BLV over time

• Ability to borrow against BLV while maintain exposure to upside

$YESv1 was a success in multiple ways:

• Floor Price increased 2.18x (from 0.000553 to 0.00121)

• Market Cap grew 136x (from $1M to $140M)

• Market-making system generated $2.1M in fees

Here’s YESv1 case study: https://mirror.xyz/0xe7AD459A24A10C5E94B76CcD24da62A8394eBf5f/Q9pBLoPxjgg6SatMnkojs5faAyBwlhEQAKFh3jfDFjI

$YES launched with a thick liquidity profile (~1K eth to move price +6%) expecting high system leverage due to native lending feature. A thicker liquidity profile would buffer volatility and cap downside risk but do so at expense of price action.

What we didn’t anticipate was how quickly users would discover the system’s hidden potential. Looping as a strategy emerged: users began borrowing repeatedly to build leveraged positions. At its peak, system leverage reached 7x.

Despite these successes, protocol accounting was inefficiently allocating liquidity to supply that was no longer circulating. This led to fewer BLV bumps and increasing liquidity depth regardless of market conditions. As a result, we performed Operation YEV to reset and improve the system with V2.

YESv2 - Return To Volatility

During this time, forward-thinking project teams took a chance on our liquidity experiments by launching their own bToken:

@machidotxyz → $MACHI

@mindpalace → $AI

@flappyeth → $FLAPPY

[redacted] → [redacted]

From these launches, we also learned that liquidity heavily influences attention through speculative price action. And while market making was now adapting to dynamic market conditions, the liquidity was not. This capped speculative energy not only on the downside but also on the upside, precisely at a time when token need it most.

So we launched Pumpanomics - a thinner liquidity profile that made depth and liquidity responsive to market cap growth. But while Pumpanomics creates favorable conditions for speculation on the upside, it also came with tradeoff of amplifying volatility (and risk) on the downside.

We’re now taking these learnings to apply them to our next generation of liquidity upgrades. We call it…

Baseline V3.

Some sneak peeks of what to expect:

• Completely revamped market-making logic

• @yesMoney420, a mobile-first launchpad for bTokens

• An API for anyone to launch Baseline bTokens

• BIG partnerships in the works

• More big news 🤫

We’ll be announcing more details next week. Notifications on 🫱 🔔

Isaac Newton said “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”. On a personal note, 2024 wouldn’t have been possible without our amazing community so we say: If we have seen further, it is thanks to our community. Thank you.

As we wrap up the year, we see the future clearly, the foundation is in place, and the next Baseline chapter will be up only.

BLV in something,

Baseline Team