The wait is over! Zaros is stepping into the world.

The perpetuals DEX industry stands as one of the most competitive sectors inside the blockchain landscape. This comes as no surprise, given that it is also among the few to have achieved product-market fit (PMF), as we’ve deeply discussed in the article: "A Match Made in Heaven: How can Derivatives and LSTs/LRTs Boost Each Other?"

With that in mind, it’s important to find a way to stand out, and this is precisely where Zaros specializes in. We’re building something unique that YOU, as a trader or LP, can highly benefit from!

We’re introducing our alpha testnet, providing you the opportunity to earn POINTS along with numerous other rewards!

This article covers everything you need to know about Zaros' mechanics, distinctive features compared to other projects, the rewards system designed for you, and upcoming plans!

A Deep Dive on Zaros

In this section, we’ll explore each important aspect to help you understand Zaros, The Perpetuals DEX powered by Boosted (Re)Staking Vaults that supercharge your LST & LRT yield!

Let's proceed in the following order:

• ZLP Vaults & Boosted (Re)Staking

• The Perpetuals DEX

• Comparative Leaderboard

• Zaros Points and $ZRS

ZLP Vaults & Boosted (Re)Staking

Beginning with the fundamental aspect of any DeFi protocol, our liquidity model represents a significant innovation in the perpetuals industry.

We recognize that the majority of DeFi liquidity resides on Ethereum, currently amounting to over $43 billion, constituting close to 60% of the market share. Tron follows as the second most liquid chain with $8.6 billion in TVL, while Arbitrum, the foundation of our perpetuals module, has nearly $3 billion (Data sourced from DeFiLlama on 02/16/2024).

Diving deeper into Ethereum's liquidity, the combination of Lido Finance and EigenLayer alone accounts for $34 billion, representing 80% of the market share.

Based on this data, we get to two conclusions:

1. Liquidity on Ethereum is still orders of magnitude higher than the TVL on L2s.

2. Single-sided LPing of LSTs and LRTs is key for scaling TVL.

However, as you may be aware, Ethereum is not an ideal environment for building a perpetuals DEX due to its high cost and inefficiency in high-frequency trading.

The Natural Evolution of Perpetuals DEXs

Existing perpetuals DEXs innovated by deploying on L2 solutions, such as Arbitrum. Yet, after years since Arbitrum's mainnet launch, Ethereum's liquidity remains significantly superior.

In order to solve this problem while leveraging Arbitrum’s lower gas fees, Zaros created a system that facilitates the interoperability process of bringing ETH assets to Arbitrum.

Zaros’ ZLP Vaults allow LPs to stake their assets such as ETH, wstETH, and eETH (initially) to bootstrap a perpetual futures markets and earn boosted rewards in their yield bearing assets.

In practice, we offer the best of both worlds for LPs and Traders:

• Traders: Gain access to Ethereum's deep liquidity.

• LPs: Can boost their rewards up to 6-7x by participating in single-sided LPing of LSTs/LRTs/Stablecoins/Any other yield-bearing asset, thereby earning ETH from an untapped revenue stream.

Upon staking in one of the ZLP Vaults, the provided collateral will be converted to a ZLP token. ZLP Tokens are auto-staked and earn additional ETH coming from Zaros perpetuals markets trading fees, which can be claimed through Zaros' dApp. The conversion rate of the ZLP tokens is based on the consolidated profits or losses from traders.

The protocol is secured by a strong, built-in risk management system. Some of the features that provided this protection are the funding rates paid by traders and the eClusters mechanism to maintain LPs' exposure delta neutral.

It's worth mentioning that while our initial focus is on LSTs/LRTs, in the future, once the Zaros DAO is established, participants will have the opportunity to vote on the inclusion of additional yield-bearing assets for the ZLP Vaults. This could encompass stablecoins, GM Tokens, and any other asset!

The Perpetuals DEX

Our innovation is not only in the supply side through the ZLP Vaults, but also in the trading experience for Zaros’ users.

Take a look at the image below showcasing our trading terminal. It closely mirrors a centralized exchange interface, familiar to many crypto traders. However, the key difference lies in its decentralized nature, offering users a seamless trading experience without them even realizing they're on a DEX!

On top of that, we also standout from other Perp DEXs in the industry by delivering these top-notch features for users:

• Social Login + One-Click Transactions: Sign in with your email or Apple ID and authenticate only the first transaction of each session. Trade seamlessly as if you were not on-chain.

• Cross-Margin: Back all your positions with the collateral of each account.

• Multi-Assets Margin: Utilize over 15 tokens as margin collateral and create as many trading accounts as you need.

• Trade Crypto, Forex, and Commodities: Leverage trade on a wide variety of perps markets. Up to 100x.

• Copy-Trading: Track expert traders on Zaros and replicate their trades effortlessly with a single click. Traders can deploy programmable orders to stay ahead in the leaderboard.

• TradingView integration: Execute trades directly on charts provided by TradingView.

Zaros is the perfect platform for traders who want the best of blockchain decentralization while accessing professional trading features.

USDz

USDz is Zaros's native stablecoin available on Arbitrum and Ethereum. Position's profits are settled in USDz, which is over-collateralized by the ZLP Vaults, and can be swapped to any of the underlying assets backing the protocol, including the liquidated margin from traders, at a $1 USD price secured by Chainlink's price feeds.

In Zaros v1, its only purpose is to serve as a common exchange unit between LPs and traders pegged to 1 USD, reducing the potential attack surface faced by popular stablecoins in the industry.

Comparative Leaderboard

Up to this point, we've discussed our innovations and our commitment to change the game.

To prove our point, we provided a comparative leaderboard below. It outlines the features offered by leading Perp DEXs (GNS, GMX, VERTEX, KWENTA) for traders and LPs, along with what Zaros brings to the table.

Spoiler alert: We’re here to take over the industry!

POINTS System

To reward early users, we are introducing a points system that will later be converted into ZRS tokens!

The Points campaign starts today with the launch of our testnet. Within our dApp, users can access a points leaderboard to monitor their advancement and track their points.

The following categories will be rewarded with points:

• dApp interactions during testnet.

• Trading Campaigns.

• Social Media Campaigns (Tide, Galxe, Zealy).

• Community participation on Discord & Twitter.

Soon, we’ll release an article covering more information about ZRS tokenomics and points conversion. Stay tuned!

Alpha Testnet and Next Steps

It's time to start trading on Zaros!

The Alpha testnet is officially up and running. Priority access is granted to users who have registered for the testnet and meet the following criteria, enabling them to mint an ALPHA KEY and explore the platform ahead of others:

• Interacted with leading Perp DEXs within the last 6 months. (AEVO, RabbitX, Gains Network, GMX, HMX, Vertex, MUX, HyperLiquid, ApolloX, Kwenta, or Polynomial).

• Held major LSTs/LRTs in the last 6 months.

• Possess an OG role on Discord

New spots will be released daily until public access. Be sure to check your eligibility.

A snapshot was taken on Jan 28.

In the first half of March, we’ll be launching a trading competition, the Zaros Trading League Pre-Season, where you’ll be able to boost your POINTS rewards!

From March 3 until the start of the competition, eligible users can mint referral alpha keys to invite more participants. The testnet will accept a maximum of 5,000 users.

The Trading League will serve as a multiplier for the points system. The higher your rank, the greater the multiplier. It's an excellent chance to boost your ZRS holdings once it's launched!

How to participate in the Alpha Testnet?

There are two ways to join the alpha testnet:

• For users registered on Spearmint and eligible for the testnet:

1. Connect your wallet on testnet.app.zaros.fi

2. Navigate to the "Alpha Keys" section.

3. Click "Generate New Key".

4. Accept the transaction in your wallet.

5. A list of Alpha Keys will appear.

6. Copy one of the Alpha Keys and validate it in "Validate Alpha Keys" to access all screens and navigate the dApp.

• For users not registered on Spearmint:

1. Connect your wallet on testnet.app.zaros.fi

2. All screens remain blocked until the user validates an Alpha Key received from another user.

3. Validate the Alpha Key.

4. After validating the Alpha Key, you'll be redirected to the trading screen and can navigate the dApp.

About Zaros

Zaros is the first LRTFi perpetuals DEX powered by a CEX-like UX coming to Arbitrum. It enables boosting ETH staking & restaking yield by delegating liquidity to the protocol's ZLP Vaults, while traders on the other side may leverage up to 100x across crypto, FX, and commodities perpetuals.

Notable early angel investors include Fernando Martinelli, founder of Balancer; Kieran Warwick, founder of Illuvium; Danny Wilson, CFO of Illuvium; Antony Sassano, founder of TheDailyGwei; Andy Chen, CTO at Scalene and former Lead Architect at Synthetix, and Kevin Lu, CEO at Scalene and former Growth Lead at Band Protocol.