March 2025 Update
Key Insights
- Expanding Partnerships and Integrations. In March, the Moonwell Flagship USDC Vault was activated on Optimism mainnet, showcasing Moonwell’s commitment to growth on the Superchain.
- New Core Market Proposals. Discussions, Snapshot proposals, and risk recommendations this month were created for assets including AVAIL, USDe, MORPHO, and sUSDS.
- Updates to the Security Council. Prior to an onchain security council election in the near future, the community voted to replace a member of the council in order to keep the ecosystem secure.
Primer
The monthly governance recap serves as a compendium of key governance updates for the preceding month. This update covers Moonwell governance activities for March 2025.
While March had fewer total proposals than average, quorum was consistently met and exceeded by 2-3x. Social channels are growing at a healthy rate and contributors continue to make adjustments to keep the protocol secure and its governance effective.
Key Metrics
- Three onchain proposals
- Three Snapshot proposals
- 20 forum posts
The number of active voters for onchain proposals averaged 297, with a minimum of 233 and a maximum of 335.
This month, there were three Snapshot signal votes.
| Proposal | Offchain votes |
|---|---|
| Add MORPHO market to Moonwell on Base | 58 |
| Add AVAIL market to Moonwell on Base | 62 |
| Moonwell Security Council - Member Replacement (Ana Bittencourt) | 163 |
At 310 voters, the USDS proposal in January received the highest number of votes for a Moonwell Snapshot proposal.
Success Insights:
- Onchain: The onchain proposals in March had a 100% success rate.
- Offchain: The Snapshot proposals in March had a 100% success rate.
Browse all of the proposals here.
Other Governance Metrics
| Metric | Data |
|---|---|
| Top-5 Wallets Voting Power | 57% (+1%) |
| Top-100 Wallets Voting Power | 83% (No change) |
| Top-200 Wallets Voting Power | 85% (No change) |
| Delegate Quorum Gauge* | 3 (No change) |
| Nakamoto Coefficient** | 5 (No change) |
| Early Voters | 45% (No change) |
| Mid-Proposal Voters | 23% (No change) |
| Late Voters | 17% (No change) |
| End-of-Proposal Voters | 16% (No change) |
| Top-1000 Delegates Active | 12.23% (-3.33%) |
| Top-1000 Delegates Inactive*** | 26.75% (+3.91%) |
| Top-1000 Delegates Ghost**** | 61.02% (-0.58%) |
*Delegate Quorum Gauge: The number of delegates required to reach quorum.
**Nakamoto Coefficient: The number of delegates required to reach 50% of the total voting power.
***A delegate is considered inactive if they have not voted on any of the last 3 proposals but have voted on at least 1 proposal in the past.
****A delegate is considered a ghost if they have never voted on any proposal.
Votable Supply
At the start of the month, there was a total supply of ~285.18M tokens that were eligible to vote. By the end of March, that figure climbed to ~311.35M, an increase of 9.18%. An increase in votable supply means that more tokens may be actively used in Moonwell governance - either through self-delegation or being delegated tokens by another user. This could lead to higher voter turnout in proposals and potentially more representative decision-making. If the increase comes from new delegates or previously inactive token holders, the distribution of voting power may change.
Proposal Participation
March had fewer onchain proposals than normal. However, quorum was consistently met and exceeded; voter participation ranged from 233 to 335 voters for onchain proposals this month. The average voter turnout and the maximum for the month was slightly lower than last month’s (February had an average of 341 and a maximum of 414). That said, participation remains at healthy levels which are still significantly greater than the values seen before October 2024, coinciding with MIP-X05.
Main Governance Initiatives in March
Expanding Integrations and Partnerships
MIP-O13 kicked off March’s governance activities with a vote to accept ownership of the Moonwell Flagship USDC Vault on Optimism mainnet. This comes after a forum discussion from Block Analitica outlined the success of the existing Vaults and the opportunity present on OP mainnet. The onchain proposal was successful.
New Core Market Proposals and Risk Assessment
March had a few initiatives to add Core Markets to Moonwell’s Base and Optimism deployments. A previous discussion on adding AVAIL to Base progressed to a Snapshot vote this month, which was successful. A similar discussion surrounding Ethena’s USDe was published in late January. In mid-March, Gauntlet posted recommendations (AVAIL and USDe) in the forums for both proposed Core Markets, advising against onboarding either asset as collateral due to liquidity and other constraints. On the other hand, at the end of last month, 0xMims created a forum post proposing the addition of a MORPHO Core Market to Moonwell on Base. This month, it progressed to a Snapshot vote, which was successful. Gauntlet later provided the community with parameter recommendations for onboarding MORPHO as collateral on Base. Late into the month, 0xMims created a forum proposal outlining the addition of Sky Protocol’s (formerly MakerDAO) Savings USDS stablecoin to the Core Markets on Base.
Updates to the Moonwell Asset Listing Framework (MALF)
In aiding with the process of adding new Core Markets, Gauntlet published proposed updates to the Moonwell Asset Listing Framework in mid-March. After the increase in new Core Market proposals over the past six months, Gauntlet offered clearer liquidity benchmarks to ensure listed assets can support liquidations without excessive slippage. The two updates established a swap size requirement of $500K impacting the price of 25% or less on DEXs/aggregators and a liquidity threshold of at least $2M TVL across one or more DEX pools. It then progressed to a Snapshot vote, which was successful. Majin suggested adding an additional criterion which focuses on projected protocol revenue or commercial viability. He proposed that new asset markets should demonstrate a clear potential to generate at least $1,000 per month in protocol revenue.
Security Council Updates
Moonwell’s Security Council welcomed a new member this month - Ana from Lunar Labs. Super Delegate Coolhorsegirl submitted a Snapshot proposal in mid-March which sought to update the Security Council roster by replacing Elliot Friedman (Solidity Labs) with Ana Bittencourt, a full-time Solidity Engineer currently working with Lunar Labs. Ana has been working on Moonwell since last July, and her expertise ranges from smart contract development and protocol security, to deep familiarity with Moonwell’s codebase and operations. The next Security Council elections will take place onchain next month, but the current Security Council recommended filling in a replacement to avoid any security or governance risks. After Elliot’s departure from active involvement with the Moonwell protocol and Ana’s transition from Solidity Labs to Lunar Labs, the updated Security Council now consists of the following five members:
Risk, Rewards Speeds, and Vaults
Gauntlet published a forum post to adjust market risk parameters for Moonwell’s Base, Optimism, and Moonbeam deployments. The onchain proposal was created on March 24th to adjust parameters for the next month. Throughout the month, Gauntlet also published weekly updates to give an overview of asset utilization, liquidations, protocol growth, and more. Gauntlet used their role as Cap Guardian to adjust Borrow/Supply caps for assets including rETH on Base. March’s monthly automated liquidity incentive proposal, MIP-X16, successfully passed an onchain vote on March 15th, aiming to rebalance liquidity incentives on three Moonwell deployments. Also included in that proposal were reserves to auction based on this proposal.
Additional Developments
- All Time High Monthly Revenue: February coincided with a record-setting $415.4K in revenue generation across Base, Optimism, and Moonbeam.
- Moonwell Awarded 200K Optimism Grant: In mid-March, Moonwell received a 200K OP grant from the Optimism Grants Council; 100% of the OP will be used as liquidity incentives on Moonwell’s OP Mainnet Core Markets.
- First Moonwell Vault on Optimism Mainnet: Following the execution of MIP-O13 on March 8th, the Moonwell Flagship USDC Vault went live on Optimism Mainnet on March 18th.
- Morpho Isolated Markets on Optimism Mainnet: On March 21st, two Morpho Isolated Markets were integrated into the Moonwell app on OP Mainnet - ETH/USDC and wstETH/USDC.
- Moonwell Card Supported on Optimism Mainnet: Late into the month, the Moonwell Card became supported on Optimism. The Moonwell Card lets users shop, dine, and travel at 44M+ merchants worldwide.
Delegate Digest
Super Delegates
| Delegate | Delegation Pitch | Delegation Page | Delegated Amount | Proposals Created | Completed their role’s minimum requirements this month? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0xMims | Link | Link | 14K WELL | 9 | Yes |
| Coolhorsegirl | Link | Link | 1.059M WELL | 20 | Yes |
Mid-Tier Delegates
| Delegate | Delegation Pitch | Delegation Page | Delegated Amount | Proposals Created | Completed their role’s minimum requirements this month? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kimchiblock | Link | Link | 311K WELL | 0 | Yes |
| PGov | Link | Link | 1K WELL | 1 | Yes |
Junior Delegates
| Delegate | Delegation Pitch | Delegation Page | Delegated Amount | Proposals Created | Completed their role’s minimum requirements this month? |
|---|
Delegate Voting Rate
| Delegate | Number of Proposals Voted On | This Month’s Voting Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 0xMims | 3/3 | 100% |
| Coolhorsegirl | 3/3 | 100% |
| Kimchiblock | 1/3 | 33% |
| PGov | 3/3 | 100% |
You can read more about the requirements to join each delegate tier and each tier’s contribution minimums here.
Delegate Highlights
- Coolhorsegirl submitted a Snapshot proposal in mid-March to update the Security Council roster.
- At the start of the month, 0xMims submitted a Snapshot proposal to add a MORPHO Core Market to Moonwell on Base. He also submitted a Snapshot proposal which sought to add a Core Market for Avail Network’s AVAIL token to Moonwell on Base. At the end of the month, he published a forum post surrounding a potential sUSDS Asset Listing.
- Kimchiblock, 0xMims, Coolhorsegirl, and PGov all attended March’s Governance Call.
Community Overview
| Social Channel | Data |
|---|---|
| Main X account | 52.8K Followers (+1.93%) |
| Governance X account | 1031 Followers (+3.10%) |
| Discord | 10,555 Members (+1.00%) |
| Announcements Telegram | 695 Members (+0.58%) |
| Chat Telegram | 7,826 Members (+0.15%) |
Community Trends
March displayed an inversion in the behavior of intra-month voter turnout when compared with previous months. After the voting requirement was established by MIP-X05, we typically would see the first proposal of each month receive the most number of votes, followed by a slow tapering off as the month progressed. This month, the opposite occurred; each successive proposal gathered an increasing number of votes. The final onchain proposal of the month had 43.77% more votes than the first. Interestingly, turnout for Snapshot voting displayed a preference by the community to vote for a proposal affecting the Security Council more than new Core Market proposals.
All of Moonwell’s social channels experienced positive growth this month. The governance X account continues to grow the fastest.
Closing Summary
March 2025 had consistent voter turnout among its six proposals. There were healthy debates in the forums surrounding the asset listing process and the community voted at relatively high levels to ratify the Moonwell Security Council.
Look for the next Monthly Governance Call on X on the last Thursday of each month. The next call will be on April 24th at 17:00 UTC.