September 2024 Update
The monthly governance recap serves as a compendium of key governance updates for the preceding month. This update covers Moonwell governance activities for September 2024.
This update includes:
- Proposals, Updates, & Milestones
- Voting Insights & Observations
- Community Strengths
- Opportunities
- Conclusion & Links
Proposals and Updates
Moonwell’s primary governance initiatives for this period included:
- New Moonwell Markets and Vaults: Early in the month, delegate @coolhorsegirl created a forum post (Add cbBTC Market to Moonwell on Base) and subsequent Snapshot proposal to potentially add a market for Coinbase’s alternative to WBTC. The Snapshot was successful, and the proposal progressed to an onchain vote after Gauntlet also updated their recommendations for the proposed market; the onchain proposal passed on September 9th. cbBTC on Moonwell later became trackable on a risk analytics IntoTheBlock dashboard. Block Analitica created a forum post announcing the submission of cbBTC as collateral on five different vaults across Ethereum Mainnet and Base. Also in September, @0xMims’ proposal to add a Circle EURC stablecoin market to Moonwell’s Base deployment moved to an onchain vote. @BlockAnalitica and B.Protocol created a proposal to take ownership of a Morpho Flagship EURC Vault on Base. Both EURC proposals successfully passed their onchain voting period. The Core Market and Flagship Vault went live on Base on September 16th. Shortly after, MIP-B31 was submitted to add support for EURC rewards on Moonwell’s Base deployment, enabling Core Market suppliers & borrowers to receive EURC rewards. Rewards went live on September 23rd. Next, a representative from Mountain Protocol took to the forums to propose adding a market to Moonwell on Optimism for wrapped USDM (wUSDM). Finally, Kelp DAO submitted a successful Snapshot to add markets for wrsETH (an LRT) to Moonwell on Base and Optimism.
- Delegate Structure Changes & the Moonwell Delegate Rush: In the first half of the month, Moonwell made two major announcements regarding protocol governance. First, Moonwell implemented a new, tiered Delegate system to onboard and compensate the DAO’s hard-working participants. The Delegate Roles onboarding pathway outlines a way for prospective delegates to progress through established tiers and become official Moonwell Delegates. Participants progress through each role provided they meet the minimum qualifications. The second component was the announcement of a 2-month Delegate Rush program where prospective delegates can apply and join Moonwell’s delegate roster on a fast track. Kimchiblock was the first to create a delegate pitch on the forums during the program. Throughout the month, community members began creating their applications.
- Risk Management and Parameter Adjustments: Gauntlet published four MIPs at the start of the month to adjust asset risk parameters for Moonwell’s Base, Optimism, Moonbeam, and Moonriver deployments. The second set of monthly recommendations was posted on September 25th to adjust October’s parameters. Throughout the month, Gauntlet also published weekly updates to give an overview of asset utilization, liquidations, protocol growth, and more. At the end of August, the monthly automated reward speed proposals successfully passed an onchain vote, aiming to rebalance liquidity incentives and maintain healthy levels of rewards on the four deployments throughout September. The next set of reward speed proposals came on September 25th, setting incentives for the month of October.
Major Milestones Achieved:
- Rewards on Base & Optimism for weETH Markets: At the beginning of the month, rewards officially went live on the Moonwell weETH core markets.
- Token Terminal Dashboard: On September 4th, a Moonwell dashboard on Token Terminal was launched. With it, users can see standardized onchain financial metrics for Moonwell on Base and Optimism.
- SuperFest Rewards: Early in the month, the Optimism SuperFest program wrapped up. Users who participated by supplying to the USDC core market or Flagship Vaults on Base in recent months were eligible to claim OP rewards that were accumulated.
- Increasing Fees Generated: In the first week of September, Moonwell generated ~$151k in 7-day fees from organic borrowing demand.
- Moonwell on Coinbase: At the end of the month, Moonwell announced that WELL was live on Coinbase.
- Moonwell Flagship Vaults: By the end of the month, Moonwell’s Flagship Vaults powered by Morpho reached a record $60M in deposits.
Voting Insights and Observations
Summary of governance participation trends in September:
- 10 onchain proposals
- 2 Snapshot proposal
- 26 forum posts
For the observed period, the number of active voters for onchain proposals averaged 56, with a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 85.
| Proposal | Onchain votes |
|---|---|
| MIP-O08 | 32 |
| MIP-B27 | 44 |
| MIP-M38 | 37 |
| MIP-O09 | 39 |
| MIP-B28 | 85 |
| MIP-B29 | 78 |
| MIP-B30 | 76 |
| MIP-B31 | 81 |
| MIP-X02 | 76 |
| MIP-R25 | 10 |
This month, there were two Snapshot signal votes.
| Proposal | Offchain votes |
|---|---|
| Add cbBTC Market to Moonwell on Base | 27 |
| Add wrsETH Markest to Moonwell on Base and Optimism | 30 |
The previous maximum number of Snapshot voters occurred in April when a proposal from Gauntlet to Add AERO Market to Moonwell on Base managed to attract 86 voters.
Success Insights:
- Onchain: The onchain proposals in September witnessed a 100% success rate.
- Offchain: The Snapshot proposals for September successfully passed with a high degree of consensus opinion and a 100% success rate.
Browse all of the proposals here.
Community:
- Main X account: 39.2K Followers (+6.5%)
- Governance X account: 620 Followers (+17.9%)
- Discord: 7806 Members (+4.8%)
- Announcements Telegram: 927 Members (-9.5%)
- Chat Telegram: 6927 Members (+4.7%)
Community Strengths
Moonwell continues to be both forward-looking and supportive of Base’s mission of becoming a major hub for onchain finance through its integration of EURC. Expanding the protocol’s reach in DeFi by offering markets and vaults for both dollar- and euro-backed assets helps to make the protocol more financially inclusive and resilient from a diversity standpoint. In mid-September, Moonwell became the first lending app on Base to support the asset. This trend was further seen through the integration of Coinbase’s cbBTC, a Bitcoin derivative, as an alternative to WBTC. The community was also provided updates from Block Analitica and B.Protocol on Moonwell’s partnership with Morpho. Earlier in the month, the combined TVL of the WETH and USDC Vaults managed to reach $38M, comprising the largest Vaults on Base. Beyond adopting Base-related markets and its DeFi ecosystem, Moonwell continues to horizontally integrate with DeFi protocols across all of crypto. This month has seen proposals from KelpDAO and Mountain Protocol; the first is a liquid restaking protocol built on top of EigenLayer and the second is a protocol that offers a regulated, permissionless, and yield-bearing stablecoin, fully backed by US Treasuries. Whether or not proposed integrations like these are successful, it’s important for the community to continue to research protocols across crypto and bring forward discussions on activating markets for their assets. This forward-looking approach is also supported by this month’s voting data; the highest number of onchain votes came from adding new markets for cbBTC and EURC on Base and adding support for EURC rewards.
For the Moonwell Delegate Rush, the quality of applicants remains high. We have seen a variety of backgrounds; some applicants are long-time community members who are highly aware of Moonwell and its governance process, some are university organizations with experience across many crypto ecosystems, and some are professional governance groups who could bring valuable insights in helping to mature the protocol. Moonwell stands to benefit from multiple perspectives and team compositions; consider delegating to the applicants during or before the October 12th - November 9th Delegation Period of the program.
Opportunities
As of the end of September, we have seen five Delegate Rush applications. The goal is to conclude the program with around five total Moonwell delegates progressing through the Delegate Tiers, offering their unique insights and perspectives.
In tandem with our work to expand the delegate roster, there is an opportunity to improve the Moonwell grants process. Currently, you can find information on grants in the governance docs and section 7 of the Moonwell DAO Constitution. Boardroom has observed grants processes from other DeFi ecosystems; we plan to soon create a discussion around potentially adopting some new grants standards that will help clarify and direct users through the flow of requesting funding.
Conclusion
The September 2024 report highlights a community focus on DeFi integrations and Base-related expansions, steady voter turnout, an uptick in the number of prospective delegates, changes to the delegate structure, and increasing organic borrowing demand.
Social metrics generally continue to rise across the board; the largest increase this month once again came from the governance X account.
Be sure to attend the upcoming governance community call on Thursday, October 3rd at 17:00 UTC in Discord. Add it to your calendar here.