2021 was a year of whirlwind growth and development — for QuickSwap, Polygon, cryptocurrency, and many of our DEX’s loyal users. As the brutal virus that took the world by storm in 2020 continued to ravage the world’s population, economy, and industry, QuickSwap thrived in spite of the dollar’s rapidly declining purchasing power. Our sincerest hope is that 2022 will bring more great fortune for QuickSwap and improved circumstances for our Dex’s many users who haven’t been as lucky in these past difficult years.
For the QuickSwap team, 2021 was filled with countless hours of hard work, perseverance, and ultimately glory as our DEX’s TVL grew by over a billion dollars. Over the course of the year we introduced several new programs, voted on multiple governance proposals, and celebrated the Dex’s first birthday in October. We still have so much to look forward to in 2022, but before we talk about the future, we think it’s important to reflect on the many developments that 2021 brought to illuminate our accomplishments and learn from our missteps.
QuickSwap’s 2021 Growth
QuickSwap Breached $1 billion in TVL
On May 25th, after announcing multiple partnerships and several exchange listings, QuickSwap’s TVL surpassed $1 billion. As exciting as this development was, it was short-lived, and shortly thereafter, QuickSwap experienced its first major scandal with Iron Finance. The Iron/Titan incident was a setback as many QuickSwap users were affected, but we learned from the experience. The greatest takeaway was that we now remind all users that QuickSwap is a permissionless DEX and as such, it is not our role or responsibility to play gatekeeper. We do not perform extensive due diligence checks on assets listed on our exchange. Liquidity Mining Rewards and Syrup Pools are not an indication that QuickSwap encourages users to buy assets. In line with the overarching theme of decentralisation, QuickSwap always encourages all users to do their own research and take responsibility for their own financial decisions.
Billionaire Mark Cuban Provided Liquidity on QuickSwap
On June 13th, renowned billionaire and investor on ABC’s acclaimed series Shark Tank, Mark Cuban praised Polygon and QuickSwap for the ingenious “foundational businesses of DeFi.” Cuban said, “I’m a small LP for QuickSwap. I provide 2 different tokens (DAI/TITAN) that enable QuickSwap to offer swaps.” We all know how the TITAN pools, which were offering yields in the hundreds of thousands of percent, turned out. Luckily, Cuban understood that high APYs don’t come without risk, and he didn’t fault Polygon or QuickSwap for the one he took.
Apex Predators Discussed their Epic Takeover of Layer 2 at DeFi Summit
On June 15th, Mark Cuban joined Sandeep Nailwal (Polygon), Stanli Kulechov (Aave), Roc Zacharias (QuickSwap/Lunar Digital Assets), and Justin Wu (DeFi Summit) to discuss why he invested in Polygon and share his experiences yield farming on QuickSwap. One great take: “You know Andresen said software’s going to eat the world, crypto is going to eat software,” said Cuban. In case you missed it, catch the replay here. Cuban remained a vocal Polygon and QuickSwap supporter throughout the year, consistently tweeting about the merits of Layer 2.
Top QuickSwap updates in 2021
From the chart in the section above, it’s clear that 2021 was a year of monumental growth for our DEX and the baby dragon mascot who represents us. Several changes were implemented. Those changes came in two forms:
- Governance Votes
- New Features that didn’t require votes
Governance Votes
Introducing the Dragon’s Lair (Single-Asset staking for $QUICK)
On March 9th, QuickSwap took its first step towards becoming the DAO it dreamed it would someday be by announcing our first governance vote to introduce single-asset staking for our native utility token $QUICK.
The vote ran from March 13th — March 18th, and concluded successfully with over 96% of voters responding in favor of the proposition.
QUICK staking launched on April 22nd. Since then, over 200,000 QUICK has been staked in the lair. That’s more than 20% of the token’s max supply! To learn more about how QUICK single-asset staking works, how it benefits users, and dQUICK — QUICK’s staked representative token — check out our blog: Everything you need to know about dQUICK & the Dragon’s Lair.
Rewards in $dQUICK so it’s automatically staked
On August 10th, QuickSwap introduced its second governance vote — this time the question was “Should we start rewarding in dQUICK instead of QUICK?”. We suggested this change to maximise liquidity providers return on investment. By paying rewards in dQUICK, QUICK earned from liquidity mining was automatically staked in the Dragon’s Lair and began earning interest immediately. The vote ran from August 10th — 15th and passed with over 99% in favor. The change was implemented on October 6th. Read more about it here.
We asked our community to help us name our Ambassadors
On September 30th, we asked our community to help us name our ambassadors. Ambassador groups are a great way to grow social engagement and spread awareness about our DEX.
We asked our active community to choose between four names:
- Dragon Riders
- Dragon Tamers
- Elder Mages
- Wizards
The vote ran from October 1st-6th, and 99.99% voted for “Dragon Riders”. The program officially launched on day 3 of QuickSwap’s birthday extravaganza on October 10th. Since we started the program, our social media following has significantly grown — as has use and awareness of our DEX.
The Advisory Board Governance Vote — Sandeep Nailwal
On October 15th, QuickSwap asked our community if Sandeep Nailwal (Polygon’s co-founder and COO) should join our advisory board. The vote ran from October 15th-19th, and passed with over 97% of voters in favor of the proposition. Read more about that vote and what it means for QuickSwap here.
New Features
We Updated our Subgraph
As traffic on Polygon and QuickSwap continued to skyrocket, our data and analytics page frequently failed to report correct information, often for months at a time. While this caused a lot of frustration for our team and DEX’s loyal users, we finally got the situation under control and launched a new, 10x faster subgraph on May 18th.
We Radically Improved QuickSwap’s UX
On May 28th, QuickSwap enabled users to add tokens from our default list to their MetaMask wallets without needing the token contract addresses. This improvement made adding tokens easier than ever.
Powered by Gelato, We Introduced Limit Orders
On August 16th, with help from Gelato, QuickSwap introduced limit orders. This new feature allowed traders to set specified price targets to better control the prices at which they buy and sell. Bitcoinist suggested that adding this functionality would “attract new traders (and greater volume) to QuickSwap’s platform.”
Introducing Dragon’s Syrup
On August 20th, QuickSwap added a new way for $QUICK stakers to generate additional yield: Dragon’s Syrup. Inspired by PancakeSwap’s massively successful syrup program, Dragon’s Syrup added additional rewards for QUICK stakers who locked their funds up in the Dragon’s Lair without adding any risk. With the introduction of Dragon’s Syrup, dQUICK holders could now deposit their staked representative token (dQUICK) to farm rewards tokens. In the first round of Syrup Pools, QuickSwap distributed over $1 million in rewards from 10 projects. Between Syrup’s launch in late August and December 31st 2021, QuickSwap had distributed approximately $13 million in rewards via Dragon’s Syrup.
Our DEX’s community has loved collecting these extra rewards, and we’ve loved distributing them. The Dragon’s Syrup program isn’t going anywhere anytime soon; however, QuickSwap is currently in the midst of a governance vote about whether or not we should separate Dragon’s Syrup from the Dragon’s Lair to give QUICK holders the option of mining one without the other (and potentially earning even higher APY). This vote will run until Friday, January 14th. Learn more about the governance proposal here.
We Launched on Polygon’s Testnet — Mumbai
After fielding many requests, on December 12th, QuickSwap deployed our interface on Polygon’s Mumbai Testnet. This added functionality gave new users the opportunity to experiment with how QuickSwap works before they deployed real funds.
Partnerships & Integrations
Of course, a DEX is nothing without support from an ever-expanding community. QuickSwap and Polygon’s native inhabitants gave us an incredible head start, but to grow, we had to attract new users from across the cryptosphere. We were incredibly lucky to garner support from a vast array of different applications, wallets, and exchanges that helped our DEX grow. These are just a few of the partnerships and integrations that 2021 brought.
MetaMask made saving gas on QuickSwap so much easier!?
On March 4th MetaMask added functionality that allowed users to add the Polygon Network to their wallets without needing to add a custom RPC. This development made switching to Polygon — and using QuickSwap — so much easier!
CoinGecko & CoinMarketCap added $QUICK to their Popular Data Aggregator Sites
On March 4th and March 24th respectively, CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap added $QUICK’s circulating supply and market cap to their popular data aggregator sites. These additions exposed QUICK and QuickSwap to a new audience who hadn’t previously heard about our DEX where users can swap assets at lightning fast speeds and with next-to-zero gas costs.
ParaSwap added $QUICK to their Aggregator
On April 9th ParaSwap — an aggregator that helps users find the best price across all leading DEXs — added $QUICK to their aggregator. This not only enabled QUICK buyers and sellers to find the best possible value for their favorite token, but it also exposed QUICK to a new set of potential adopters.
QuickSwap and Polygon Supercharged Aave’s Layer 2 Launch
Following Aave’s March 31st announcement that they would launch their lending and borrowing protocol on Polygon, on April 13th, QuickSwap and Polygon declared their intent to supercharge Aave’s Layer 2 launch with over $45 million in rewards. These rewards were designed to incentivise Aave’s many users to test out the protocol on Polygon. For their part, Polygon allocated 1% of MATIC’s total supply (around $40 million USD at the time), while QuickSwap further rewarded Aave’s Polygon market users with 3% of QUICK’s total supply (worth approximately $5 million at the time) to incentivise liquidity providers for select pairs. Aave’s deployment on Polygon brought unprecedented growth to the Polygon Network and QuickSwap. Only 2 weeks later, on May 1st, Aave already had over $2 billion on Polygon.
Telcoin Alliance
On April 30th QuickSwap and Telcoin partnered up to bring what would become one of the most epic dual farming rewards programs to date!
Coin 98 Integration
On June 20th, QuickSwap integrated with Coin98 Wallet to bring high-speed, near-zero gas fee trading to their many users.
Indexed Finance
On June 24th, Indexed Finance started pointing users directly to QuickSwap for lower transaction fee purchases.
Venly Wallet
On July 15th, QuickSwap integrated Venly Wallet to bring fast and nearly gas-free transactions to their many users.
DexTools
On July 24th, QuickSwap became the first Polygon DEX integrated into DexTools trading app.
Token Pocket
On July 26th, the Token Pocket mobile app added mainnet support for Polygon, giving QUICK holders another mobile application to safely secure their tokens.
Extended Partnership with QiDao (MAI)
On August 27th, Polygon’s first native stable coin $MAI and the QiDao governance protocol that backs it voted to extend their partnership with QuickSwap by leaving 100% of the token’s liquidity on our DEX. This governance decision was critically important to us at QuickSwap because as Polygon’s first and only native DEX, we wanted to ensure that we were supporting protocols that — like us — are Polygon-focused. To celebrate, we launched a meme contest that yielded some epic results. View them all in this thread.
Chainlink added $QUICK to their price feed
On September 7th — ChainLink — the leading decentralised blockchain oracle network — added QUICK to their price feed. This provided a trusted price feed for QuickSwap’s native token so platforms like QiDao, Aave, and UniLend could enable new features — like using QUICK as collateral for lending, borrowing, and more. This collaboration was further expanded on October 5th, when QuickSwap sponsored Chainlink’s price feeds to expand QUICK’s DeFi utility even further.
Decentralised Liquidity & Order Routing Terminal Aurux Listed $QUICK
On September 30th, the high-end trader routing and decentralised liquidity integrator Aurox listed QUICK on their trader-resource platform.
Polygon Gave us $1 million for Dual Farming
On October 4th, Polygon gave QuickSwap an early birthday present in the form of $1 million in $MATIC for dual farming of select MATIC pairs. To keep the pairs going and give them an extra boost, QuickSwap matched the $MATIC funds from Polygon in QUICK. This gave liquidity providers extra incentive to LP for MATIC-ETH, MATIC-USDT, MATIC-USDC, and MATIC-QUICK.
Crypto.com Integrated QuickSwap’s RSS Feed
Following QUICK’s listing on Crypto.com, the user-friendly platform integrated QuickSwap’s RSS feed on October 29th. This development gave Crypto.com’s millions of users direct access to QuickSwap news and updates on a familiar interface.
MoonPay
On November 8th, MoonPay enabled direct-to-Polygon deposits and withdrawals, allowing QuickSwap’s users to on-ramp directly to Polygon via MATIC, ETH, and USDC.
Nabox
On November 12th, Nabox Wallet listed $QUICK and initiated an airdrop for eligible participants.
DeFi Summit DCentral Conference & Official Afterparty
On November 30th, QuickSwap, Polygon, and Lunar Digital Assets (the marketing company that supports them both) hosted a booth at the widely attended DCentral Conference in Miami. Additionally, together with CyberKongz, we facilitated the conference’s official afterparty. Of course, it was a banger!
CCtip bot
On December 22nd, CCtipbot enabled users to easily and securely tip each other on social media by including QUICK in the bot’s supported tokens. This integration not only made tipping the memelords of Crypto Twitter easier for us, it also engaged the community and allowed them to send each other QUICK without needing to share or collect addresses — an added boost to any privacy-enthusiast’s OpSec.
BitKeep Wallet
On December 29th, QuickSwap added support for BitKeep Wallet. With this integration, BitKeep’s many users could now access QuickSwap from the convenience of their favorite multichain wallet.
IDOs
2021 saw the rise of IDOs as a fundraising mechanism for projects that were under development. Popular decentralised exchanges like PancakeSwap were enabling their users to participate in IDOs (or Initial DEX offerings) to get in on early stage fundraising. When QuickSwap partnered with Starter on June 28th we got in on the action too!
Yamp Finance
Shortly after beginning our partnership with Starter, the QuickStart alliance launched our first IDO on July 22nd. Yamp Finance raised $300,000.
Relay
After getting off to a running $START (pun intended), on August 2nd, the certified QuickStart IDO for RelayChain began with a raise of $200k.
NASDEX
On September 28th, the $NSDX IDO took flight exclusively on QuickStart. As usual, the $100k IDO sold out before the end of the day.
StrongNode
On October 21st, the QuickStart alliance launched the StrongNode ($SNE) IDO. The $110k raise sold out in ten minutes.
GAMER
GameStation was up next. On September 22nd, raising $150k and selling out almost instantly. A few days after launch, $GAMER rose to 43x IDO price!
Sheesha Finance
On December 6th, QuickStart hosted the highly anticipated Sheesha Finance IDO, which sold out later that day with a total of $230,000 raised.
99Starz
On December 8th, in partnership with Starter, QuickSwap launched the 99Starz IDO, which brought the gaming titan Animoca into direct collaboration with the Polygon Network. The $75,000 IDO sold out in less than 5 minutes.
Exchange Listings
Of course, getting QUICK listed on centralised exchanges was a big part of our awareness campaign in 2021. While QuickSwap values the ideals of decentralisation above all else, we can’t help but recognise that making things easy for consumers enables adoption. In 2021, QUICK was listed on many centralised exchanges including, but not limited to the following:
Gate.io
On April 28th, Gate.io became the first centralised exchange to list $QUICK. This listing was of paramount importance because Gate was among the first centralissed exchanges that allowed US customers to deposit and withdraw directly to/from the Polygon Network.
Poloniex
On May 4th, Poloniex listed the QUICK/USDT pair on their global exchange.
MXCExchange
On May 9th, MXCExchange listed the QUICK/USDT pair along with a trading contest to help spread awareness about the QUICK token and the DEX it represents.
CoinEx Global
On June 2nd, CoinEx Global cryptocurrency exchange listed the QUICK/USDT trading pair to provide their exchange’s many users with more trading options.
Bancor
On June 6th, Bancor listed the QUICK/BNT pair on their exchange.
Binance
On July 23rd, world renowned cryptocurrency exchange Binance listed 3 QUICK pairs: BNB, BTC, and BUSD. Although the listing and subsequent trading didn’t go as smoothly as many had hoped it would, QUICK’s Binance listing exposed the asset and our DEX’s many merits to millions of new users who hadn’t previously heard about it. Additionally, Binance is among the very few exchanges that allow direct MATIC withdrawals and deposits to Polygon (though this feature isn’t always available).
Coinbase
On August 11th, Coinbase — America’s most trusted and easy-to-use centralised exchange — listed QuickSwap’s native token. $QUICK was paired with USD on Coinbase Pro, which made buying and selling directly from your bank account, debit, or credit card easier than ever before.
ZB
On August 11th, ZB.com listed QUICK/USDT and QUICK/QC.
SimpleSwap
On August 12th, SimpleSwap listed QUICK on their instant and easy-to-use crypto trading platform.
Crypto.com
On August 13th, Crypto.com — one of the largest and most well-accepted crypto exchanges in the world — listed QUICK, giving millions of new users access to our DEX’s native utility token. In addition, Crypto.com allows users to deposit or withdraw $MATIC directly to/from the Polygon Network, which makes buying $QUICK with fiat easy and affordable.
Hoo.com
On August 13th, Hoo.com listed $QUICK on their exchange and with the Hoo Earn campaign, giving holders the opportunity to earn 3% APY on their QUICK holdings.
Bitmart
On August 17th, BitMart listed the QUICK/USDT trading pair and initiated a trading competition.
Ace Exchange
On August 17th, Taiwan-based exchange ACE listed QUICK, giving QuickSwap its first exposure to a TWD fiat trading pair.
DigiFinex Global
On September 16th, DigiFinex Global — a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange available for users worldwide — listed the $QUICK/$USDT pair, exposing our DEX and its native token to a whole new audience of traders and crypto enthusiasts.
KuCoin
On November 1st, QUICK was listed on KuCoin. In addition to providing an avenue for traders to buy and sell the QUICK token, KuCoin also enabled direct-to-Polygon withdrawals and deposits.
IndoEx International
On November 5th, IndoEx Limited listed QUICK.
WazirX Listed QUICK
On December 23rd, WazirX — India’s most trusted Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange — listed QUICK, making it easier for people from around the world to speculate on the value of our DEX’s native governance and utility token.
Community Initiatives
From the birth of our baby dragon DEX, QuickSwap has always been a community-first project. That’s why we never offered a seed round, private round, or public sale that would advantage wealthy buyers. The DEX’s creators and advisors were only awarded with 3.25% of QUICK’s total supply, which is still being paid out on a vesting schedule. As one of the most fair-launch and community-governed projects out there, naturally, our community is incredibly important to us. In 2021, we hosted several events and contests to make their importance known, below are just a few of the times we rewarded or recognised our outstanding community members or took actions to ensure they knew they could trust us.
QuickSwap Increased Security by Adding a Multisig Wallet to our Treasury & Vesting Contracts for the DEX’s founding partners
On March 5th, QuickSwap moved the treasury’s 775k QUICK to a 3 out of 4 multisig wallet that requires signatures from 3 of the following doxxed & respected founders: Nick Mudge, Sameep Singhania, Roc Zacharias (LDA), and Sandeep Nailwal (Polygon). This move increased security for the treasury’s holdings and eliminated the possibility of any future rug pull. Additionally, QuickSwap moved the founding members’ tokens into vesting contracts that were released slowly over the next 453 days (still going).
Regional Communities
Throughout the year, we launched many regional communities. Today there are over 13 QuickSwap regional Telegram communities. Find them all here: https://t.me/QuickSwapAnnouncements/288
QuickSwap’s 7-Day Birthday Extravaganza
On October 8th — 15th, QuickSwap celebrated our first birthday in style! During this week long celebration, we hosted a Twitter spaces with Polygon, Polkabridge, Relay, WowSwap, GameStation, IotEx, Starter, Adamant Finance, QiDao, PolyDoge, Telcoin, and many more of our partners. During the kickoff party, we gave away 50 limited edition NFTs. The next day, we distributed over $8k in $PBR, $RELAY, $WOW, $GMEE, and $PolyDoge cards to the NFT winners. On day 3, we opened applications for our ambassadors program, the Dragon Riders. On day 4, we released $500k in $MATIC to our Dragon’s Syrup Pools. On day 5, we started dual farming for select MATIC pairs with over $1 million in rewards. On the final day of our birthday extravaganza, we released a governance proposal to bring Sandeep Nailwal — Polygon’s COO and co-founder — onto QuickSwap’s advisory board. That vote later passed with over 99% in favor.
Dragon Riders Take Flight
On October 22nd, QuickSwap’s Dragon Riders took flight. After a nearly unanimous vote, the elite force of dragon riders was decided and has been growing ever since. While we initially invited community members to fill out an application, we’ve since discovered that our most active and successful ambassadors make themselves known in our community groups first. So if you want to contribute to QuickSwap’s future, make sure you let us know in any of our various social media groups.
Meme Contests
In 2021, we hosted too many meme contests to post about all of them here, but we gathered a ton of great material and gave away thousands in rewards to our participants!
Treasure Hunt
From November 12th-17th, we invited community members new and old to join the hunt for $2,000 in QUICK. Our Treasure Hunt offered rewards for incentivised learning about QuickSwap and Polygon.
What’s next for QuickSwap?
As we branch into 2022, we are certain that the year of the tiger will bring even more fortune than 2021. As those who have been following QuickSwap's development for some time will know, QuickSwap doesn’t have a public roadmap because a DEX must evolve with the needs of its users. That said, we do have several exciting developments coming in the near future.
Ongoing Governance Proposal
Introduced on January 7th and running through January 14th, QuickSwap asked QUICK holders if we should change our rewards structure by separating the Dragon’s Lair from Syrup Pools, and thereby increasing APYs across the board. Though the vote isn’t concluded yet, over 94% of participants so far have voted in favor of this change to our tokenomics. To learn more about the proposal and what it would mean for you and for QuickSwap, read here.
New UI
We realise that for some the SoonSwap meme is getting old, but delays are inevitable in software development, and we really do have a fantastic new and improved UI that will be launching any day now. Until then, enjoy the meme!
As one of our favorite leaders, Roc Zacharias likes to say, “Dragons move fast and break things.” With that in mind, we’d like to acknowledge our many imperfections and promise to continue to focus on our priorities and deliver them each day. As always, your patience and feedback are greatly appreciated.
We’re eternally grateful for your support, and cannot wait to see what 2022 has in store for us, as we prepare for more great developments on Polygon and QuickSwap. While 2021 has been an eventful year, we truly believe that the best is yet to come!
We wish you a productive, happy, and healthy new year.
Sincerely,
QuickSwap Team
Let us know if you have any questions about any of these stats and past achievements. Don’t forget to follow us on social media, and join us across social media to stay up-to-date on all things QuickSwap — Polygon’s most-established DEX.
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By QuickSwap Official on January 13, 2022.
Exported from Medium on May 2, 2023.