← Back to Blog

ICON Foundation Receive Grant to Bring Balanced to Stellar

Stellar Grant

April 18, 2024

TL;DR

|

Full Story

The ICON Foundation has received a grant from the Stellar Community Fund. This funding is to integrate Balanced, ICON’s leading cross-chain Decentralized Exchange (DEX) and stablecoin platform, with the Stellar blockchain. This partnership marks an essential first step in linking these two blockchain ecosystems, facilitating native stablecoin loans with XLM, improving cross-chain liquidity and user experience within the DeFi space.

Balanced, known for its innovative approach to cross-chain DeFi, enables users to engage with native cross-chain DeFi primitives seamlessly. This integration into the Stellar network represents a strategic initiative to foster a more interconnected and efficient global DeFi landscape.

What is Balanced?

Balanced is a cross-chain DEX and CDP-style stablecoin platform. It allows users to connect their native wallets, deposit collateral in native assets, borrow Balanced-native USD (bnUSD), and carry out swaps across different blockchains. The platform uses a portion of the ICON network's monthly ICX emissions to fill deep Network Owned Liquidity (NOL) within cross-chain liquidity pools, demonstrating its dedication to creating a robust and seamless trading environment.

In the grant's initial phase, ICON plans to translate Balanced and ICON GMP smart contracts to Soroban, Stellar's native smart contract environment. This step paves the way for further development towards a comprehensive integration. The full integration of Balanced with Stellar not only aims to extend Balanced's sophisticated trading and stablecoin services to Stellar but also to enhance the overall user experience. This integration will unlock new opportunities for users and developers within both ecosystems.