Genesis Pools: Round Two

Hercules Exchange

7 min readApr 6, 2024

Everyone Loves A Sequel

TL;DR

We get it. You’re busy. So was Hercules when he fought the Hydra, a serpent-beast with nine heads 👇

New Genesis Pools begin opening April 8 and close to deposits April 14.
Rewards allocation for these pools begins April 9 and ends April 14.
Round One Genesis Pools still close to deposits April 7.
Rewards to existing Genesis Pools are not affected.
Round Two Genesis Pools will be announced on Hercules socials.

Other dates to be aware of:

April 18: TORCH Public Sale (including Whitelist).
April 22: TORCH TGE and farms open.

What & Why: The Second Round of Genesis Pools

Hercules will soon launch the second round of Genesis Pools on April 8. These pools will be open to deposits for the same amount of time as the first round of Genesis Pools — 7 days — and close to deposits on April 14. Round One pools will still close to deposits on April 7 and rewards harvesting starts April 9, as scheduled.

Why add a second round? Our initial Genesis pools have been quite successful and we wanted to give additional important protocol partners time to move their liquidity onto Hercules.

Genesis Pool Mechanics Refresher

You can withdraw your position from Round Two Genesis Pools at any time, but you cannot redeposit into the Genesis Pools after they close on April 14.
When other users withdraw from the Genesis Pools, users remaining in the Pool will begin earning a larger share of the rewards allocated to that Genesis Pool. This incentivizes both our earliest users and the stickiest liquidity providers at the same time.
Locking your LP will earn you the maximum rewards boost available. The maximum lock time is 6 months.
Genesis Pools follow the Nitro Pools mechanic.

Wait, What Are Genesis Pools? 🙋

Our Genesis Pools are our initial core and partner liquidity pools. Genesis Pools will be incentivized over a four-month period. These pools give very attractive rewards to liquidity providers be they protocols or individual users in exchange for a time commitment on their liquidity, and, as a result, deepening the relationship between Hercules and its partners. As the four month period runs, APRs on these pools may actually rise as users exit their positions and especially if the TORCH token appreciates. Genesis Pools follow the Nitro Pools mechanic.

Below you’ll find the Genesis Pool schedule, where you’ll be able to deposit into and swap using our core and partner liquidity pools. We are grateful to have such an extensive list of partners at launch. These pools offer great opportunities to earn xMETIS, TORCH, xTORCH, and more.

The Game Theory

You are able to withdraw your liquidity from Genesis Pools at any time. Once you do, after the deposit window closes on April 14, you cannot redeposit into the Genesis Pools. So, when other users withdraw from their positions, users remaining in the Genesis Pools will begin earning a larger share of the rewards allocated to that Genesis Pool. This is a way to incentivize both our earliest users and the stickiest liquidity providers at the same time.

Remember: As the four-month Genesis period unfolds, users leaving their Genesis Pool positions are driving APRs up for those who maintain their positions.

Existing Genesis Pools

Hercules Core Genesis Pools

These are the Hercules protocol’s core liquidity pools and are deployed by the Hercules team. These pools were bootstrapped initially by the Alpha Pools.

METIS/m.USDC (Core)
METIS/WETH (Core)
WETH/m.USDC (Core)
m.USDC/m.USDT (Core)
METIS/USDT (Core)

Partner Genesis Pools

These are our partner’s liquidity pools and are whitelisted by the Hercules team and deployed by our partners. With the exception of Artemis Finance, these did not have Alpha Pools.

We invite you to explore our partners’ protocols to learn what these innovative projects have on offer.

Partner : LP Token Pair

AraFi : ARA — m.USDC

Artemis Finance : artMETIS — METIS

Cerus Vaults : CERUS — METIS

DefiKingdoms : JEWEL — METIS

Hera Finance : HERA — USDC

Hummus Exchange : HUM — METIS

Pumpkin Finance : PUMP — METIS

Tethys Finance : TETHYS — METIS

zkERA Finance : ZKE — METIS

On The Horizon

These are pools from partnerships under development. Needless to say, you may recognize some of these buildoors.

Athena Finance : ATH — METIS

Redacted: pxETH — ETH

Frax Finance : FRAX — sFRAX

Frax Finance : frxETH — stETH

Aave Labs : GHO — METIS

Gravita Protocol : GRAI — USDC

Alchemix : alETH — alUSD

Alchemix : alETH — ETH

Alchemix : alUSD — USDC

PayPal : PYUSD — USDC

Enki Protocol : ENKI — Metis

Ethena Labs : m.USDC — USDe

Eris (Ceres) Finance : CERES — METIS

Vector Reserve : VEC — METIS

Vector Reserve : vMETIS — METIS

Monkex Coffee Shop Club : Monkex — WETH

What’s xTORCH Good For?

The illiquid and non-transferable xTORCH can be freely allocated by users into Hercules modules called Plugins to access different benefits:

Yield Booster gives extra rewards in the Nitro Pools where spNFTs can be staked.
Dividends gives a daily portion of Hercules’ revenue in the forms of USDC and ETH — thus, “Real Yield!”
Launchpad gives the opportunity to participate in new project launches.
Gauges… coming soon

All plugins charge a 0.5% fee for unstaking xTORCH, thereby acting as one of several deflationary mechanisms and disincentivizing fleeting protocol engagement.

What’s the catch?

TORCH and xTORCH are mutually convertible into each other, but the process is different depending on the direction.

TORCH → xTORCH: TORCH can be freely converted into xTORCH at any time. The process is instant, and the ratio is 1:1.

xTORCH → TORCH: When converting xTORCH to TORCH there is a variable period of vesting, the duration of which is selected by the user. The conversion ratio increases proportionally with the vesting duration, as follows:

The minimum vesting duration of 15 days will provide a 1 : 0.5 ratio; i.e., 1 xTORCH vested over 15 days will yield 0.5 TORCH.
The maximum vesting duration of 6 months will provide a 1:1 ratio; i.e., 1 xTORCH vested over 6 months will yield 1 TORCH.

Importantly, if the selected vesting duration is lower than the maximum (ratio < 1:1), the unclaimed excess TORCH is burned. This is another deflationary mechanism.

Our TORCH and xTORCH emissions schedule will look rather different than a typical DEX’s.

Hercules will tailor yields dynamically and start slowly, bootstrapping liquidity with protocol-owned liquidity in its Genesis Pools. APRs will still be quite attractive and the result will be a sustainable protocol.

Genesis Rewards: 90% of Life Is Just Showing Up

Depositors in these pools earn rewards in the form of TORCH/xTORCH and Partner incentives (depending on the pool). On top of that, depositors will also earn farming emissions of TORCH and xTORCH, emitted in a 20/80 ratio, respectively. (That is, for every 20 TORCH tokens emitted, 80 xTORCH tokens are emitted.) Partner pools may be further incentivized by the partners with their own tokens on the Genesis Pools.

So… Which Pools Will Have the Highest Emissions?

We prioritize sticky liquidity by incentivizing your favorite project to move their project owned liquidity to Hercules. We then use our dynamic fee structure, swap fees, and tokenomics to create a sustainable ecosystem for everyone.

Think the rewards are too low or your favorite project isn’t listed? Reach out to the team and see if they are planning to move over or build their liquidity on Hercules!

Back to Basics: How Do I Bridge to the Genesis Pools From Another Blockchain?

Want to bridge to Metis and get into the Genesis Pools? Hercules has integrated two top bridge providers into its UI: LI.FI and Synapse.

Caption: On the Hercules site, simply click on “Bridge” in the top menu (circled in red in the image).

Next, choose LI.FI or Synapse as your bridge provider.

Caption: LI.FI provides a one-click cross-chain bridge-and-swap.

Caption: Synapse provides a one-click same-asset bridge transaction.

Once you’ve bridged over to Metis, select “Earn” in the top menu and then “Genesis Pools.” Then, simply follow the instructions to enter the Genesis Pool(s) of your choice.

If you’d like to find another route, the Metis website provides a handy list of other bridging options, such as Wanchain.

If you followed these steps, you’re now in the Genesis Pools. Thank you for using Hercules.

About Hercules

With a composable, efficient liquidity protocol featuring seamless swaps, staking, real yield, and a launchpad, Hercules aims to become the native liquidity layer for the Metis Andromeda network. Its flexible features are tailored to protocol-owned liquidity, allowing dynamic fees and customizable incentives packaged in a user-friendly interface.

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