An Overview of Benchmark Protocol ($MARK). Ivan on Tech’s Latest Pick.

Inspired by the Opacity post I’d like to do my part in cleansing the subreddit of low-effort shitcoin spam. To do that I’m sharing a 20mil mcap project mentioned by Ivan on Tech a couple of days ago – Benchmark Protocol ($MARK).
The Numbers

• 24mil mcap
• 2mil daily volume, good liquidity
• Up 10x in the last month
• Ampleforth competitor (505mil mcap)

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What is $MARK?

Benchmark Protocol ($MARK) is a DeFi protocol which aims to maintain price parity with Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). SDRs are an international reserve asset created by the IMF, and while that may sound fancy, all you really need to know is that it’s a basket of currencies in much the same way as what Libra was originally trying to create.

The price of one SDR is approximately $1.40.
This alone solves a major problem that other algo stables suffer from. Even if BAC worked as intended, it would be entirely susceptible to the monetary policy of a single nation. By using the SDR, $MARK is creating a diversified, global currency risk instead of single currency risk.

Rebasing & Elastic Supply

To ensure one $MARK is equal to the price of one SDR, Benchmark Protocol uses an elastic supply that translates price-volatility into supply-volatility. When $MARK increases in value, the protocol will mint more $MARK and distribute it to holders. This means as the market cap of $MARK grows the price per $MARK will remain static, however the number of $MARK in your wallet will increase.

Improved Rebasing

AMPL and other algo stablecoins have long suffered from having arbitrary and predictable rebases that arbitrageurs take advantage of at the cost of token holders. $MARK uses the CBOE Volatility Index (the VIX) to create a more dynamic and randomized rebasing schedule that helps alleviate that problem while also taking into consideration market volatility when determining when to rebase and to what extent.

High-Profile Backers = Good pumpamentals in the current market

The core team are all very quality in their own right, however as far as what can send this another 20x+ is easily its backers. Three in particular.

1. Nicholas Merten aka DataDash
2. Meltem Demirors, CSO of Coinshares
3. Now Ivan on Tech has started to shill organically

These three alone are enough to send a project above a 100mil mcap which is an easy 4x at the current market cap. I personally believe with the failure of so many other algo projects there’s a lot of capital in search of a team who can solve their shortcomings, which by all accounts Benchmark is doing successfully.

Yield farming & staking

There are two main ways of earning with MARK, staking and yield farming.
MARK currently has 3 pools for staking and farming with their respective APYs as stated;

MARK-ETH – currently has an APY of 66.45%

MARK-USDC = 110.9% This is my favourite and quite a crazy APY considering they’re both stablecoins.

MARK-wBTC = 90.24%

This is on top of the uniswap reward for staking

Here are the pros of staking MARK to earn xMARK tokens;

• xMARK tokens will be issued in a similar fashion to how LP tokens are issued and represent a share in the overall staking pool.
• Users will be able to swap back xMARK for their staked MARK at any point in time.
• xMARK tokens are not affected by rebases. However, the underlying MARK token representation will be affected by rebases and still represent a fixed share of the network.

Comparing Benchmark Protocol to its competitors

• Mark offers a global currency risk profile versus single currency risk profile.

• It’s inflation Shielded.

• It has an elastic supply.

• There’s no collateralization risk.

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When compared to AMPL specifically

• AMPL has a set rebase time, allowing for arbitrage situations, which may be very unfavorable to certain types of traders.

• AMPL target price is the US Dollar, which creates a very specific risk profile for the asset. Users may prefer a more global risk profile, which is offered by the SDR.

• MARK utilizes the VIX to inform the rebase mechanism, creating a more predictive and accurate process.

• AMPL went to market with an ICO and an IEO, while MARK utilized a “Fair Launch”.

Ivan on Tech Video
Ivan on Tech’s video where he described Benchmark protocol as a high potential project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aChlrZIe1Xc&feature=youtu.be

Website & Social

The best place to follow the project is definitely its Telegram, which you can find here: @benchmark_protocol
Other social accounts are as follows:

https://twitter.com/benchmark_defi

https://medium.com/benchmarkprotocol

https://benchmarkprotocol.finance/