On September 28th, 2023, —the Radix Babylon Mainnet upgrade was completed, and with it, the Radix Full-Stack came together for the first time.
With Babylon, a new world of possibilities opened for Web3 and DeFi — where powerful yet intuitive user and developer experiences were possible, where people could confidently engage with the decentralized future without worrying about many of the hacks and exploits that have plagued the industry, and a future where scalability would never be an issue. This was more than an upgrade; it was a bold leap, years in the making, toward the possibility of a radically better future for Web3.
The 12 months since the Babylon Mainnet upgrade have been a remarkable journey. While there have been plenty of bumps in the road, the last year has been filled with important structural integrations, key liquidity initiatives, user onboarding campaigns, and so much more. With the Radix Babylon Mainnet celebrating its first anniversary, it’s time to look back and reflect on the accomplishments of the Radix Network, ecosystem, and community over the last year.
Celebrating Radix Babylon
An excellent place to start is by reflecting on the three phase plan first outlined by Piers, a few days after the Babylon Upgrade was complete.
The plan focused on three areas to support the success of Radix:
Phase 1: Critical Fixes, Community Testing & TVL Building
The first phase of the Babylon plan focused on applying user feedback to improve the Radix Wallet and ensure a smooth user experience. Since its initial release, the wallet has evolved significantly, reaching version 1.10 and amassing over 180,000 downloads on iOS and Android.
Key features added during this phase include the ability to view and filter your Transaction History in-app, display fiat values for portfolios and individual assets, and the introduction of Radix Connect for Mobile, allowing users to seamlessly interact with dApps directly from their native mobile browsers.
This phase also marked the shift from a developer-focused community to a fully functioning dApp ecosystem. From the first dApps going live to the many emerging today, key areas of an ecosystem like NFT marketplaces, decentralized exchanges (DEXs), lending/borrowing platforms, memcoins, and Web3 gaming are developing on Radix. Many of these projects received support from the first 25 million XRD Ecosystem Fund, launched to accelerate the growth of the Radix Ecosystem.
A significant goal during Phase 1 was to grow Radix’s Total Value Locked (TVL). This led to the launch of Project Ignition, aimed at onboarding $10M+ in wrapped assets like xETH, xwBTC, xUSDC, and xUSDT. Within two weeks, the initiative succeeded, driving a 76% surge in TVL to around $54 million.
In this phase, Piers also unveiled future plans in his Breakout2024 video, outlining liquidity initiatives, institutional onboarding efforts, enhanced support for Radix builders, and a new platform for onboarding users into Web3 and the Radix Ecosystem.
Phase 1 laid a solid foundation for Radix, setting the stage for continued growth and innovation in the months ahead.
Phase 2: Liquidity & TVL Building
Thanks to Project Ignition, Phase 2 was well underway, but work would continue to build TVL and Liquidity. In this phase, the Radix Ecosystem Fund was expanded to 250 million XRD instead of the original 25 million XRD, providing more support to teams building on Radix. This has helped projects in the ecosystem refine their offerings while also providing opportunities for projects in other ecosystems to explore building on Radix.
Part of the upgraded Ecosystem Fund included launching the Radix Foundry program, which provides marketing, business, and technical support from RDX Works and up to $250k in funding. This highly selective program targets projects in high-potential DeFi categories likely to drive significant user growth, TVL, and on-chain activity within the Radix Ecosystem. So far, Surge, the first Perpetual DEX on Radix, and Trove Pro, a Pro NFT trading platform, have both joined the program, with a few more projects joining, which are soon to be announced.
The first phase of SuperStaking also launched, which increased Radix TVL by injecting $14 million via CaviarNine liquidity pools; users would lock their LSULPs into the CaviarNine liquidity pool for up to six months and, in return, receive effectively double the staking rewards. The second phase of these incentives is set to launch on Ociswap in the coming months.
Another crucial aspect of growing the Radix Ecosystem and, in turn, growing Radix TVL and liquidity is bringing the correct users into Radix via an onboarding campaign, which would later turn into RadQuest.
RadQuest is a user onboarding platform that allows someone with zero knowledge about Web3 and DeFi to comfortably interact with Radix and its ecosystem of dApps. If they choose, they can then take what they’ve learned into other ecosystems.
The launch of RadQuest resulted in over 4 million transactions happening on the Radix Network within just a few days. RadQuest has since been featured at Token2049, where the RadQuest mascot, Jetty, was a massive hit with attendants. Overall, RadQuest has received plenty of compliments stating how seamless it is as a user onboarding experience.
Phase 3: Institutional Liquidity, Cross-Crypto dApp Traction
In Phase 3, Radix has taken bold steps to attract institutional support, positioning itself as the premier network for the billions of dollars of institutional capital looking to enter the DeFi space. With more institutions eyeing the crypto market, Radix is gearing up as their go-to platform.
A key part of this strategy is making Radix (XRD) easily accessible on the platforms institutions trust, which has led to exciting integrations with Copper and Twinstake. These partnerships allow institutions to securely manage and stake their Radix assets, earning rewards while upholding the security of the Radix Network.
One of the biggest hurdles for institutions in DeFi has been the lack of liquidity and asset availability compared to centralized venues, where deep liquidity and a wide range of assets are standard. Radix is tackling this head-on with the launch of Flash Liquidity and Anthic, game-changing solutions aimed at solving liquidity fragmentation and positioning Radix as the ultimate platform for institutional players to dive into the untapped potential of DeFi.
Another key development in Phase 3 was Radix’s integration with Maya Protocol, which allows users from a handful of chains to conduct seamless cross-chain swaps into Radix. This integration makes it easier for users outside of Radix to obtain XRD, a crucial step in attracting support from other ecosystems and encouraging them to engage with the Radix Network. In just a few short months, the XRD pool on Maya is already the 5th largest, showing the support and interest in the ecosystem.
Additionally, Radix joined the idOS consortium, an elite group of projects, including Aleph Zero and NEAR, focused on developing solutions for user privacy and digital identity while maintaining compliance with strict KYC and AML regulations. This initiative is vital in ensuring that privacy—a core pillar of crypto—remains intact as Web3 continues its push toward mainstream adoption when KYC and AML compliance is becoming increasingly important.
Other Notable Announcements
Amongst all of that, there are some other achievements that deserve to be highlighted. From integrations to exchange listings and other initiatives, here are a few more exciting things that have happened between the Babylon Upgrade and the present day.
XRD is Listed on BitGet: With over 20 million users and a 24-hour trading volume of $10 billion USDT, BitGet is rapidly becoming a top-10 spot trading platform.
Radix Engine Code Audit by Hacken: Two Radix Engine code base audits scored 9.4/10 in April and 10/10 in August, ensuring a secure and reliable foundation.
XRD Perpetuals on ByBit: ByBit, with over 20 million users and $12B in daily volume, now offers XRD perpetuals, expanding trading options.
Radix Partners with Grove: Integrated decentralized RPC provider Grove and the POKT Network, powering developer experience in DeFi.
Keyrock Deploys $10M in Liquidity: Keyrock, a leading market maker, injected $10M+ liquidity into the Radix ecosystem.
XRD Perpetuals on BitMEX: The XRD/USDT perpetual contract went live, further broadening XRD trading options.
Koinly Integrates Radix: Koinly, trusted by over 1M users in 20+ countries, now supports Radix, simplifying tax tracking and reporting.
CryptoEQ Report on Radix: A comprehensive report by CryptoEQ highlights Radix as a leader in user and developer experience for its innovative asset management and platform design.
Alchemy Pay Integrates Radix: Alchemy Pay’s integration allows easy on/off-ramp for XRD and crypto payments across 173 countries.
BitPanda Spotlight: Radix is now integrated with BitPanda’s platform, serving over 4 million users with a range of 3,000+ assets.
Arculus App Supports XRD: XRD is now available on the Arculus mobile wallet for iOS and Android.
Radix Endowment Fund: The fund is established to support the financial stability of Radix ecosystem entities and reduce reliance on treasury token sales. It is being managed by Brevan Howard Digital, an arm of Brevan Howard, the 13th largest hedge fund globally.
BitPanda Custody: Institutional access to Radix has expanded with integration into BitPanda Custody.
RedStone Oracles: Radix now benefits from RedStone’s real-time, accurate data feeds, supporting over $2.8 billion in assets across DeFi platforms.
Morpher Oracle: Morpher’s oracle services provide real-time data feeds for stocks, crypto, and forex on the Radix Network.
Radix at Token2049: Radix fostered meaningful connections with developers and industry leaders at Token2049, prioritizing deeper collaboration and engagement.
Radix Ecosystem and Community Achievements
In addition to the above network achievements, Babylon enabled the launch of dApps on Radix. Since then, the Radix Ecosystem and community have celebrated numerous wins during the same period. Here are some key highlights showcasing the growth of the Radix Ecosystem.
100M $CAVIAR Locked for $SRG: Over 10% of the $CAVIAR supply—equating to 100M tokens—was locked in anticipation of the first $SRG allocation.
Ociswap Announces sXRD: Ociswap revealed they’d be launching their own LSU pool, supported by a new asset called sXRD (Staked XRD).
Astrolescent Trade Volume: Astrolescent has celebrated $3 million in total trade volume since its launch on Babylon Mainnet. This is now roughly $4.5M as of present day.
CoinGecko Listings: Radix Ecosystem tokens EARLY and WOWO were listed on CoinGecko, bringing the total to 12 Radix tokens featured on the platform at the time of announcement. There are now 18 tokens as of the present day.
Trove Reaches 1M XRD Volume: Trove celebrated its first 1,000,000 XRD in trading volume and launched V2, which included a revamped design, more verified collections, and upcoming Trove Auctions for single or multi-asset bidding wars.
DefiPlaza Hits $2M TVL: DefiPlaza celebrated its first TVL milestone of $2M across Radix and Ethereum, with $1.5M from Radix alone.
SRWA Accepted into Katapult Accelerator: SRWA, a soon-to-launch RWA project, was accepted into the Katapult Accelerator, a program backed by the Innovation Fund, the World Bank, the Republic of Serbia, and the EU.
XRD.Domains Launch: XRD Domains launched on February 29th, doubling Radix’s average daily transaction volume within 24 hours post-launch.
Ociswap Launched V2: V2 brought Precision Pools Hooks, which are customizable logic for pools and Flash Loan support.
RadLock Launched: RadLock launched, allowing users to lock assets, tokens, or NFTs easily with a single release date.
ShardSpace Major Update: ShardSpace introduced several exciting new features, including an NFT airdrop tool, a blog page where users can share Radix-related content and earn $XRD tips, and a fairer airdrop pricing model (3 XRD/account for tokens, 5 XRD/account for NFTs). Users can also check Ignition LP token values and unlock dates in the portfolio tab, with hidden tabs for empty accounts and asset values displayed in transaction history.
CacaoSwap Integration: Thanks to the Maya integration, CacaoSwap The first way to use the new Maya Protocol integration was via CacaoSwap.
Astrolescent Bridge: In just one week, Astrolescent’s cross-chain bridge moved over $100K in assets. The bridge now supports 15 chains, including recent additions Thorchain, Maya, Cosmos, Polkadot & Kuji, and Solana!
Radix Community Council Sponsored EBC Hackathon: Over 150 developers came to build at the EBC Hackathon using Scrypto, with many leaving with their own Radix Revelation.
THORSwap Integrated Radix: After the successful Maya integration, a new DEX aggregator joined the Radix Ecosystem. THORSwap enables swaps between Radix and 27+ assets across six major blockchains, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, improving trading conditions with lower slippage and tighter spreads.
Radix API Launched: RadixCharts launched RadixAPI, a custom solution beyond Radix Gateway offerings. This includes API’s for accounts, NFTs, stakers & other on-chain metrics. RadixAPI also includes ROLA, streamlining authentication & eliminating the need for devs to manage extra servers & databases for their projects.
Record Breaking NFT Swap: Scrop #2499 was swapped for 1 Floop (112K XRD) on Trove, which made it the highest value NFT swap.
CaviarNine 24-Hour Volume Milestone: CaviarNine celebrated surpassing $1 million in 24-hour trade volume for the first time.
Selfi Social Launched: With Selfi, you can use DeFi integrated capabilities to trade your assets in a social way.
CaviarNine Surpassed $100M Trade Volume: CaviarNine surpassed $100 million in total trading volume. This figure is now $116M.
Looking Ahead
A lot has happened in the year since Babylon Mainnet launched, but there is still much more to accomplish. Each phase is just a step in the journey to ensure Radix’s success.
Everyone involved with Radix is constantly working on adding more integrations, forming new partnerships, and making key improvements to strengthen the Radix Ecosystem. There are always more deals to be made, and with every new development, Radix gets closer to its vision of revolutionizing Web3.
But now is the time for celebration! Congratulations to you—the community of builders and users who keep the network growing every day. Together, we’re building something remarkable, and the best is yet to come.
