Key Takeaways
WOO Network is a deep liquidity network incubated by Kronos Research. It connects traders, exchanges, institutions, and DeFi platforms with democratized access to best-in-class liquidity, trading execution, and yield generation strategies at a lower or even zero cost.
WOO Network offers both centralized and decentralized exchanges as part of a liquidity network. WOO X (the CEX) provides low-cost trading, customizable workspaces, and deep liquidity. WOOFi (the DEX) offers a new Synthetic Proactive Market Making model that mimics a traditional exchange's order book. The trading platform's users can swap, earn, and stake WOO, the project's native token. You can purchase WOO on Binance with a credit or debit card or trade it for other cryptocurrencies. WOO can also be staked for rewards on WOOFi.
Introduction
Since the creation of Bitcoin, the blockchain space has continued to grow rapidly, and it’s easy to see how important cryptocurrency exchanges are today. But, if we go back to 2016, the options were slim. Binance only launched in July 2017, and there was no Uniswap or other Automated Market Makers (AMM) out there. Many people purchased Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets directly from other individuals in peer-to-peer (P2P) markets or through over-the-counter (OTC) trades.
Now there are hundreds (if not thousands) of crypto exchanges to choose from. WOO Network is part of this ecosystem, but it offers unique features that go beyond the traditional crypto exchange model. If you want to hear more about one of Binance Lab's investments, you've come to the right place.
What is WOO Network?
WOO Network is a deep liquidity network connecting traders, exchanges, institutions, and DeFi platforms. It provides democratized access to market liquidity, trading execution, and yield generation strategies at lower or even zero cost.
WOO Network was incubated by Kronos Research in 2019, a quantitative trading firm that has long been a leading market maker across all major exchanges, generating $5-10 billion in daily volume. Through these years of experience in crypto, the Kronos team noticed a key shortcoming - insufficient and unaffordable liquidity across many crypto exchanges, both centralized and decentralized.
Subsequently, Kronos helped launch WOO Network, which now offers a suite of products that bring users better liquidity with lower or even zero fees. Binance Labs led WOO Network’s Series A+ funding round with a $12M investment in January 2022.
The WOO Network splits most of its services between WOO X, a centralized exchange (CEX), and WOOFi, a decentralized exchange (DEX) and staking platform. WOO Network offers WOO Trade for institutional clients, allowing partner exchanges to integrate WOO Network's liquidity into their services via API.
How does WOO Network work?
WOO Network works with Kronos Research to aggregate and integrate liquidity using quantitative trading and hedging strategies. Liquidity is aggregated from a number of leading centralized and institutional trading platforms and, more recently, through DeFi networks such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, and Avalanche. Clients connect directly to the network via API or through the GUI on WOO X and WOOFi. Others connect indirectly via DeFi platforms like 1inch, 0x, or Paraswap.
Market makers from other platforms, such as on dYdX, can also use WOO Network as a venue to hedge exposure. The zero-fee model and favorable terms towards taker orders are ideal for low-cost hedging. Volumes have been growing steadily, and in the middle of September 2021, the 24hr trading volume reached $2.5B, fueled by the exponential growth of popular platforms, such as dYdX.
What makes WOO Network unique?
The team at WOO Network has had significant financial and technical experience across many companies such as Citadel, Virtu, Allston, Deutsche Bank, and BNP Paribas. Also, WOO Network’s product offering includes:
WOO Network - a gateway for institutional clients to upgrade their order books to a depth competitive with top exchanges and tighten their bid-ask spread.
WOO X is a zero-fee or even negative fee trading platform providing professional and institutional traders with the best-in-class liquidity and execution. It features fully customizable modules for workspace customization.
WOOFi is a suite of products that aim to expand WOO Network's liquidity network to DeFi and help DeFi users get the best pricing, the lowest fees, tightest bid-ask spreads, and rewarding but safe yield-generating opportunities.
WOO Ventures is the investment arm of WOO Network, which seeks to form strategic partnerships with projects and ecosystems. 50% of the returns from all investments are distributed back to WOO token holders.
What is WOO X?
WOO X is WOO Network's primary product offering Centralized Finance (CeFi) trading services. The exchange boasts low-fee trading, deep liquidity, and customizable workspaces.
Low-fee trading
Fees are an important part of any trader's choice when choosing a platform. Users who trade on WOO X manually (without using an API) can reduce their maker and taker fees by gaining Tier 2 status. Tier 2 is available to those who stake 1800 WOO on WOO X, and the CEX occasionally applies additional benefits to Tier 2 users.
Deep liquidity
Key to any exchange's success is the ability for buyers and sellers to complete their orders efficiently. Ideally, there should be little to no slippage for large orders and a small bid-ask spread, and this is only possible with deep liquidity. This simply means that many people supply crypto to buy and sell on the order book, and the exchange can easily meet demand.
WOO Network sources its liquidity from traders using the platform and professional liquidity providers, exchanges, market makers, and institutions. WOO X's most significant provider is Kronos Research, a trading firm that engages in market making. By providing a deep liquidity base through Kronos Research, WOO X can attract even more liquidity to the network.
Customizable workspaces
WOO X allows users to customize their trading view with widgets, charts, and other personalizable elements. For more experienced traders, this gives them access to the information and tools they need. TradingView also provides advanced charting tools for creating indicators for technical analysis.
What is WOOFi?
WOOFi is a BSC-based Automated Market Marker that uses the Synthetic Proactive Market Making (sPMM) model for determining prices. Most typical AMMs use the more straightforward, classic Constant Product Market Marker (CPMM). WOOFi offers three main features:
1. Swapping - Users can swap between token pairs in WOOFi's liquidity pools. The sPMM model has more similarities with a traditional exchange's order book than AMMs like Uniswap on Ethereum (ETH). sPMM relies on WOO Network’s market data oracles to scan order book prices from centralized exchanges like Binance and calculate a suitable trade price.
Liquidity comes from single pools rather than the traditional dual asset liquidity pool (LP) system. WOOFi manages and rebalances these assets by providing incentives to investors who provide assets with low liquidity.
2. Earning - Users can deposit LP tokens from other DEXs and individual assets to begin farming yield with them. These vaults reinvest profits automatically and efficiently, allowing you to compound your interest.
3. Staking - WOO holders can stake their tokens to share in the revenue generated by swapping and earning on WOOFi.
The WOO token
WOO is the native token of the WOO Network, serving as the unifying force for all DeFi and CeFi products and services provided. It has a max supply of 3 billion tokens, which gradually decreases with monthly token burns until 50% of the max supply is burned.
WOO is a utility token that exists on multiple blockchains through bridges such as BNB Chain, Ethereum, Avalanche, Polygon, Solana, Arbitrum, Fantom, and NEAR. It’s embedded within prominent DEXes on various chains: Bancor, SushiSwap, Uniswap, PancakeSwap, QuickSwap, and SpookySwap.
The WOO token provides access to WOO X zero-fee trading, trading rebates (Trade-to-Earn), staking, discounts, WOO Ventures airdrops, and governance utilities. Let’s take a closer look at its current and upcoming use cases.
1. Governance - WOO stakers on both WOOFi and WOO X, as well as anyone holding at least 1,800 WOO in an on-chain wallet, can participate in decentralized governance by creating proposals or voting in the WOO DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization).
2. Staking - By staking WOO tokens, you can lower your trading fees and even enjoy zero-fee trading on WOO X. Traders with large volumes on WOO X can also stake WOO to increase their trading limits and reduce fees.
3. Distributing yield - A portion of tokens received from WOO Ventures early-stage project investments are distributed to WOO token stakers on WOO X. You can also stake your WOO on WOOFi and earn yields from the fees of both Swap and Earn products.
4. Providing liquidity and yield farming - You can use your WOO to enter liquidity pools and farms on exchanges such as SushiSwap, Uniswap, PancakeSwap, and more. These provide opportunities across multiple blockchains.
5. Lending and borrowing - You can use your WOO as collateral for crypto loans and lend it to other users.
6. Social trading - In the future, WOO stakers will be able to emulate highly professional trading strategies from top-performing traders.
7. WOO token burn - The WOO Network uses 50% of the platform revenue to buy back and burn WOO every month.
Closing thoughts
WOO Network is a convenient option if you want a CEX's security and access to unlisted tokens on DeFi platforms. Their liquidity focus is essential to blockchain users who want to avoid slippage at all costs. Overall, the project is one of the rare options out there combining CEX and DEX services.
As WOO Network’s liquidity continues growing in the DeFi and CeFi space, WOO token’s utility also expands. Its mix of a veteran team, support from industry leaders like Binance, and a suite of essential products have helped create its position in the industry today. To continue this growth, WOO Network also plans to expand its extensive list of products, features, and partnerships.