1. Can you provide a link to your previous STIP proposal (round 1 or backfund)?
OpenOcean STIP link
2. How much, in the previous STIP proposal, did you request in ARB?
500,000 ARB
3. What date did you start the incentive program and what date did it end?
STIP incentive started 22th of November 2023, ended 29th of March 2024
4. Could you provide the links to the bi-weekly STIP performance reports and Openblocks Dashboard?
Bi-weekly STIP report: OpenOcean Bi-Weekly Update Threads
Final report: OpenOcean STIP Final Recap
Openblocks Dashboard:
5. Could you provide the KPI(s) that you deem relevant for your protocol, both in absolute terms and percentage change, month over month, for the first of each month starting from October 2023 until April 2024, including the extremes? If you don’t know what KPI might be relevant for you or how to properly define them, please refer to the following document:[[Arbitrum DAO] OpenBlock Labs Incentive Onboarding Spec]([Arbitrum DAO] OpenBlock Labs Incentive Onboarding Spec - Google Docs)
Throughout the STIP, our program exhibited remarkable growth. The monthly trading volume soared to 105 million, marking a 262% increase from the initial volume, and exceeding the 200% target by 62.5%. By the end of the STIP, active user addresses had surpassed 125,000. For cross-chain swaps, we tripled growth, achieving an increase approximately 2.28 times beyond the initial goal.
While gas fee rebates have contributed to a great increase in the user base, the incentives per user have been relatively small, leading most users to claim their rewards by the end of March. To address this, we launched a swap-related campaign in February, collaborating with other protocols to further incentivize user engagement and boost participation on Arbitrum. The chart below demonstrates the resulting spike in growth during February and March.
As a DEX aggregator, we bring more diversity to grants distribution by directing traffic to DEXs, wallets, and other projects utilizing our swap API. This allows us to experiment with different incentives, benefiting the entire Arbitrum ecosystem. Unlike most DEXs that focus on incentivizing and increasing only their pools’ TVL, we aggregate and collaborate with all major projects within the Arbitrum ecosystem. This approach significantly boosts overall ecosystem activity.
Monthly Active Users :
The monthly active users has a fourfold increase during the STIP from 14k to 53k.
| Month/Year | Monthly Active Users | Change % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before STIP | 11/2023 | 14,175 | N/A |
| During STIP | 12/2023 | 22,157 | 36.02% |
| During STIP | 01/2024 | 18,683 | -18.59% |
| During STIP | 02/2024 | 28,817 | 35.17% |
| During STIP | 03/2024 | 53,299 | 45.93% |
Monthly Trading Volume:
The monthly trading volume in both Dec 2023 and Feb 2024 had a more than 30% spike compared to previous month, tripling the monthly volume from 32m to 105m.
| Month/Year | Monthly Trading Volume | Change % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before STIP | 11/2023 | $ 32,600,129.24 | N/A |
| During STIP | 12/2023 | $ 49,210,135.97 | 33.75% |
| During STIP | 01/2024 | $ 56,727,930.20 | 13.25% |
| During STIP | 02/2024 | $ 93,228,737.29 | 39.15% |
| During STIP | 03/2024 | $ 105,168,795.28 | 11.35% |
Monthly Swaps:
The monthly swaps have jumped from 23k to 96k with a 315% growth.
| Month/Year | Monthly Swaps | Change % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before STIP | 11/2023 | 23,265 | 0 |
| During STIP | 12/2023 | 37,093 | 37.28% |
| During STIP | 01/2024 | 29,435 | -26.02% |
| During STIP | 02/2024 | 51,298 | 42.62% |
| During STIP | 03/2024 | 96,626 | 46.91% |
Monthly Cross-chain:
The cross-chain trading volume has soared to 7 times from 30k to 212k, successfully bringing more volumes to the Arbitrum ecosystem.
| Month/Year | Monthly Trading Volume | Change % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before STIP | 11/2023 | $ 30,125.45 | 0 |
| During STIP | 12/2023 | $ 40,751.20 | 26.07% |
| During STIP | 01/2024 | $ 51,732.22 | 21.23% |
| During STIP | 02/2024 | $ 177,017.81 | 70.78% |
| During STIP | 03/2024 | $ 212,277.09 | 16.61% |
6. [Optional] Any lessons learned from the previous STIP round?
During the STIP, we separated the contracts to reward users, resulting in a deficit by the end of March and fund users in swaps gas refund, swap campaign rewards and referral program from our Dao treasury. To better manage rewards distribution moving forward, we will consolidate the rewards into one contract to monitor the distribution more efficiently and in a timely manner.
Though the gas fee rebate has motivated a growth of the user base, the gas fee rebate incentives accumulated per user are relatively small. Most users tend to claim the rewards by the end of March, or even forget to claim timely, leading us to airdrop their rewards before the deadline. Hence, in February, we launched a swap related campaign, and collaborated with other protocols to more effectively encourage user engagement and incentivize active participation on Arbitrum. The chart below can prove that the campaign has brought a spike in growth in Feb & March.
New Plans for STIP Bridge
7. How much are you requesting for this STIP Bridge proposal?
250,000 ARB
8. Do you plan to use the incentives in the same ways as highlighted in Section 3 of the STIP proposal? [Y/N]
No, with slight adjustments from our previous STIP events experiences.
9. [Only if answered “no” to the previous question] How will the incentive distribution change in terms of mechanisms and products?
Swap trading cost rebates will adjust to swap activities on OpenOcean, and the incentives allocation will increase from 35% to 45%. We had previously used gas rebates to incentivize users during STIP, but following the Cancun updates, gas refunds are too small to distribute as rewards. We will instead organize campaigns to reward new users based on various metrics, including gas fees used, swaps performed with OpenOcean, and trading volumes.
Inbound cross-chain swap incentives have been reduced from 20% to 10% because cross-chain activities are more expensive than swaps. With half the funding from the last STIP, we’re prioritizing better-performing initiatives, such as swap activities, which are more effective for attracting new users and increasing trading volume. We’ve already accumulated over 125k users, up from 75k in the last STIP round. In this round, our focus will be on continuing to work on user growth and boosting activity through increased trading volume on Arbitrum
Referral program incentive emissions remain unchanged at 20%.
The partnership co-incentive program for traders remains at 25%. During the STIP, our partnership was focused on DeFi protocols. This round we can expand our reach to a much wider audience, including essential crypto infra like wallets, GameFi and information applications with trading needs. We expect to onboard 5 to 10 new dedicated partners integrating OpenOcean for swaps. We will incentivize partners based on their integration process and performance, including daily users and trading volumes, to allocate rewards.
10. Could you provide the addresses involved in the STIP Bridge initiative (multisig to receive funds, contracts for distribution, and any other relevant contract involved), and highlight if they changed compared to the previous STIP proposal?
Multisig to receive funds - 0x3CA3570F06ee8AeDBC0A395D5aD633e786310E73
Contracts for distribution - 0x6d9e6bdfd17955b8b8a3fe0e02375e65e3f20d0a
11. Could you share any feedback or suggestions on what could be improved in future incentive programs, what were the pain points and what was your general evaluation of the experience?
Thank you for the opportunity to let us be part of the incentive program.
We found the experience to be enriching and beneficial. However, we believe that additional marketing support from Arbitrum could enhance the impact and reach of participants’ projects. We suggest that future programs could include some official marketing resources for projects.