Deploy ATOM to Margined Redemption Rate Arbitrage Strategy

Description

This proposal asks for the deployment of 50k ATOM (~$415k) to the Margined Protocol Redemption Rate Arbitrage Strategy.

About the Strategy

The Margined Redemption Rate Arbitrage Strategy (RRArb) strategy takes advantage of the tendency of Liquid Staked Tokens (LSTs) to trade for less than the equivalent of the underlying staked assets and automates the arbitrage process for participants.

This consists of:

• Buying the LST below a known optimal discount rate which is based on the opportunity cost of unbonding and trading fees.
• Performing a cross-chain redemption transaction to redeem the LST for an instant, but pending unbonding, profit.
• Looping this activity when the redeemed assets become available.

RRArb strategies are based on a single staking asset, but multiple LSTs derived from that asset are arbitraged.

In this case, ATOM is held by the strategy and used to purchase stATOM, dATOM and qATOM on Osmosis when it can redeem these LSTs for more ATOM than the number of ATOM used to purchase them.

This strategy, funded by the Osmosis Grants Program, has been live for three months and has consistently been above or similar to ATOM staking APR while supporting both the peg of ATOM LSTs for use cases on Osmosis as well as contributing to volume through these pools, which in turn attracts liquidity around the market rate and generates protocol fees.

Margined charges a 15% performance fee for this strategy. This is paid on profits accrued by the deposit so the initial deposit quantity of tokens is not impacted.

There is a 0.5% withdrawal penalty for withdrawals within 21 days. Osmosis governance commits to retaining liquidity in the vault for this period to make this obsolete, barring any security related need for withdrawal.

Risk Analysis

Asset Risk

As this deployment does not change the composition of the Community Pool holdings, there is no change in Asset risk.

Contract Risk

Margined contracts have recently completed an audit, and this strategy has been in operation for three months with no incidents.

Three RRArb contracts are running, securing around $667k in liquidity, mostly in OSMO, before this deployment.

LST Risk

The strategy is exposed to the LST asset for a very brief period before unbonding occurs. The risk of exposure is increased due to the unbonding and distribution mechanism requiring 14 days. All three assets have been operational for at least three months with no incidents.

As this contract is purchasing LSTs below a set price, it may purchase a compromised LST that has no backing, resulting in a loss of funds.

This would only occur if the deposit were liquid and awaiting an arbitrage opportunity. As most assets will be in the process of unbonding or not intended for arbitrage as a withdrawal float, this risk can be mitigated by Margined pausing the arbitrage strategy contract.

Lack of Returns

As purchases are only performed when there is an available opportunity, the return may eventually be less than ATOM inflation. This still will outperform the current return of holding unstaked assets in the Osmosis Community Pool and only be the case when the peg of LSTs is very close to the redemption rate, improving their utility on Osmosis.

Use of Multisig for execution

This 4/6 multisig has previously been used to deploy liquidity in other proposals, acting as an intermediary to perform multi-stage or time-dependant transactions, such as adding liquidity to a pool with a ratio of assets that will vary before a five-day Osmosis governance proposal is completed.

Technical Implementation

50,000 ATOM will be sent to the Osmosis Liquidity SubDAO.

This will be deposited into the Margined Redemption Rate Arbitrage Strategy - ATOM

The representative tokens for this position will be returned to the Osmosis community pool.

Success Metrics

• Revenue earned in ATOM terms based on existing deposit (50,000)
• Improved peg for ATOM LSTs (Current 3.5% discount to Redemption Rate)
• Increased volume through LST pools (Current 7D, $4.1M in stATOM, 1283, 38k in dATOM, 2371)

Conclusion

Deploying 50,000 ATOM to the Margined Redemption Rate Arbitrage Strategy (RRArb) offers a promising opportunity for existing unutilized assets within Osmosis Community Pool. This strategy has already demonstrated consistent returns comparable to ATOM staking APR on the currently unutilized community pool ATOM while generating volume on Osmosis to attract LPs, supporting the peg of ATOM-derived LSTs, and generating additional protocol fees.

Overall, this deployment aligns with Osmosis’ goals to enhance ecosystem utility and generate sustainable value for the protocol from existing holdings.

Forum Post:https://forum.osmosis.zone/t/deploy-atom-and-tia-to-margined-redemption-rate-arbitrage-strategy/3332