The new and improved iteration of PERP staking utilizing the veToken model on Optimism has launched. Read on to find out more and how you can earn a share of the 25K PERP weekly rewards!
Want to earn an easy stream of income? Lazy River allows you to do exactly that and sets the stage for our eventual USDC fee distribution. While we’re building the most anticipated tokenomic component, vePERP holders can enjoy PERP tokens rewards, depending on their locked token amount and lock time.
The launch of PERP staking on Optimism provides incentive for holders and referral partners to lock into vePERP and earn a flow of passive income.
Lock PERP ‘n’ Chill
To participate in the Lazy River initiative, you must do the following:
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If you don’t already hold PERP on Optimism, bridge some tokens over.
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Head over to token.perp.com and select Lazy River.
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Lock PERP into vePERP (any amount above 0) and select a lock time of at least 2 weeks.
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Collect PERP rewards every Thursday (which are determined by your unweighted vePERP balance).
The rewards depend on the proportion of the total amount of unweighted vePERP that you hold. Let’s look at how it works in practice. If a user has an expired lock or no locked PERP, they will not receive any rewards.
vePERP
Read our introduction to vePERP here:
What is Unweighted vePERP?
Your vePERP balance depends on how much PERP you have locked into the contract and how long until the lock expires. There are two methods we use in our system to calculate the vePERP balance: weighted and unweighted.
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Weighted PERP initially starts at four times the amount of PERP tokens locked, and gradually decays over time. At the lock’s expiry, weighted vePERP equals the amount of tokens you had originally locked up, giving us a way to track the balances that can be converted back into liquid PERP.
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Unweighted PERP is initially equal to the amount of PERP tokens locked up, but then decays over time to reach 0 when the lock time expires, as shown by the chart below. The distribution of rewards for Lazy River will be determined by the unweighted balance. Note that the locked PERP balance remains constant over time and never changes.
An approximation for the balance of unweighted vePERP is as follows:
Unweighted vePERP = Locked PERP x (1/52) x lock time remaining in weeks
Note: locking PERP is irreversible and your balance will not become liquid until the lock time is up, at which point you can convert vePERP into PERP. The diagram below illustrates how the vePERP balance evolves over time when 10,000 PERP is locked for the maximum of 52 weeks.
The Flow of Lazy River
A snapshot will be taken every Thursday at 00:00 UTC since we utilize Curve’s FeeDistributor contract for vePERP. That means you’ll have to lock into vePERP before Thursday 00:00 UTC to be eligible for the following week’s reward distribution.
Right after the week ends on the following Thursday at 00:00 UTC, we will calculate the rewards.
Liquid PERP will then become available to claim by vePERP holders in the following week.
Why Take Part in Lazy River?
Lazy River offers vePERP holders to earn an easy stream of income as we work on the USDC fee distribution (expected to go live in Q4 2022/early 2023). Note that there’s a maximum cap of 25,000 PERP per week.
The amount of vePERP that you own as a percentage of the total will determine your earnings, where you can earn liquid PERP according to the amount of trading fees generated.
The fees across all markets are summed, then 10% of the USDC amount is converted to PERP using a 7-day time-weighted average price and then distributed to vePERP holders.
Here’s an example to illustrate how rewards are calculated.
Yield Calculation Example
If the trading fees on Perp v2 over a particular week (Thursday to Thursday) total $150,000, and the price of PERP is $0.65, that means just over 23,000 PERP would be distributed as rewards to vePERP holders the following Thursday.
In the following examples, we look at the simplistic scenario where a total of 500,000 PERP is locked into vePERP across all participants, for an average lock time of 26 weeks. The total unweighted vePERP is then calculated as:
500,000 x 1/52 x 26 = 250,000 vePERP
Now what happens if you are one of these vePERP holders, and you lock 10,000 PERP for the maximum lock time of 52 weeks?
You’d start with 10,000 unweighted vePERP. To increase this balance and, in turn, your share of rewards, you must lock more PERP. If that isn’t possible, you’d have to extend the lock time (or increase your referral earnings).
Since 10,000 vePERP equals 4% of the total locked supply, you’d be entitled to the same share of the PERP rewards for that week. When the 23,077 PERP emissions are allocated to vePERP holders, you’d receive 923 PERP the following Thursday.
For the following week, if you don’t lock more PERP or extend the lock time, your unweighted vePERP decreases to 9,807.70. But you could just lock up your 923 PERP reward for 52 weeks to bring your unweighted balance to 10,730.70 vePERP. Whether there’s an increase in your share depends on how other participants are managing their vePERP.
What if instead of the maximum of 52 weeks, you locked up 10,000 PERP for only 26 weeks?
In this case, you’d have 5,000 unweighted vePERP. Your share of the PERP rewards would be 2%, and continuing the previous example, the 2% share equals 461.5 PERP.
As the two examples above show, higher rewards are earned when you lock as much PERP for as long as possible (up to 52 weeks). Weekly rewards can be locked up every week to earn even more!
Go with the Flow of the Lazy River!
Sharing trading fees with PERP holders is the eventual goal of our veTokenomics, which will be a massive gamechanger and deliver real yield. But until then, get whisked away in Lazy River by heading over to token.perp.com and effortlessly earn an income stream on your vePERP balance!
As passed by this governance vote, 20% of the USDC generated by trading fees will eventually be distributed equally between vePERP holders and the treasury once the insurance fund reaches a certain threshold. However, for the Lazy River initiative, liquid PERP is distributed to vePERP holders at an amount equal to 10% of trading fees.
If you want to learn more about vePERP, how to use the locker and more, check out our vePERP FAQs. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to us via our social channels linked below.
Note: we reserve the right to modify the rules of the Lazy River initiative, such as the duration and emissions.