Francium: Automated DeFi Strategies on Solana

TL;DR

• Francium is a yield strategy platform built on Solana offering automated strategies like leveraged yield farming, hedged farming, DeFi combinations, and smart trading
• Users can connect their Solana wallet to access a variety of optimized yield strategies
• Francium stands out for its focus on strategy automation, wide range of strategies, and experienced team from leading blockchain and internet companies
• Smart contracts audited by CertiK and SlowMist for added security
• Francium's roadmap includes an auto-compounding vault, NFT strategy marketplace, and more

What is Francium?

Francium is a decentralized yield strategy platform built on the Solana blockchain. Its mission is to provide both users and strategy builders with automated strategies to maximize their yields across Solana DeFi protocols.

The core offerings on Francium currently include:

• Leveraged Yield Farming - Borrowing assets to amplify farming rewards
• Hedged Farming - Delta-neutral strategies to minimize impermanent loss
• DeFi Combination Strategies - Optimized routes across lending, AMM, and more
• Smart Trading Strategies - Algorithmic execution of profitable trading patterns

By aggregating yield opportunities and automating strategy execution, Francium aims to help users earn more with less time and effort spent researching or actively managing positions.

How to Use Francium

To start using Francium, users first need to connect their Solana wallet such as Phantom, Solflare, or Slope. Once connected, they can explore the different strategies available.

Each strategy has a dedicated page with details on:

• The assets involved and % APY
• Historical performance and projected returns
• Risk level and recommended investment horizon
• Required deposit amount and any fees

Users can then deposit assets like SOL, USDC, or Raydium LP tokens into their chosen strategy. Francium will automatically execute the strategy, whether that's leveraged farming, delta-neutral hedging, or route optimization.

Francium's clean interface includes visualizations of each strategy's asset weighting, fee breakdown, and projected earnings over various timeframes. Users can easily claim their rewards or withdraw their deposit at any time.

Strategies & Opportunities on Francium

The strategies available on Francium are designed to maximize yields while minimizing risk. Let's dive into some examples:

Leveraged Yield Farming

• Deposit USDC to borrow RAY and farm the RAY-USDC pool on Raydium
• AI-optimized leverage levels and rebalancing intervals for optimal APY
• Projected 30%+ APY even after borrow costs

Hedged Farming

• Pseudo-delta neutral strategy for SOL-USDC Orca pool
• Uses futures market to hedge against impermanent loss
• Earns trading fees + funded rates while remaining market-neutral
• Backtests show 20%+ APY with minimal volatility

DeFi Combination

• Lend USDC on Solend to borrow mSOL
• Stake mSOL on Marinade while simultaneously farming MNDE rewards
• Projected 12% APY on USDC with auto-compounding

Smart Trading

• Algorithmic execution of mean-reversion trades on Serum
• Profits from volatility harvesting and providing liquidity
• Backtested 35%+ annual returns

Users can mix and match strategies to build a diversified Solana portfolio. Francium also offers strategy recommendations based on the user's risk tolerance, investment horizon, and asset balance.

What Makes Francium Special

While there are other yield aggregators on Solana, Francium stands out for its focus on strategy automation and variety. Rather than simply auto-compounding a single farm, Francium offers leveraged, hedged, and combination strategies to maximize returns in any market condition.

This is enabled by Francium's experienced team which includes experts in algorithmic trading, quantitative research, and smart contract development from top blockchain and internet companies.

Some other key differentiators of Francium include:

• Backtesting tools to validate strategies with historical data
• Risk assessment and impermanent loss projections per strategy
• Strategy leaderboard to see top performing vaults and builders
• Strategy customization with adjustable parameters like leverage and rebalancing periods
• NFT strategy marketplace for users to copy trade top strategists (in development)

Francium's strategies are powered by battle-tested smart contracts audited by leading security firms CertiK and SlowMist. The protocol also has insurance coverage from Neptune Mutual and Bright Union.

Francium Tokenomics

Francium's native token $FRA is used to align incentives between the protocol, strategy builders, and users. The token was fairly launched without any VC investment, founder allocation, or pre-mine.

$FRA has several use cases:

• Staking to earn a share of protocol revenue
• Governance to vote on strategy approvals, fee changes, etc.
• Boosting rewards for selected vaults and strategies
• Fee discounts on performance fees and withdrawals
• Collateral to borrow other assets and increase leverage

The initial total supply is capped at 100M $FRA with the following distribution:

• 50% to Francium users via liquidity mining
• 25% to the protocol treasury for development and incentives
• 15% to strategy builders and strategists
• 10% to the core team with a 3 year vesting schedule

There is a low 0.5% inflation rate to incentivize long-term staking and participation.

Francium Roadmap

Francium launched on mainnet in July 2021 and has since grown to over $80M in total value locked (TVL) with 20,000 active users. The protocol's average yield is 19% across all strategies.

Some notable milestones include:

• July 2021 - Mainnet launch with leveraged yield farming strategies
• August 2021 - $20M TVL and 5,000 users
• October 2021 - Hedged farming and $FRA staking go live
• December 2021 - Smart contract audit by CertiK
• February 2022 - $50M TVL and DeFi combination strategies
• June 2022 - 1st place in the Solana Season Hackathon

The Francium roadmap is packed with ambitious upgrades:

• Q3 2022 - Smart Trading Strategies with Serum
• Q4 2022 - Auto-compounding vaults and performance fee discounts for $FRA stakers
• Q1 2023 - Strategy Builder SDK and NFT Marketplace
• Q2 2023 - Francium DAO launch with $FRA governance
• Q3 2023 - Cross-chain strategies on Ethereum, Polygon, and more

With a focus on innovation, security, and capital efficiency, Francium is well positioned to become the go-to yield strategy platform on Solana and beyond.