An overview of WOO Network (WOO), an exchange ecosystem built on CeFi and DeFi
Most often, founders of exchange companies focus on building either a centralized (CEX) or decentralized crypto exchange (DEX). But it also happens that some of them develop products focused on decentralized (DeFi) and centralized finance (CeFi) markets simultaneously. This is precisely what the creators of the WOO Network protocol did, providing a wide range of products and services for traders of different ranks.
What is WOO Network?
WOO Network is a liquidity protocol that unites trading platforms from Web2 and Web3 into a single ecosystem. In other words, the WOO Network consists of decentralized exchanges and AMM protocols. The WOO Network does not have its blockchain network, which can confuse when reading the name.
The protocol has been in development for several years and was launched in 2020 — during the heyday of the decentralized finance market (DeFi), which soon hurt the project token, but more on that later.
How does WOO work?
WOO Network stands out among most crypto exchanges because its ecosystem includes centralized (CEXes) and decentralized exchange platforms (DEXes) and automated market makers. Spot and futures trading of crypto-assets is available in WOO Network's core protocols.
The trading platform was the first to utilize Payment for Order Flow (PFOF), a model that rewards brokers for sending orders to various market participants, in its exchange solutions.
WOO ecosystem
The WOO Network ecosystem includes major decentralized blockchain and DeFi protocols such as:
- BNB Smart Chain,
- Avalanche,
- Polygon,
- Chainlink,
- Optimism,
- LayerZero,
- Base,
- ZkSync,
- Linea,
- Algorand,
- Crypto.com,
- dYdX,
- Trader Joe,
- Poloniex and others.
In addition, WOO Network has gained strong partners, including Binance, Kronos Research, and Near.
The main protocols included in the WOO Network ecosystem are WOO X and WOOFi. Let's talk about them in a bit more detail.
1. WOO X
A centralized exchange with low trading fees and deep liquidity that features a customizable advanced trading terminal interface. In addition, WOO X provides APIs for integration with partner exchanges and other institutions.
2. WOOFi
Decentralized exchange platform with low commissions, slippage, and fair swap (exchange) prices. The WOOFi protocol uses an advanced proactive market maker (sPMM) algorithm that avoids intermediary control, yet operates similarly to the order mechanisms of CEX exchanges. This differentiates WOOFi from decentralized exchanges like Uniswap or PancakeSwap, which use an automated market maker (AMM) model.
WOO token
WOO was originally an ERC-20 token issued on the Ethereum blockchain. Subsequently, the team added 9 new blockchains, and now it is possible to use this crypto asset in:
- BNB Smart Chain (BEP-20),
- Solana (SLP),
- Avalanche,
- Polygon,
- Arbitrum,
- Near Protocol,
- Heco,
- Fantom,
- OEKxChain.
The WOO token has many different features:
- 80% of revenue from trader commissions on WOOFi goes to WOO stakers;
- Free trading for staking;
- Reduced commissions for institutional traders;
- Gaining access to startups launching in the WOO Network ecosystem;
- Higher yields in WOO X Earn on significant assets such as BTC, ETH, and USDT;
- Receive income for staking with multipliers for completing tasks on WOO X.
Let's summarize the listed functions: users can access WOO token staking, which allows them to receive yields and trading bonuses on the WOO X and WOOFi exchanges. In addition, tokens can be added to liquidity pools and used for lending in different blockchain networks.
The total number of WOO tokens is 2.23 billion, but only 1.8 billion are traded on the market. At the same time, the token has no maximum issuance. In other words, WOO is an inflationary token.
The market capitalization of WOO exceeds $723 million, and according to this indicator, the token is in the 83rd place of the CoinMarketCap rating. The capitalization is approaching its maximum value, which will be reached in November 2021 at $919 million.
The WOO token's exchange rate is $0.40 at the time of writing, and it has increased more than 2.5 times over the past year from $0.15. However, the price is still more than 6 times lower than the all-time high reached at $2.48 in November 2021. The WOO token has been floated by significant crypto exchanges, including Binance, ByBit, OKX, HTX, and Bitget.
Outlook for the WOO Network
The disadvantages of WOO include the fact that the price of the token is highly dependent on the number and activity of traders. If a user does not trade directly on WOO X, there is less incentive to keep the WOO token.
Also, the token has unlimited issuance, which may negatively affect its exchange rate in the long term. To ensure the growth of WOO price, the team will need to maintain a constantly growing demand for its products or implement a token-burning mechanism to reduce the emission rate.
Note that the number of active DeFi users has been growing rapidly in recent months, which has already positively impacted the WOO token rate. Additionally, analysts predict that the trading volumes of DEX exchanges will reach new highs in 2024.
However, DEX exchange WOOFi cannot boast of high liquidity yet: according to DeFi Llama, the number of blocked assets in this protocol (TVL) is only about $18 million. WOOFi is not yet in the top 50 DEX exchanges by this indicator. However, the combined daily trading volume on all WOO Network platforms exceeds $419 mln, which is already quite a decent figure.