HaloDAO

HaloDAO was a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol founded in 2020 by Jun Ming Yong and Christopher Verceles, both of whom previously worked at the Ethereum venture studio ConsenSys. Their shared background in blockchain and a passion for financial inclusion drove the project's mission. HaloDAO aimed to build a comprehensive DeFi ecosystem to bridge traditional and permissionless finance, with a particular focus on creating liquidity for stablecoins pegged to currencies other than the US Dollar, especially in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Singapore-based project's core offering was a decentralized application platform designed to facilitate optimized swaps between various stablecoins and other crypto assets through an automated market maker (AMM). This AMM featured a custom bonding curve to enable efficient trading between stablecoins of different values. The protocol also intended to establish a stablecoin-specific lending market, allowing users to earn interest on their digital assets by providing high-interest yields on local currencies. The business model revolved around generating revenue from its lending protocol; deposited collateral (like DAI) would be used in yield-farming strategies, with the profits being distributed among the protocol's treasury, a token buyback-and-burn mechanism, and holders of its native governance token, RNBW (formerly HALO).

HaloDAO successfully raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round in May 2021, led by Parataxis Capital and including other notable investors such as QCP Soteria, Genesis Block Ventures, and Spartan Group. The protocol officially launched on the Ethereum mainnet on June 24, 2021, with a fixed supply of 100 million RNBW tokens. It initially supported stablecoins like TrueHKD (THKD), XSGD, and BIDR, with plans to expand to other networks like Binance Smart Chain and Polygon. A key strategy involved partnerships with regulated e-money providers like TrustToken to enhance on- and off-ramp capabilities and ensure the reliability of asset-backed stablecoins. Despite its initial developments and strategic partnerships, the project is now considered inactive or "deadpooled."

Keywords: HaloDAO, decentralized finance, DeFi, stablecoin marketplace, automated market maker, AMM, crypto lending, Jun Ming Yong, Christopher Verceles, RNBW token, Parataxis Capital, stablecoin swaps, non-USD stablecoins, Asian currencies, financial inclusion, blockchain protocol, crypto payments, yield farming, liquidity provider, TrustToken