[UPDATE] Modified List of Synthetic Assets for Horizon Exchange

Horizon Protocol
2 min readNov 11, 2021

In this update we want to share the modified list of synthetic assets that are planned to be released on Horizon Exchange. We have made changes based on your feedback since our initial list of synthetic assets and a rationale of stability when Horizon Exchange first launches.

Rationale

A main point of concern from both the community and the team are around extremely volatile assets; such as DOGE, GME, SHIBA etc. There are two points of view:

  1. Launching Horizon Exchange with notoriously volatile coins could negatively impact the global collateralization of the protocol at an early stage.
  2. Incorporating volatile coins could enable and attract a large number of users that cannot trade them elsewhere. (A perfect example of Horizon Protocol’s use case).

Ultimately, Horizon Protocol will facilitate as large a range of synthetic assets as possible. The question is how best to reach that point?

The view of the team and a number of the community is to launch Horizon Exchange with a “core” list of synthetic assets that represent stability, maturity, and strength. This means staple assets from the financial and cryptocurrency markets. It would exclude volatile assets from the “core” list. This more stable release of synthetic assets gives everyone a period of time to learn how to best use Horizon Exchange. Thereafter, we can incorporate a broader range of synthetic assets, including more volatile assets, in a staggered implementation. This permits us more control over the impact of different types of synthetic assets as they become part of the Horizon Protocol ecosystem.

On that note, we’ve removed GME in the modified list of synthetic assets to be released on Horizon Exchange:

  • ̶G̶M̶E̶-̶G̶a̶m̶e̶S̶t̶o̶p̶
  • SPY — SPDR S&P 500
  • QQQ — Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1
  • GOOG — Alphabet Inc.
  • AAPL — Apple Inc.
  • TSLA — Tesla, Inc.
  • COIN — Coinbase
  • XAU — Gold
  • XAG — Silver
  • WTI — W&T Offshore, Inc.
  • BTC — Bitcoin
  • ETH — Ethereum
  • BNB — Binance Coin
  • ADA — Cardano
  • LINK — Chainlink
  • CAKE — PancakeSwap
  • DOT — Polkadot
  • SOL — Solana
  • XRP — Ripple
  • EUR — Euro
  • USD — US Dollar
  • JPY — Japanse Yen

This decision is not set in stone. As always, we want to hear from you, the community, what do you think of our modified list and rationale?

You can share your feedback with us in our Telegram channel, by DMing our CMs @DenisG17 and @Trihard on Telegram or by messaging us on Twitter.

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