[BIP-674] Enable Gauge for gUSDC / Aave USDC [Arbitrum]

PR with Payload

https://github.com/BalancerMaxis/multisig-ops/pull/1227

Summary:

Gains Network (gTrade) is a decentralized perpetual futures trading platform on Arbitrum. Gains Network aims to list a gUSDC/Aave USDC pool, gUSDC benefits from protocol fees on gTrade, while Aave USDC receives borrow yield through Aave. We chose to establish this on Balancer to attract significant liquidity and bolster further integrations within the Arbitrum DeFi ecosystem.

References/Useful links:

Link to: • Website https://gains.trade/ • Documentation https://gains-network.gitbook.io/docs-home • Github Page https://github.com/GainsNetwork-org • Communities https://x.com/GainsNetwork_io - https://discord.com/invite/gains-network • Other useful links? https://dune.com/gains/gtrade_stats https://balancer.fi/pools/arbitrum/v2/0x69d9bc07a19caad9ae4ca40af18d5a688839a29900020000000000000000058e

Protocol Description:

Gains Network (gTrade) is a decentralized perpetual futures trading platform with a robust infrastructure featuring 197 trading pairs with high leverage [up to 150x for crypto, 250x for commodities, and 1000x on forex], deep liquidity, guaranteed order execution, and accurate pricing. Since inception, the protocol has generated $78.3B lifetime volume. The asset Gains Network would like to list on Balancer is gUSDC paired with Aave USDC. gUSDC is one of the gVault tokens that receives a share of the protocol fees by serving as a counterparty to trader wins & losses. The history price of gUSDC can be publicly viewed on our dune dashboard linked above. It has generally been an “up-only” asset with the exception of a few dips shortly after the launch of the asset back in January. The historical price of gUSDC can be found here: https://dune.com/queries/3385617/5681244 And, here: https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/gains-network-usdc

Motivation: Gains Network aims to enable a gauge for a gUSDC / Aave USDC pool to significantly increase the liquidity for gUSDC on secondary markets by pairing this with a highly capital efficient asset like Aave USDC. This will set the foundation for more integrations with the purpose of expanding gUSDC utility across Arbitrum DeFi. It's great to pair gUSDC with Aave USDC because this increases the overall yield in the pool and increases the attractiveness of the entire pool from an LP perspective. Furthermore, an E-CLP pool allows you to build a curve that specifically suits gUSDC and the related price volatility.

Specifications: Gains Network will utilize a part of its STIP.B LP incentives budget to bootstrap more (sticky) liquidity for the gUSDC vault as it anticipates more USDC-collateral usage on gTrade over the coming months. Initially, the focus will be on building liquidity on partner DEXs for gUSDC pools, including this Balancer pool. This strategy aims to unlock various partnership opportunities, creating an ecosystem around gUSDC through lending markets, LP-strategy protocols, and more. Gains Network is seeking to co-incentivize this pool with Balancer to establish the required liquidity as a foundation for said gUSDC integrations and consecutively form a long-term partnership with Balancer as one of the main venues for gUSDC since Gains Network believes Balancer’s pool designs can be largely be maintained beyond STIP.B incentives through swapping fees & incentives post the bootstrapping phase.

1. Governance: Provide current information on the protocol’s governance structure. Provide links to any admin and/or multisig addresses, and describe the powers afforded to these addresses. If there are plans to change the governance system in the future, please explain.

The incentives distributor is governed by the following Multisig address: 0xc5fCA2c19c5Ca269a10e15ee4A800ed82F53787D And, Gains Network is actively working towards being a DAO governed through the $GNS token.

2. Oracles: Does the protocol rely on external oracles? If so, provide details about the oracles and their implementation in the protocol.

gTrade leverages their own custom-built Chainlink decentralized oracle network (DON) to provide real-time, aggregated prices for their leveraged trading products. The oracle architecture uses a custom DON to supply on-demand prices to an aggregator contract while the official Chainlink Price Feeds serve as anchors, meaning if their price differs by more than 1.5% from Chainlink Price Feeds, a circuit breaker is triggered.

3. Audits: Provide links to audit reports and any relevant details about security practices.

Audits are conducted with each upgrade Gains Network undergoes. With the release of V8 in May, the entire codebase has been audited. Moreover, the release of V9 [current version] has been audited as well.

4. Centralization vectors: Is there any component of the protocol that has centralization vectors? E.g. if only 1 dev manages the project, that is a centralized vector. If price oracles need to be updated by a bot, that is a centralized vector. If liquidations are done by the protocol, that is also a centralization vector.

We will state our centralization vectors by giving insights into our most centralized facet: the DON. The current custom decentralized oracle network is operated by 8 independent chainlink node operators & 1 price feed from StorkOracle.

5. Market History: Has the asset observed severe volatility? In the case of stablecoins, has it depegged? In the case of an unpegged asset, have there been extreme price change events in the past? Provide specific information about the Balancer pool: how long has it been active, TVL, historical volume? You must provide a direct link to the pool AND a link to your pool's gauge.

A Balancer has been set up for gUSDC/USDC. This has been running since July 12th where TVL went up to $1.12M and has since come down to around $500K .

https://balancer.fi/pools/arbitrum/v2/0xe8a6026365254f779b6927f00f8724ea1b8ae5e0000000000000000000000580

The gUSDC asset is tradeable on a Ramses CL pool as per June 15th and started to get incentivized with $ARB from June 27th onwards. The pool is currently sitting at $520K TVL and can be found here: https://ramses.exchange/liquidity/v2/0xe9e3ef12f1f9dbaf7b7f57ab262c54117448884b

Recently, a Camelot pool went live on the 5th of August. The TVL currently sits at: $1.04M

https://app.camelot.exchange/pools/0x1470b62eB67225f6EcDF8249293C8052f1cd2717

The new pool that we’re looking to incentivize is:

https://balancer.fi/pools/arbitrum/v2/0x69d9bc07a19caad9ae4ca40af18d5a688839a29900020000000000000000058e

Since the inception of this secondary market pool, Gains Network vaults have been consistently overcollateralized while the gUSDC asset has never been below peg and has not experienced significant volatility. Considering the ‘up-only’ nature of gTokens and gUSDC currently sitting at a 107.88% collateralization ratio, the price of gUSDC is expected to continue its upwards price action as time passes.

6. Value: Is this pool intended to be the primary source of liquidity for the token(s)? If this is not the case, explain the expected value add to Balancer (can this pool generate consistent fees?)

The pool will not serve as the primary source of liquidity in the bootstrapping phase, but will be leveraged as the primary source of liquidity once the bootstrapping phase has passed. The pool can generate consistent fees due to gUSDC depositors only being able to use Balancer as a means of exiting before our epoch system, looping through lending markets & liquidations through lending markets.

Child Chain Gauge - https://arbiscan.io/address/0xdDbDca6213b4a03d8C6fC1419Ef7B0b16B61d363 Mainnet Root Gauge - https://etherscan.io/address/0x86893f6829dA1296F739F50Ff9d3923453E9b48D

Technical Specification:

The Balancer Maxi LM Multisig eth:0xc38c5f97B34E175FFd35407fc91a937300E33860 will interact with the GaugeAdderv4 at 0x5DbAd78818D4c8958EfF2d5b95b28385A22113Cd and call the addGauge function with the following arguments:

gauge(address): 0x86893f6829dA1296F739F50Ff9d3923453E9b48D

gaugeType(string): Arbitrum