DeFi protocol Balancer will find a second home on the NEAR Protocol

DeFi • October 26, 2020, 5:09PM EDT

UPDATED: October 26, 2020, 5:20PM EDT

Major Ethereum-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Balancer will also be available via NEAR, an Ethereum competitor that just fully opened its mainnet last week. The team behind the smart contract platform, which promises reduced latency and fees compared with Ethereum, announced the news on Monday.

Balancer is an automated market maker that provides users with financial building blocks on which users can build DeFi products and services. Developed by Balancer Labs, the protocol is the third-largest decentralized exchange (DEX) on Ethereum by monthly volume.

Balancer Labs's head of growth Jeremy Musighi said the team will continue to focus on Ethereum-based development in addition to its NEAR-focused work.

"We welcome the opportunity to support building on-chain liquidity on NEAR, while observing and learning from how Balancer’s technology performs when paired with the lower gas fees and low latency that the NEAR protocol offers," he said.

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Saniya More (pronounced: Saan-ya Mo-ray) is a quadrilingual journalist at The Block. She got her master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and did her undergraduate degree at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University. Her work has appeared in CBS News, Bangkok Post, Thai Enquirer, Globalists, Byline Times and other publications. When she’s not chasing a story, you will most likely find her biking, tweeting, taking photos or creating Spotify playlists for every occasion.