Venus

Venus is a decentralized finance (DeFi) lending and borrowing protocol built on BNB Smart Chain (BSC). Venus has two primary BEP-20 tokens in its ecosystem: XVS, a governance token; and VAI, a stablecoin.

The Venus ecosystem

Constructed from the code of MakerDAO and Compound, Venus is a DeFi protocol running on BNB Smart Chain. Essentially, interested parties can put up certain digital assets as collateral for a loan, paying interest on that borrowed capital. Alternatively, lenders can contribute compatible digital assets and earn interest. Venus Protocol works with BEP-20 tokens, which are assets running on BSC.

Lenders send BEP-20 tokens to Venus Protocol and receive vTokens in return. These vTokens represent their loaned capital and can be sent and stored similarly to other BEP-20 tokens. They take on the ticker name of the lent asset, except with a lowercase “v” in front of them. For example, if a person lent BNB — Binance’s ecosystem asset — they would receive vBNB in return, for the duration of the loan. Sending that vBNB back would then return the lender’s loaned BNB. Lending assets to Venus Protocol generates interest for the lender.

In contrast, borrowers must send BEP-20 tokens to Venus Protocol as collateral in proportion to the value of capital they wish to borrow. Borrowers must provide more collateral than they receive as a loan, called “overcollateralization.” Collateralization rates vary depending on which asset a user puts up as collateral. If a borrower’s collateral value falls below the required threshold, a liquidation might occur. Liquidations trigger a penalty fee and result in the sale (and loss) of the collateral assets to the tune of the borrowed value, with any remaining collateral given back to the borrower. 

Venus Protocol also has a stablecoin, VAI, backed by digital asset collateral and classified as a synthetic stablecoin. The protocol aims to keep the value of VAI at $1 (U.S. dollars) per token, thanks to specific measures. Lenders, also subject to overcollateralization requirements, can mint VAI with their vTokens on Venus Protocol. 

XVS is also part of the Venus ecosystem as a governance token. Governance plays several roles in the Venus ecosystem, such as choosing collateralization level requirements. Additionally, via governance, Venus Protocol allows for the development of new synthetic stablecoins.

Venus (XVS) price

Referring to Venus’ price most directly means talking about the price of Venus’ token XVS. A live XVS to USD price is available at the top of the page. The XVS chart above shows a history of XVS’ price to USD.