Alpha Finance Lab

What Is Alpha Finance Lab (ALPHA)?

Alpha Finance Lab is a cross-chain DeFi platform that looks to bring alpha to users across a variety of different blockchains, including Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Ethereum.

The platform aims to produce an ecosystem of DeFi products that address unmet needs in the industry while remaining simple to use and access. The first product built by Alpha Finance Lab is Alpha Lending, a decentralized lending protocol with algorithmically-adjusted interest rates.

Leveraged yield-farming platform Alpha Homora was the second product launched by the platform, whereas AlphaX — a non-orderbook perpetual swap product — is scheduled to launch in 2021.

ALPHA is the native utility token of the platform. Token holders can earn a share of network fees by staking ALPHA tokens to cover any default loans. Other use cases for the token include liquidity mining and governance voting.

Alpha Finance Lab will implement governance via a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) allowing ALPHA holders to vote on the specifics of future Alpha products, and decide how they interoperate. This governance procedure is split over two levels: product-level governance and finance-level governance, giving token holders a great deal of control over the future of Alpha.

Who Are the Founders of Alpha Finance Lab?

Alpha Finance Lab (ALPHA) launched in 2020, following a public token sale on the Binance Launchpad.

The platform was founded by Tascha Punyaneramitdee, Alpha Finance Labs' project lead and a former head of strategy at Band Protocol. Prior to her position at Alpha Finance Lab, Punyaneramitdee gained extensive experience working with global financial firms — most recently working as an investment banking analyst at Jefferies from 2017-2018, and product manager at technology giant Tencent from 2018 to 2020.

In addition to Punyaneramitdee, the Alpha Finance Labs core team also includes lead engineer and blockchain researcher Nipun Pitimanaaree, a graduate in Mathematics and Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who won a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) four years in a row.

In total, the Alpha Finance Labs team consists of at least seven members, according to its official LinkedIn page.

What Makes Alpha Finance Lab Unique?

Alpha Finance Lab looks to differentiate itself from other DeFi ecosystems by actively seeking, identifying and addressing unmet needs in the DeFi space with a breakneck development cycle.

Unlike other platforms, Alpha Finance Lab looks to ensure its solutions don’t just offer in-demand utility but are also user-friendly, helping to make DeFi more accessible. Each product developed by Alpha Finance Lab also acts to bolster the entire Alpha ecosystem, by providing additional utility for ALPHA token holders.

Alpha Finance Lab’s first products each claim to bring an entirely new solution to the market. Alpha Homora is the first platform to introduce the leveraged yield farming concept and with the launch of Alpha Homora V2 in 2021, it will introduce the first smart contract that is capable of borrowing from another smart contract (Cream Finance) in an under-collateralized way.

Moreover, once launched, AlphaX will become the first Uniswap/Sushiswap-style perpetual swap decentralized exchange without order books. This will allow more individuals to access the benefits of perpetual swaps (such as trading on leverage), without having to understand how they work in the background.

How Many Alpha Finance Lab (ALPHA) Coins Are There in Circulation?

The ALPHA token was initially launched with a circulating supply of 174.1 million tokens out of a total of 1 billion ALPHA.

According to Binance’s Alpha Finance Labs research paper, the total supply of ALPHA tokens is allocated as follows:

Binance Launchpad Sale: 10.00% of the total token supply

Binance Launchpool: 5.00% of the total token supply

Private Sale: 13.33% of the total token supply

Liquidity Mining: 20.00% of the total token supply

Team & Advisors: 15.00% of the total token supply

Ecosystem: 36.67% of the total token supply

How Is the Alpha Finance Lab Network Secured?

As an ERC-20 token, ALPHA is backed by one of the most robust and secure blockchain networks in popular usage — Ethereum. It is kept secure by its extensive proof-of-work (POW) mining network, which uses an army of dedicated miners to maintain the integrity of the network.

Although Alpha Finance Labs has dedicated developers and researchers, it also relies on external audits to ensure its smart contracts are secure. For example, Alpha Finance Labs has enlisted both PeckShield and Quantstamp to audit the smart contract code for Alpha Homora V2.