Folks Finance, the best DeFi platform on Algorand, has been working tirelessly during 2023, introducing new features to their platform, establishing strategic partnerships both within and outside our blockchain in pursuit of a cross-chain future, and participating in numerous blockchain events worldwide, among other achievements.

Before looking on what's coming this 2024, lets do a quick a brief summary of what happened during 2023:

1. Cross-Chain Liquid Governance with xALGO: The introduction of xALGO marked a milestone by making Liquid Governance cross-chain for the first time. xALGO is a liquid staking derivative, a yield-bearing version of ALGO which accrues value from Algorand Governance rewards. It is designed to consistently rise against the price of ALGO as the interest from Governance is collected. xALGO went live on BNB during May and is now also available on Avalanche where you can find a couple of incentivized pools on Trader Joe.

2. Rewards for Participating in Algorand Consensus: Folks responded to the lack of incentives for running nodes on Algorand starting on the 8th Gov period, incorporating rewards for Liquid Governance participants running a node and staking their assets online. Participation is easy and explained in more detail here.

3. EURS, the first EURO stablecoin in Algorand DeFi: EURS, a EURO stablecoin managed by Stasis, was listed for the first time on a DeFi platform in Algorand. Unlike USDC, individuals can mint EURS directly to their Algorand wallet, helping increase circulation on the blockchain.

4. Folks Router, a 'dex aggregator' integrated across the platform: Now, every time you make an exchange on any section of Folks, you do it through Folks Router, an aggregator that ensures the best ratio in exchanges through micro swaps in multiple pools simultaneously, always seeking the best price. More information about Folks Router can be found in this article.

5. Bridged Tokens thanks to Wormhole: Through the Wormhole bridge, various tokens such as wBTC, wETH, wAVAX, wSOL, wMPL, wLINK were introduced, each with attractive incentives in their respective Lending Pools.

6. Ultraswap or 'leverage trading' for dummies: Ultraswap is a new feature that allows for leveraged trading in a simple way, with a great user experience. Just press the UP or DOWN button according to where you project the token price will go. Along with this, the Bulls & Bears competition was introduced, distributing 40k $ALGO. A guide on how it works can be found here.

7. Pera Onramp Integration: This enables direct fiat purchases of $ALGO, $USDC, and $USDT from the Folks Finance platform.
8. Folks Finance & Chainlink: Folks joined Chainlink's BUILD program, which will help accelerate ecosystem growth. Additionally, Folks will incorporate Chainlink's CCIP (Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol), which will be used on Folks upcoming cross-chain lending platform.

And what about the future?

There are three confirmed things happening in 2024, two of which are highly anticipated:

1. The release of their cross-chain lending platform.
2. The launch of $FOLKS.
3. The release of the Folks Mobile App.

Folks Finance's cross-chain lending platform is scheduled to be launched during 2Q24. In 2023, Folks began forging partnerships to empower their platform, starting with Chainlink. They will leverage Chainlink's CCIP (Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol) and also incorporate Circles CCTP (Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol), Wormhole-wrapped assets (already in use on their current platform), and the recent announcement of the Li.Fis partnership, which will enhance swaps and DEX integrations.

More details about the platform are expected to be revealed in the upcoming weeks.

$FOLKS is perhaps the most anticipated token launch on the Algorand blockchain. Not much is known yet besides what is shown on the tokenomics page in their Gitbook. However, it is confirmed that more than 50% of the tokens will be distributed to the community. It will be launched after the release of the cross-chain lending platform, and the team is actively working on the best strategy for its release, along with confirmed airdrops. Interacting with the Folks platform in the next few months might make you eligible for upcoming airdrops. While they haven't explicitly confirmed or denied that interacting with their platform will grant you an airdrop, it won't hurt to do so.

Finally, the Folks Mobile App is currently in conceptual development, and not much is known since all current efforts are focused on the cross-chain lending platform and the $FOLKS token.

And that's it. Probably in the next few weeks, we will hear more details about what is coming.

See ya!