Beta Finance is built on the Ethereum main network. Incubated by Alpha Finance Lab, it supports users in lending and leveraged shorting, and focuses on long-tail assets. To enable the support of more volatile assets, Beta Finance has an isolated collateral model, meaning there is no cross-collateralization. It allows users to access a scalable and accessible money market where tokens can be listed permissionless and automatically and where users can short these tokens. Beta Finance plans to launch additional layer one and layer two solutions after its Ethereum Mainnet launch. Users have three options: lending, borrowing, and shorting. Lenders will be able to lend crypto assets for any market that exists on Beta Finance and earn interest on it. Borrowers can take the contrary position, while short-sellers are able to use collateral to initiate short positions. Unlike centralized exchanges, Beta Finance does not use an order book to execute shorts but routes the trade through decentralized exchanges that use automated market makers. As part of its Phase 2 launch, the platform plans to release permissionless money market creation.
BETA is Beta Finance’s native utility token. It is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum and BSC and has the following current and planned functions:
Staking incentives: BETA token holders will be able to stake their tokens on the protocol and act as a backstop for covering shortfall events. BETA holders who stake their tokens will receive a portion of the revenue generated by the protocol.
Liquidity mining: Liquidity providers can stake their assets into the lending pools to enable borrowing and short selling. To incentivize these providers given opportunity costs, liquidity providers will be eligible to receive BETA tokens through a liquidity mining program, adjusted based on a user’s relative contribution and additional parameters.
Governance: BETA token holders will be able to participate and vote in the governance process of the platform. Through governance, users can influence and modify product features and key parameters of Beta Finance. This will enable BETA token holders to influence the direction of the protocol's development.