What is inside of Umee DeFi Hub?

4 min readMar 20, 2022

Why is Umee?

Umee is a layer-one blockchain built on Cosmos designed to create a universal cross-chain DeFi hub. It serves as a base layer for future DApps and money legos. Thanks to the interoperability of the Tendermint Proof-of-stake consensus mechanism used, the Umee blockchain can be integrated with Cosmos, Ethereum, side chains, layer-two chains, and alternative base-layer protocols. It was created to address the three main issues plaguing DeFi today:

Detached yields
Concentrated systemic risks
Isolated capital

By introducing bridging solutions that increase capital efficiency and break the siloed structure of different blockchain ecosystems, Umee plans to enable cross-chain lending and borrowing, staking, and cross-chain DeFi rates. Eventually, Umee is to become a hub for all things DeFi, which connects various ecosystems all under the DeFi umbrella. That also includes having its own interest rate instruments and other financial primitives providing financial infrastructure for the crypto industry.

In its roadmap for 2022, Umee plans to deploy its lending and borrowing app on different blockchains like BSC, Solana, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism. Furthermore, it sees protocol developments on top of its base layer, such as meTokens, Staking Curves, and DeFi Debt Protocols.

Who Are the Founders of Umee?

Umee was founded by Brent Xu, a former contributor to the Ethereum ecosystem and former Strategic Advisor to Tendermint. In total, Umee lists 16 employees on its Linkedin, with experience at different blockchain companies like Binance, Yearn, and Sushi, as well as tech companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon.

Furthermore, Umee has raised $6.3 million in a seed round led by Polychain, with investments from Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, and others.

What Makes Umee Unique?

Although many DeFi protocols claim they want to integrate DeFi across blockchains, Umee is in a unique position to do so for several reasons.

First, its Tendermint proof-of-stake consensus mechanism provides a mix of speed and efficiency that enables Umee to create a credible base layer for cross-chain lending and borrowing. Built on the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) interoperability protocol, the flagship Cosmos protocol for cross-chain communication, Umee offers fast transaction finality without multiple block confirmations or excessive time delays.

Furthermore, its Gravity Bridge bridges between Cosmos and Ethereum and allows transfers between the two ecosystems with opposing value propositions. ERC-20 tokens can be used on a chain with fast transaction finality (Cosmos) and then be bridged to a network focused on decentralized validators (Ethereum).

Another key feature of the Umee ecosystem is its Universal Debt Facility, a base layer lending protocol allowing developers to deploy their own customized debt instruments. Thanks to its modular design, future lending pools, and DeFi protocols can build interfaces on top of it.

Umee’s meTokens are used for collateralized liquid staking positions. For example, a trader can have a staked position on one blockchain through the Umee ecosystem and use this staked collateral, represented by a meToken, to open another position in another ecosystem. Furthermore, its uTokens fulfill a similar function for assets lent through the platform’s Universal Debt Facility. Traders receive interest on their lent assets and uTokens represent both the asset and the accruing interest.

$UMEE

UMEE is the native governance token and is used for consensus validation in the network’s PoS architecture. It also accrues network fees from token swaps and is used to pay for gas on Umee, similar to ETH on Ethereum. The token has a total supply of 10 billion according to the following distribution:

Token inflation will depend on the staking participation rate. Inflation can reduce to 7% if the staking rate exceeds the target or rise to 14% if it undershoots the target staking rate. Furthermore, the community can decide to use platform fees for buybacks and burns of UMEE to create deflationary dynamics and raise the token price.

About Umee

Umee is a cross-chain DeFi hub that interconnects between blockchains.

As a base layer blockchain, applications and money lego primitives can be built on top of Umee to access cross-chain leverage and liquidity. The Umee Blockchain facilitates interoperability between the Cosmos ecosystem, Ethereum network, side-chain architectures, layer two scaling solutions, and alternative base-layer protocols. As a Cosmos SDK blockchain, the Umee Network is interoperable with blockchains including Terra, Crypto.com, Binance Chain, Osmosis, Secret Network, and 30+ other chains, plus Ethereum, from Day 1.