Acceleration25: Folks Roadmap and 2024 Retrospective

2025 is shaping up to be a heavyweight year for Folks, with a governance token launch, a top-class mobile app, new chain expansions, strategic partnerships and innovative new features all on the horizon.

In the last few years, Folks has kept pushing its commitment to DeFi innovation, and the previous achievements are fuel for the team to strengthen that commitment in the future.

What came before was merely a preview of what’s to come. Before we look forward, let’s reflect on 2024, a monumental year.

2024’s Highlights

The biggest milestone of the year was the launch of xChain, the crosschain lending markets which Folks had been building for over a year. xChain allows you to deposit and borrow on multiple, different chains simultaneously, without the need for bridging. It also creates unified pools for crosschain assets like USDC and solvBTC, with more coming. Simply put, this means no more liquidity fragmentation, unparalleled crosschain markets, and improved interest rates on assets — a breakthrough in DeFi only available with Folks.

Together, those innovations make xChain into a next-generation lending protocol. xChain is the culmination of extensive R&D in crosschain DeFi, which has established Folks as a pioneer and leader in the crosschain space.

A new TVL watermark was reached during 2024. In November, Folks’ TVL reached an all-time high of $400 million, concurrently rising to over 75% of Algorand’s DeFi TVL.

Before open-sourcing the code of xALGO, Folks held the first Immunefi Audit Competition on Algorand, an event that brought together the Algorand developer community to compete for $30,000 in rewards.

Folks closed a fundraising round led by Borderless Capital of $3.2 million, at a valuation of $75 million, raising the total investment into the protocol to $6.2 million. Notable participants in the round include Sovo Ventures, Mapleblock, the Algorand Foundation, and Dewhales. Find the full article and investor list by clicking here.

Folks Points launched in October and will play a significant role around the time of the token launch. Get points for depositing, borrowing, and repaying on both apps, plus staking and swapping on Algorand.

Additionally, points can be collected from social tasks and quests. Don’t miss the chance to get some points in your account before it’s too late!

In mid-January, an in-app points hub will launch which will unlock extra utility and convenience.

Points for retroactive use of Folks will begin hitting Algorand users in batches, with the first batch coming in January.

Galxe quests are also live for extra points, but closing soon. Points will evolve in 2025. Don’t miss out!

Folks won awards in Davos and Milan. By placing 1st in the “DeFi Trendsetters” category at the World Economic Forum, then winning the grand prize at the pitch competition during ETHConnect, Folks was recognized with high honors for achievements throughout the year.

The Folks team appeared and spoke at multiple elite conferences throughout the year, including Algorand Decipher, Chainlink Smartcon, the Avalanche Summit, WebSummit, and Fireblocks Spark.

2025 is Folks’ year:

Folks has kept building during the last few years. Now, it’s time to harvest the fruits and grow. The vision has always been strictly focusing on DeFi that can take over CEXs and combine with TradFi in the long term. In the last few months, DeFi volumes have been larger than CEXs and US stock exchanges. The technology is here to win, and so is Folks.

Algorand Staking

xALGO is ready to spark fire onchain as the primary Liquid Staking Token for Algorand. Mint xALGO and stay liquid while collecting rewards every block. Plus, Ultrastake will let you multiply your xALGO exposure up to 4x. Use xALGO across the Algorand ecosystem for trading, farming, and spending, or in the Folks lending markets as collateral. It will be the most complete, rewarding, and applicable LST on Algorand. xALGO simply does more.

Assets and Chains

With its unique crosschain tech, Folks plans to become the primary destination for crosschain asset lending. USDC and solvBTC, both of which are already available on Folks xChain, were the first steps.

Crosschain assets, combined with a crosschain protocol, enable unified markets, which solves the problem of liquidity fragmentation other protocols succumb to. Instead of having separate pools on different chains, it all combines into a large, deeply liquid market, regardless of where it’s deposited from or borrowed to.

Mobile App

To reach a larger userbase, DeFi needs to simplify. While the values of decentralization and self-custody remain close, not everyone can be expected to manage private keys when they begin. To create an experience familiar to a wide-ranging audience, Folks is developing a mobile app. Information about beta access will be shared soon.

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Folks loves hearing from you all; don’t hesitate to share your ideas about Folks on the community channels. Join our social channels here.

We’ll have major announcements coming on a regular basis. Now, we build. Happy New Year!