Loopring Quarterly Update (Q2/2023)

Byron @ Loopring
Loopring Protocol
Published in
17 min readJul 3, 2023

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This is the second edition of four for our 2023 Loopring Quarterly Updates. You can catch up on the previous quarter here; you can also receive these updates in your inbox every quarter by subscribing here.

As the bear market in crypto pushes on, with signs of a new bull market possibly emerging, we have been continuing to push forward ourselves, delivering many new key features and app updates throughout Q2.

Some of the highlights from this quarter have been the introduction of NFT Red Packets, Block Trading going live, and the announcement of Loopring L3. On the community side, we are very excited to see the adoption of Loopring Gaming taking off, with some clear community favourites emerging.

There’s a lot packed into this report, so sit back and read on for many more highlights as well as a look into the upcoming roadmap for the Loopring ecosystem.

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Milestones in Q2/2023 🔥

  • Just under $6billion in total trading volume has been achieved on L2
  • Over 205K total L2 accounts now created
  • Loopring Gaming kicking off with multiple games integrating NFT Red Packets

Summary of Q1

1. Red Packet NFTs are now LIVE

In case you somehow missed it, we are looking to bring NFTs to the masses on Ethereum with new innovative NFT Red Packets on Loopring.

You can now distribute millions NFTs for pennies on Ethereum’s second layer — unlocking endless possibilities for gaming, ticketing, airdrops and more! Quickly and easily send and receive NFTs with a custom QR code through your Loopring L2 account.

NFT Red Packets have quickly become a huge hit in the community, with users sharing them all over social media and even integrating them into games (more on this in the community section below).

Try them out today by connecting to the Loopring dApp or directly integrated into your Loopring Smart Wallet on Layer 2.

2. Loopring x Taiko: Ready Layer 3

Our collaboration with Taiko zkEVM pushed onward this past quarter!

We are very excited to continue rolling out Multi-network support within Loopring Smart Wallet — this quarter with the integration of Taiko’s brand new alpha 3 testnet!

Taiko recently announced that their new testnet, Grímsvötn, is now LIVE, and we wanted to make it as simple as possible for any user around the world to interact with it, complete tasks, and earn NFT rewards.

Want to start using the Taiko testnet today? — All you have to do is:

  • download the Loopring Smart Wallet from your mobile App Store
  • create a Taiko testnet wallet
  • complete the tasks in the checklist
  • earn a participation NFT!

Want to learn more about this collaboration or what tasks there are to complete? Read the full blog here.

But that’s not all…

We also announced that we will be deploying our first-ever Layer 3 on top of Taiko. But more details on that in the Path Forward section below👇

3. Block Trade: liquidity on demand direct on L2

At Loopring, our mission is to enable the world to become their own bank, directly from the safety and security of their self-custodial wallet. You should never have to give up custody of your hard earned assets to a trusted third party.

Our new feature, “Block Trade,” utilizes multiple liquidity sources, particularly CEX liquidity. It enables users to access top liquidity directly on L2 while maintaining complete control of their assets through their self-custodial wallets. No longer do you need to risk your funds on a centralized exchange!

This feature is designed specifically for CEX users who wish to eliminate the risk associated with entrusting their funds to a third party. Additionally, it caters to existing DeFi users who typically face the need to transfer significant orders back to a CEX for execution, only to withdraw them again to their self-custodial wallets in order to obtain more favorable pricing.

As DeFi continues to grow rapidly, we believe that Block Trade could be the turning point that encourages the majority of crypto users to take control of their funds and fully experience the benefits of crypto. There are no more excuses for keeping your funds on a centralized exchange!

As we onboard new users to Loopring L2, we will continually enable various DeFi and earning opportunities, allowing both new and existing users to assume complete control over their assets. This gradual process will bring new liquidity and capital into the ecosystem, ensuring its sustained growth.

Read the full blog here, or try out the feature today on the web dApp or in your mobile Loopring Smart Wallet.

4. Introducing Stop-Limits

Trade smarter, not harder — Automated Stop-Limits are now LIVE on Loopring L2⚡️

You’ve asked for more advanced trading features and we’re delivering — starting with Stop-Limits!

What is a stop-limit strategy?

The stop-limit strategy is a risk management technique widely used in trading. By setting stop prices and limit orders, traders can protect their investments and take advantage of favourable market movements by automating their trading decisions with predefined exit points.

Stop-limits are designed to automatically trigger a limit order when a specific price level, a.k.a the stop price, is reached. It provides traders with a predefined buy or sell exit point, allowing them to more easily take profits or mitigate potential losses. By using the stop-limit strategy, traders can implement a proactive approach to risk management and help better navigate the dynamic and volatile nature of the cryptocurrency markets.

Great news! The functionality is now live, allowing you to begin automating your self-custodial trading. You can start today by either trading directly on your mobile Loopring Smart Wallet experience or by connecting your Ethereum wallet to the web dApp.

5. MetaGates: bespoke Metaverses on Loopring

In partnership with Protocol:Gemini, we were happy to unveil MetaGates in Q2💜

MetaGates are more than just pretty NFTs that you can buy from the GameStop NFT Marketplace or the new .CORE Marketplace — each one gives you access to your own customisable, virtual space where you can place your own NFTs and 3D assets.

Check out what some L2 users are doing with their own MetaGates👇

Stay tuned to the Loopring twitter, or our partners at Protocol: Gemini for more exciting developments in this area.

6. Loopring L2 + Wallet Upgrades

We added a number of new upgrades + features throughout the Loopring L2 ecosystem this quarter. Check out some of the main highlights below👇

Major Protocol/DEX related upgrades:

  • Stop-limits — allowing users to set pre-defined profit targets and stop-losses that automatically execute
  • Block trade — allowing users to swap with much less price impact for large trading quantities by leveraging other liquidity sources
  • Taiko A3 testnet support — with more network support coming!
  • NFT red packets and Blindbox red packets are now live

Security related upgrades:

  • Cloud backup mechanism upgrade
  • Disabled ETH sign-in wallet as it’s used by many phishing dApps to steal user’s assets

NFT related upgrades:

  • Added NFT local storage optimization on the app side so that it will be much faster for users to view their NFTs
  • Now allowing users to view NFTs under Item/Collection view mode, also allowing users to sort by various other metrics

User experiences enhancements:

  • Synced up the address type information of recognized wallets in cloud to ease transfer related usage (currently only available on Android/Web)
  • Optimized the insufficient quota reminder for Dual Investment so that users can know the availability much easier before jumping to the subscription page
  • Added limit order price impact reminders (vs. market price) to avoid potential losses by unaware users
  • Loopring Smart Wallet now allows users to continue using the wallet even if it’s imported to another device
  • Optimized the orderbook presentation so that users can see their order properly listed in order book view, as our exchange combines AMM and order book liquidity together, the orderbook view will now be impacted by the simulated AMM liquidity
  • WalletConnect 2.0 is now supported

Ecosystem + other upgrades:

  • Redesigned the home page for wallet wallet.loopring.io
  • Optimized all developer/user guide documentation

As always, we will continue to gather feedback from the community as well as work with our partners to add new features, tools, and improve the usability of Loopring L2 so that users can truly move closer to becoming their own bank.

7. Complete Docs Revamp

Loopring docs + guides are now more complete and easier to access than ever.

If you are looking to integrate Loopring L2’s SDK or APIs, or if you want to gain a comprehensive understanding of the wallet but are unsure of where to start — we’ve got you covered👇

Loopring Protocoldocs-protocol.loopring.io/
Loopring Smart Walletdocs-wallet.loopring.io/
Loopring dAppdocs-dapp.loopring.io/

Head over to our new docs homepage to get all the guides and insights you need to build on or learn about the entire Loopring ecosystem.

8. Uptick Network: a new Strategic Partnership

We have recently expanded our strategic partnership with Uptick Network, introducing a new open-source framework which aims to transform the NFT trading market and ecosystem on Loopring L2.

Uptick Network has developed and customized the Uptick NFT Marketplace on our platform, resulting in the community-driven version called UptickLite.

This new marketplace is now open-sourced under GPL V3, allowing developers to contribute and enhance the platform’s features and functionalities in a decentralized and collaborative manner.

You can already check out the open source code and technical documentation here👇

9. Protocol Fees for Q1

Loopring has allocated 63,932.65 LRC in protocol fees this quarter as a reward for the contributions of liquidity providers, stakers, and the DAO.

A new protocol distribution model was implemented, allocating 45% of fees to eligible liquidity providers, 45% to LRC stakers, and 10% to the Loopring DAO. This model was voted on by the Loopring DAO.

The community has selected the following AMM pools for rewards in Q3 2023, based on their contributions:

⭐️ LRC/ETH

⭐️ LRC/USDC

⭐️ LRC/USDT

⭐️ ETH/USDC

⭐️ IMX/USDC

⭐️ TLOS/ETH

Loopring in the Media ☆

Catch some of Loopring’s media and blog coverage highlighting Ethereum Layer 2’s growing significance.

Adam from Loopring @ EDCON:

“Loopring: Rise of the SuperApp”

https://youtu.be/tBtGu71Cj0M

Blog coverage of Loopring:

“LRC Staking Has Been Added To The Loopring Earn Features”

read the full blog here

Path Forward 💙

1. Loopring L3 on Taiko

In Q2, we announced that we will be deploying our first-ever Layer 3 on top of Taiko, starting with the alpha-3 testnet (pending timing).

What are the benefits of a Loopring Layer 3:

Vitalik Buterin (the founder of Ethereum) first started theorizing about possible L3 architectures back in September ’22 with his blog post “What kind of layer 3’s make sense”.

“A three-layer scaling architecture that consists of stacking the same scaling scheme on top of itself generally does not work well. Rollups on top of rollups, where the two layers of rollups use the same technology, certainly do not. A three-layer architecture where the second layer and third layer have different purposes, however, can work.”

This is exactly why we believe putting a highly-optimized, application-specific zkRollup on top of a generalizable zkEVM L2 will be optimal to achieving the scale and goals we want to accomplish with the Loopring ecosystem.

Specifically, one significant advantage will entail substantial reductions in Smart Wallet deployments and other associated costs. Because Loopring relayer will at this point be bundling transactions and submitting them to Taiko L2 instead of to Ethereum L1, this should radically bring down gas costs, making certain functions pennies instead of dollars and making Smart Wallets much more competitive with their free EOA wallet competitors.

There are many other potential benefits as well, and in the coming weeks we will be deploying this big release to start testing some of the functionality of Layer 3 and showcasing it to the world, bringing theory into reality.

2. Expanding to Arbitrum

We are excited to announce that we will be expanding the Loopring ecosystem over to Arbitrum, as well as potentially other networks in the future.

Step one of this expansion will be to deploy a new Loopring environment directly on Arbitrum L2, bringing key features from the Loopring ecosystem (like Loopring Earn products + the Loopring DEX) over to Arbitrum users.

Step two will be the expansion of the Loopring Smart Wallet, so more users can get the massive benefits of Social Recovery + other security protections while interacting with other networks👇

Bringing Loopring Smart Wallet to the world

We are extremely excited with the progress that the Loopring Smart Wallet has made over the years.

In addition to the UI/UX enhancements, our Super App on Ethereum encompasses a wide range of features, including robust security measures such as Social Recovery, Whitelisted Addresses, Daily Transfer Limits, Cloud Recovery, and 2FA protection.

We believe the Loopring Smart Wallet is now in a place where it needs to be brought to the world, to offer users on every network a place to securely store their crypto + NFTs, while still having baked in access to all the best apps and features across Ethereum.

We are expecting the first step of the expansion to go live within weeks, with the Smart Wallet potentially becoming available in the same quarter.

3. Margin + Leverage Direct on L2

Margin and leveraged trading has been one of our most requested features on Loopring for some time. Well, we are happy to publicly announce that this is nearing completion and we’ll be rolling it out some time in the coming months.

Our method here will be to set up separate accounts within your Loopring wallet. Similar to having a chequing or savings account within your bank, you can have your regular daily trading spot account with a separate Loopring margin account.

With a tap, you’ll be able to transfer funds between these two accounts to access different features. Within the new margin account you will be able to lend your assets, or borrow other assets to use as leverage for trading.

This also opens up the possibility to bring in other assets to trade in this environment that are not Ethereum-native such as BTC, SOL, BNB, and more.

Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting development.

4. ERC-20 Blind Boxes + Taking Red Packets Private

We are set to release ERC-20 Blind Boxes shortly, with Private NFT Red Packets coming a little later. What does this mean?👇

ERC-20 Blind Boxes🧧

The community favourite Blind Box Red Packets are getting an ERC-20 upgrade. You will now be able to place any of your crypto tokens on L2 (LRC, ETH, etc) into Blind Boxes to coordinate giveaways or airdrops to help grow your community.

This gives creators another tool in their toolkit to help incentivize and grow their communities. This also empowers gaming developers to unleash even more incentives and foster further growth within their games. NFTs are amazing incentives on their own, but sprinkling in the potential to scan and earn USDC, LRC or ETH in-game, can enhance the gaming experience to an even greater extent.

Private Red Packets🧧

Public (scannable) Red Packets have been a huge hit within the Loopring ecosystem. They have become an integral part to L2 in-game experiences, captivating users and have been shared countless times across social media.

Imagine a scenario where you have the ability to effortlessly distribute as many ERC-20 tokens or NFTs as you want to predetermined recipients, all without having to bear the cost of that distribution. Soon you’ll be able to simply create a private Red Packet, pay the creation cost (pennies) and potentially distribute millions of NFTs or tokens for no additional cost to you.

This is a game changer and could open up crypto and NFTs to a much wider audience, as we bring down the cost of distribution to almost zero.

As a receiver, if I see value in the Red Packet, I can pay a small fee (currently around 10–20 cents) to claim it and send the spoils of the packet to my wallet — it’s a win-win for both creators and claimers!

Stay tuned for more on this💙

5. More Advanced Trading Tools + Bots

We are stepping up our DEX trading experience for users!

As mentioned in the summary, Stop-loss orders are now here but there is much more to come — many traders have been asking for more CEX-like functionality so that they can trade like they do on a CEX, without having to risk their funds to a third party.

We are currently working on introducing more automatic trading bot functionality into the Loopring L2 experience. These auto trading bots will give users who want to trade, but may not have coding or trading experience, a chance to passively put their assets to work with different automated trading strategies.

Next on the list of auto-bots will be Grid Trading:

Grid trading automates a user’s buying and selling by placing orders at preset prices within a certain price range. It is an effective strategy in markets where prices tend to fluctuate within a specific range, as it can automatically execute trades within this predefined grid.

This strategy is a good option for traders who want to take a systematic approach to trading and capitalize on market volatility.

Later on, we’ll also be introducing more order types, including potentially OCO (one cancels the other) orders, or other popular order types to help take our DEX experience to another level — giving users a true Centralized Exchange (CEX) experience on Ethereum’s second layer.

If you have more feedback on how we can improve your trading experience, please send us your feedback in our Discord!

6. Earn a Loophead is back

As announced, new Loopheads will be becoming harder to get your hands on. With supplies limited, and distribution slowing near the end, it’s going to get harder to earn a new Loophead — but more challenges have arrived, so don’t forget to participate!

Throughout the quarter we will be doing rapid fire, weekly challenges, rewarding Loopring users with some of the last remaining Loophead NFTs👇

✅Complete a task
✅Get a ticket
✅Be entered to win a fresh new Loophead

But that’s not all.

We will also be giving away some fresh, new Loophead Wearables throughout these weekly challenges.

Want to get your hands on a new Loophead or one of these upcoming NFT Wearables? Download the Smart Wallet and get into our Discord or tuned to our Twitter for the most up-to-date announcements on each challenge.

⭐️ Community Section ⭐️

Community Ambassadors + Builders

We have recently announced a new initiative to nominate and appoint stand out community members who are going above and beyond to help grow the adoption of Loopring L2.

In Q1/23 we also added a new category, Loopring OGs, for the long-standing community members who have been active and helping out in the community for more than a year.

Loopring Legends — are talented builders in the community who are developing games, features, or tools directly on Loopring L2.

L2 Loopers — are stand-out community members who are helping encourage L2 adoption by regularly promoting Loopring amongst various social networks with high quality blogs, articles, threads or other educational content.

Below are the new additions who have been assigned new roles this past quarter👇

Q2/ Loopring Legends🧡:

  • Spike

Q2/ L2 Loopers💙:

  • Autodestructive.eth
  • DanielW
  • HRBull
  • Odd-Research
  • Peteszah
  • Rexaffects
  • Stewjr392
  • Thewardoctor.eth

Q2/ Loopring OGs❤️:

  • bitcorn
  • CrazyFarmer
  • Kubiak ^IS THE QUEEN
  • Nickman
  • PickledEggie
  • Redbearddude

️⭐ ️Other Community News 👇

We have such an amazing and rapidly growing community with so much happening that we want to dedicate a section of our updates to sharing some more of the cool things going on in the community!

Note: Loopring does not directly endorse the use of any third-party applications that we have not been able to independently verify the code, so please exercise caution and use at your own risk.

Looper Lands

The Looper Lands game is quickly becoming a big community favourite💙

Looper Lands is a creator-owned L2 pixel-verse for Loopring creators to build their own worlds, puzzles, quests, and games. Many creators and community members have already joined this new world to show off their avatars, level up their XP, and quest together.

Giving Loopheads some more utility — you can now even get your Loophead integrated to come join in the fun and level up your favourite NFT character!

Follow the team on Twitter, or check out the website here to connect your wallet and try out the game yourself.

Spiked Rollups Gaming

Mooooarr in-game NFT Red Packets! Another community favourite is emerging also.

Loopring Legend, Spike, has recently launched some new incredible games, as part of his Spiked Rollups studio, where you can play and earn Red Packets to scan with cool NFTs to collect inside.

We’ve seen a lot of great feedback on Spike’s games so far also, so be sure to stay tuned to his twitter to see what he’s cooking up next!

Want to get into the next Community section?

Check out our new community initiative blog + get involved.

— or —

Get into our Discord server and post your community events into the #community-initiatives channel or make some noise on Twitter and we will follow along and pick out some of the coolest things happening on Loopring L2 and post them in each new addition of our quarterly reports.

Questions & Feedback

If you’d like to talk to us about any partnerships, have questions, and/or feedback, please join our Discord, or drop us a line at: foundation at loopring dot org. We also have an active Reddit community for anyone to join and contribute to the ecosystem.

About Loopring

Loopring is an Ethereum Layer 2 zkRollup protocol for scalable, secure DeFi and NFT applications. Loopring builds non-custodial, high-performance products atop our L2, including the Loopring Wallet — a mobile Ethereum smart wallet, and the Loopring L2 web app — an L2 orderbook and AMM DEX. To learn more, follow us on Medium or see Loopring.org.

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