We're pleased to announce that after the successful launch of Flat Money on Base, the protocol will officially be multi-chain in November utilizing Ether.fi’s Restaked ETH Derivative (eETH), and bringing Flat Money directly to new users on Ethereum's largest L2.
Progress Update and Launch Time Frame
As of this writing, the Flat Money contracts on Arbitrum are being finalized, with several changes that’ll allow Flat Money to more effectively scale, and provide quality of life adjustments that’ll enable more seamless user and developer experiences. Although there is minimal change from the original codebase for the Arbitrum Launch, our team is equally committed to securing our new contracts, which will undergo an audit with Sherlock in the second half of September. To date, Flat Money has undergone two (2) audits with Sherlock, an incentive-aligned auditing platform that provided Flat Money with a hybrid audit that combines the benefits of a legacy audit and an audit competition. The end result was hundreds of Sherlock’s Watsons reviewing the Flat Money codebase ahead of our initial launch. The upcoming audit will unfold similarly, reaping the same results by enabling a wide array of security-aligned auditors to review and help secure Flat Money’s codebase.
Why Arbitrum?
In short, we wanted to bring Flat Money directly to you - the liquidity providers and the engine of the protocol, the perps traders. Beyond being a trusted and secure L2, we selected Arbitrum because of its robust derivatives trading activity. TVL in derivatives-based protocols peaked at 937m in July 2024, and currently clocks in at 620m, representing just under seventeen (17) times more TVL than the next Ethereum L2 after Base.
Why Ether.fi?
We chose to partner with Ether.fi due to their pledged support for Flat Money on Arbitrum, their deep liquidity, and the extra incentives inherent in using eETH as collateral which is to the benefit of our end users. With liquidity that currently stands at 5b and Ether.fi’s willingness to provide additional liquidity support, Flat Money will shed a constraint that has in part, mitigated what has been its otherwise steady growth on Base.
So how does utilizing Ether.fi’s eETH benefit our users? Ether.fi is a leading Liquid Restaked Token (RST) protocol that enables users to benefit not only from L1 staking rewards but also receive additional L2 fees and accumulate Eigenlayer points. This is done by extending cryptoeconomic security to additional applications on the network to earn these additional awards. With eETH being utilized as collateral for Flat Money on Arbitrum, all of these rewards will be realized by our users on both the UNIT and Perpetual Futures sides of the market. For UNIT holders specifically, they’ll earn these fees in addition to the standard trading, borrow rate, and liquidation fees from the Perpetual Futures side of the market.
What Else is New with Flat Money on Arbitrum?
Beyond utilizing eETH as both collateral to mint UNIT and margin collateral to open leveraged positions in the Perpetual Futures market, the following are some of the key changes we’re bringing to Flat Money on Arbitrum:
- Pricing of UNIT at Launch - Flat Money on Base launched with the price of UNIT being 1:1 with the price of rETH, and with UNIT increasing in value against rETH in USD terms over time. This created some confusion for UNIT holders as they’re aiming to grow their value in USD rather than rETH terms. Flat Money on Arbitrum will rectify this with a simple adjustment. The protocol will launch with UNIT being 1:1 with USD, and will increase in value over time against it just as the Base version does against rETH.
- Minimum Funding Rate Settings - We’ve added a configurable minimum funding rate setting which mitigates the appearance of an large negative borrow rate that’s not being arbitraged by the market, preserving value for UNIT holders
- Position Splitter - A user created position can now be split into two (2), both with the same leverage ratio but different margins and sizes. This is useful for integrations which rely on synchronous operations, such as implementing leverage order with limits
- New Perps Controller Module - Different perpetual futures markets may require different payoffs and funding rate settings. Our team created a new module that can dictate these terms. This allows us to rapidly deploy new products and maintain agility as new market opportunities arise
Another Milestone Achieved
The Flat Money team has been working diligently to bring Flat Money to Arbitrum with the aforementioned improvements. As such, we couldn’t be happier sharing this new accomplishment with our community and bringing the benefits of Flat Money to the masses. With this new launch, there isn’t a better time to be part of the Flat Money family, benefiting from both its new opportunities on Arbitrum and its sense of community. So if you’re ready to officially be Flat Pilled, join us on Discord, follow us on Twitter and Farcaster, and sign up for the latest news from the Flat Money blog as there will be a steady stream of news and content leading up to launch.
To learn more about Flat Money and its expansion to Arbitrum, see the Flat Money documentation:1. Flat Money - An Introduction