What is Ref Finance (REF)? Everything you need to know about REF Token

In this article, we would like to introduce Ref Finance (REF) - the premier DeFi project of the NEAR Ecosystem. We'll be covering the following topics:

• What is Ref Finance (REF)? What are Ref Finance’s features?
• Ref Finance (REF) Tokenomic and how to buy, store REF token.
• Roadmap & Team members, Investors, and Strategic partners
• Finanlly, Is REF a good investment?

What is Ref Finance?

Ref Finance is the first AMM DEX project to launch mainnet on NEAR, similar in design to Uniswap. It is a stack of DeFi services and products built around a core AMM.

How does Ref Finance work?

What are Ref Finance’s features?

An AMM Dex: Ref Finance currently allows assets on NEAR to trade permissionless and automatic through liquidity pools managed by a smart contract.

Liquidity pools:

LPs can contribute liquidity to liquidity pools on Ref Finance and earn a percentage of trading fees. Ref Finance has offered multiple pools with different trading fees:

Create your own pools: LPs also can create new pools for any preferred token pairs and charge different fee levels: 0.15%, 0.25%, or 0.55%.

Farming: Ref Finance helps users to earn REF tokens by staking their liquidity provider (LP) tokens.

Staking: Users also can stake earned REF Tokens to earn more and more REF over time.

Decentralized Governance via the Ref DAO: In the long run, token generation, distribution, and management, and other community proposals will be governed by REF holders.

Why is Ref Finance (REF) unique? 

Low fees and instant transaction settlements: Ref Finance takes full advantage of NEAR’s low costs ($0.001-0.002 NEAR per swap) and one-to-two second finality.

Multiple liquidity pools are contained in a single contract which means traders can trade across pools in a single transaction. Pools with the highest available liquidity and the lowest exchange fee will be used to execute transactions.

With the recently launched Rainbow Bridge and soon the Aurora Network, traders can quickly transfer their ERC-20 assets from Ethereum.

Customizable LP fees: LPs can customize LP fees based on the nature of the pool. LPs are able to set higher fees for illiquid or highly volatile tokens.

Incentives for DApp Developers: Incentivizing developers for having their DeFi projects built on top of Ref Finance.

Detailed information about REF Token

REF Price Today

Popular price-tracking websites such as CoinMarketCap or CoinGecko have not provided the daily price of Ref Finance. Users can track its price on Coin98 Markets right at: markets.coin98.com

Key Metrics REF

• Token name: Ref Finance.
• Ticker: REF.
• Blockchain: NEAR Protocol.
• Token Standard: NEP-141.
• Contract: v2.ref-finance.near.
• Token use cases: Utility, Governance.
• Initial Supply: 2,500,000 via Skyward Finance Token Sales.
• Circulating Supply: Updating...
• Total Supply: 100,000,000

REF Token Allocation

5% - Airdrops

• 3% - Early users
• 2% - Strategic airdrop

60% - Liquidity Incentives

35% - Treasury

• 10% Development Fund
• 2.5% Skyward sale
• 2.5% Liquidity for $REF pairs (REF <> NEAR, REF <> USDC)
• 20% Future community-building activities (further airdrops, strategic partnerships, etc.)

REF Token release schedule

5% - Airdrops: Updating...

60% - Liquidity Incentives

• 25% unlock on the first year
• 18.3% unlock on the second year
• 11.67% unlock on the third year
• 5% unlock on the fourth year

35% - Treasury: Updating...

REF Token Sale

On July 26th, Ref Finance scheduled a sale of 2.5% of $REF tokens on Skyward Finance. There were 3 independent sales on Skyward Finance:

• 1.75% of $REF is sold for $NEAR. Sale for $NEAR: 1 REF = ~0.102416USD
• 0.5% of $REF is sold for $nDAI. Sale for $nDAI: 1 REF = ~0.060538USD
• 0.25% of $REF is sold for $nWETH. Sale for $nWETH: 1 REF = ~0.045655USD

Ref Finance has successfully raised 2,5 million dollars at its launch.

REF Token use cases

REF tokens are expected to be used in the following ways:

Governance:

• Currently, the Ref DAO is made up of a Council and a Community Board. Initially, only the council can make proposals. The community board can vote on proposals.
• In the future: REF holders will be able to stake REF tokens to vote on proposals, similar to the council and community board. Possible proposals will include token generation, distribution, and management, and others.

Utility:

• Ref Finance currently takes roughly 0.3%-0.5% trading fee per swap (depending on different pools). This fee can be adjusted by the DAO.
• The revenue from this fee resides with a treasury fund. The DAO can direct these funds to REF holders, either through direct redemption or via buybacks of REF.

How to store REF Tokens

Traders can swap tokens to earn REF tokens on Ref Finance, then withdraw them to their Near wallets. Traders also can store, send, receive REF Tokens on Near wallets with a few single steps. The guides on how to make transactions with REF tokens on Near Wallet are as follows:

• Step 1: Open Near wallet and click Receive.
• Step 2: Send REF tokens to the Near wallet address/ Account ID.

How to buy REF Tokens

Ref token has not been listed on any DEXs or CEXs other than its own protocol. Traders can swap to earn REF tokens on its trading interface at app.ref.finance

Step 1: Head to the Swap tab at the top of the trading interface.

Step 2: Select the wNEAR/ REF token pair to trade from the dropdown.

Step 3: Adjust the amount to trade. Click Swap and then ALLOW to confirm the transaction.

Step 4: Just wait for a few seconds, and users will see the new balance of each token showed up on the final screen.

Roadmap & Updates

Is Ref Finance (REF) a good investment?

Below are some highlights for your consideration:

The team plans to integrate with Metamask wallet and support Metamask users to make direct deposits into Ref Finance for a deeper relationship with Ethereum blockchain users.

Major developments seem to happen in 2022:

• Ref Finance will launch stableswap pools depending on the community.
• An orderbook style DEX.
• A lending service.

Even though the team has big plans, the project has moved quite slowly and shown little performance. According to its road map, traders or REF holders should expect some significant improvements/ updates soon. Also, REF holders can compare the project with similar projects such as Uniswap V2, Pancakeswap, etc., to have some price forecasts.

Team, Investors, and Strategic partners

Founders/ Team members 

Updating...

Investors

Updating...

Strategic partners

Updating...

Similar projects to compare

Below are similar projects built on different blockchains as references:

• Uniswap (Ethereum).
• Raydium (Solana).
• Pancakeswap (BSC).
• Pangolin (Avalanche).