Instadapp Launches Governance Token, Introduces “DeFi Smart Layer”

Instadapp, one of DeFi’s most popular portfolio management tools, has announced its plans to launch a token. 

Instadapp Ready for Token Launch 

INST will be used to govern the Instadapp Protocol, which the team has described as a “DeFi Smart Layer.”

The protocol aggregates DeFi in one layer and introduces Layer 2 integrations, as well as decentralized governance. Since announcing the DeFi Smart Layer in February, the smart contracts have been audited and deployed to Ethereum, the team’s blog post confirmed. 

The revamped Instadapp offers several major extensions, including flash loans, collateral optimizers, authority management, market-making, automation, and Layer 2. According to the blog post, the protocol will soon allow migrating debt positions from Ethereum mainnet to Aave on Polygon in one click. 

Like many other tokens launched by nascent DeFi projects, INST will be used to govern the protocol’s future, essentially improving its state of decentralization. It will initially launch with a 100 million supply at genesis and borrow from the same governance standard pioneered by Compound. 

The first batch of tokens will be distributed to Instadapp’s shareholders, including the core team and investors, to form the Micro DAO. The team will manage the protocol until on-chain voting and contract upgradability launches. At that point, INST will be distributed to Instadapp users. 

The blog post says that governance will have a “very substantial role” in the protocol, including tokenomics and future Instadapp extensions. 

The full criteria for INST recipients haven’t yet been revealed, but full details will drop sometime this quarter. Many projects like Instadapp have distributed governance tokens through airdrops as a way of rewarding early users. Airdrops are a popular phenomenon in DeFi, and the governance tokens that protocols adopt have sometimes been compared to company shares. 

Hinting to Instadapp’s decentralized future, the team wrote: 

“This is just the beginning as these functionalities are infinitely extended with future proposals by community and token holders through governance proposals — we look forward to shaping the future of the Instadapp Protocol with you!”

The INST token contract can be viewed here. 

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this feature owned ETH, AAVE, COMP, and MATIC. They also had AAVE deposited in Instadapp.