Orion Protocol (ORN): Democratizing DeFi for the People

Liquidity is the backbone of decentralized finance (DeFi). It ensures users can access fair pricing and more comprehensive trading options. However, DeFi’s liquidity has been fragmented, leading to market inefficiencies and complex trading strategies.

To counter these challenges, the Orion blockchain has introduced innovative technology to the DeFi space through the Orion Terminal, which acts as a liquidity aggregator for both centralized exchanges (CEXs) and decentralized exchanges (DEXs), ensuring retail traders access to better pricing through increased liquidity.

Furthermore, in a bid to become more inclusive and expand its functionalities, Orion Protocol’s transitioning into Orion 2.0 in 2024 will include a DAO and Lumia, an enhanced liquidity network that goes beyond retail to provide seamless liquidity.

Key Takeaways:

• Orion Protocol (soon transitioning to Orion) features innovative technology that unifies liquidity from both centralized and decentralized exchanges, making it a top DeFi liquidity aggregator. 

• Through its DAO, the Orion project voted to become part of Lumia, a comprehensive liquidity network that goes beyond retail. 

• Orion's native token is ORN, which powers governance and secures the platform through staking. Orion DAO has voted 90% to transition ORN to LUMIA.

What Is Orion Protocol?

Orion Protocol is a decentralized blockchain that acts as a liquidity aggregator protocol for CEXs and DEXs to ensure better pricing and an efficient DeFi trading experience for its users.

Through the Orion Terminal, DeFi retail enthusiasts can access deep liquidity from a single interface for swapping and bridging, and for adding assets to liquidity pools.

Due to its unique value proposition to the DeFi space, Orion Protocol has garnered considerable success that has prompted the team to aspire beyond the current structure. As a result, Orion Protocol is transitioning to Orion 2.0, which will be more inclusive and have expansive functionalities.

Key features of Orion include the following: 

• Orion DAO, which is shifting the ecosystem’s governance and decision-making to become more community-driven, leading to increased transparency and trust. 

• Lumia, which elevates the ecosystem's reach beyond retail, democratizes deCEX liquidity and provides a foundational layer on which others can build web3 products. 

• The ORN token, which is used for governance, to power the platform's liquidity nodes through staking and to ensure efficient trading across Orion's products.

What Is Lumia?

Lumia is a comprehensive decentralized liquidity network that will integrate the liquidity of CEXs with that of DEXs to ensure a cohesive DeFi liquidity framework in a single place. It’s crucial to note that Lumia won't replace Orion; instead, Orion will act as Lumia's retail arm, and the Orion Terminal will run on Lumia.

Some of the challenges that Lumia seeks to address include the fragmented liquidity in DeFi, the struggles of Layer 1s (L1s) and Layer 2s (L2) to trade efficiently due to the lack of adequate total value locked (TVL), high costs of sustaining liquidity providers and the challenge of limited market access.

In a nutshell, Lumia operates an infrastructure consisting of liquidity nodes that are used to set up collateral and provide liquidity in a safe environment using the Lumia Node software. The nodes then connect to APIs in centralized exchanges, allowing DeFi users to access that liquidity, which is a first in the space.

Unlike Orion, Lumia will shift focus from only retail users and expand its reach to the entire crypto market, where it will provide the framework to power web3 wallets, DEXs and aggregators, and decentralize apps (DApps) for lending and borrowing among other products in the market.

Some leading projects in web3, such as Waves and 1inch Network, have already partnered with Lumia to provide their users with deeper liquidity when transacting.

Lumia's unique selling point is its reward system, which benefits all of the network's participants, including liquidity nodes and governance stakers.

How Does Orion Protocol Work?

Ultimately, Orion Protocol aims to provide a framework that allows DeFi traders to access value efficiently and affordably. To do so, Orion’s proprietary technology works in the following ways.

Liquidity Aggregation

Orion Protocol has come up with an innovative approach to unify the fragmented liquidity in DeFi by positioning traders in a way that lets them enjoy competitive prices and swift transactions. It does this by connecting liquidity from both centralized and decentralized exchanges, providing users with deep liquidity and lucrative arbitrage opportunities.

Orion’s arbitrage advantage comes from using a virtual order book (VOB). This innovative order-matching engine offers traders a unique market view, positioning them to capitalize on price variations between specific trading pairs in various crypto exchanges.

The main facets of Orion’s liquidity aggregation feature include the following.

deCEX Trading

deCEX Trading is a term coined by Orion to describe the platform’s ability to harness the liquidity of CEXs in a decentralized way.

Through deCEX Trading, you can access CEXs without creating an account on the individual platforms. Orion's deCEX Trading leverages the platform's liquidity nodes, which connect you to CEXs, whose liquidity you can tap into in order to enjoy a faster trading experience.

Through this feature, Orion can handle evenKYC through its brokers, saving you the hassle of the verification that comes with it, which makes your crypto journey less cumbersome.

Through Orion deCEX Trading, you’ll gain access to a live and fast order book in which transactions are instant, thanks to atomic swaps executed via smart contracts. This stands in contrast to DEXs, such as Uniswap and PancakeSwap, which rely on automated market makers (AMMs) powered by liquidity pools and complex algorithms. You'll also have access to optimized price feeds when trading, which enable you to trade with the best prices possible.

Transmuted AMM Price Curves

Orion’s transmuted AMM price curves have created a way to merge the stability of CEX pricing through order books, with the liquidity of DEXs that use AMMs.

Simply put, transmuted AMM price curves convert AMM price curves into traditional order books, which allows users to better compare prices across different platforms in the cryptocurrency markets. Additionally, this feature allows you to place limit orders on AMMs, a feat that was previously impossible.

By transmuting AMM price curves, Orion Protocol offers a whole new way to trade crypto that seamlessly integrates the liquidity of CEXs with that of DEXs to provide traders with optimal pricing.

Virtual Order Book

The virtual order book (VOB) is a unique product from Orion that acts as an aggregated order book in which you can view different liquidity sources directly and assess the potential liquidity of complex swaps. The VOB takes away the hassle of calculating complex swaps, allowing you access to the best and most competitive prices while unlocking profitable arbitrage opportunities.

VOBs are powered by Orion’s Liquidity Node Network, which uses a Delegated Proof-of-Liquidity (DPoL) mechanism to operate. Through the VOB, Orion sends a user's orders to specific liquidity nodes, which process the order.

Similar to the proof of stake (PoS) mechanism, Orion's DPoL requires node providers to stake ORN tokens in order to obtain a higher chance of processing an order. Apart from staking, the liquidity nodes also need to provide traders with the correct tokens and keep adequate reserves to process the order.

The dynamic nature of Orion’s VOB provides traders with a much-needed real-time view of the market from a single place. This innovative approach ensures a holistic trading experience that’s effective and efficient.

Orion Terminal

Orion Terminal was Orion Protocol’s flagship product, bringing the DeFi space an innovative technology that allows liquidity aggregation for both CEXs and DEXs. Through it, users can access deep liquidity from top exchanges by using a single, secure interface, eliminating the need to create multiple accounts and conduct cumbersome KYCs.

Apart from being a secure and easy-to-use platform, another distinctive feature of Orion Terminal is its transparent and economical fee structure, shown below:

You can access the following services on Orion Terminal.

Orion Swap

Due to the unified liquidity of Orion's innovative technology, users can perform cost-effective swaps at the best prices. Orion Terminal taps into CEXs to provide traders with competitive pricing. You’ll only need to connect your wallet and maintain a sufficient balance of the network's native coins to cover transaction fees.

Orion Swap is easy to navigate, has a list of top tokens, offers smart depositing, has automatic network switching and supports a wide range of wallets, including MetaMask and hardware wallets like Ledger and Trezor.

Orion Bridge

Orion Bridge allows you to trade leading crypto assets quickly, seamlessly and securely across Ethereum and BNB Chain, with more chains to come. As a truly decentralized cross-chain bridge, Orion Bridge doesn’t need you to wrap or mint tokens in order to trade.

The bridge is integrated into the Orion DEX and is free to use with minimal network fees. Orion Bridge is underpinned by three core technologies: atomic swaps for safe cross-chain exchanging of assets, a P2P network that eliminates third parties and Liquidity Nodes that ensure instantaneous matching of trades.

Orion Pools

Orion Pools allow users to provide liquidity, create new liquidity pools and even personalize their liquidity provision experience by enabling the addition of logos.

Built to mirror the Uniswap v2 model, Orion Pools embraces a democratized approach to liquidity pools, in which users can choose from over 50 available pools. Through Orion Pools, you earn passively through enhanced liquidity farming, which is structured to maximize rewards for liquidity providers.

Orion Widget

Orion Widget is an app you can add to web pages or DApps to provide token accessibility to any ecosystem. Adding the Orion Widget empowers users to trade crypto assets directly from their platforms. The widget is easily customizable and easy to integrate.

What Is the ORN Token?

The ORN token is the native token of Orion Protocol and will remain instrumental as the platform transitions to Orion. ORN is vital in powering the liquidity network through the Orion DAO. Once you stake your ORN tokens, you’ll receive veORN tokens that represent your share in the platform's governance matters and your commensurate influence on Orion’s DAO.

As a governance staker, you can lock your ORN into the platform’s Liquidity Nodes, where you’ll earn rewards for securing the network. You can also earn ORN rewards by participating in Orion's Refer & Earn program, in which higher ORN balances garner higher rewards.

Furthermore, over 90% of the eligible Orion community has voted to transition the ORN token to LUMIA as the project evolves to become more expansive and offer a comprehensive range of services to users.

ORN had an initial supply of 100 million tokens. After burning 7,368,745 ORN tokens, its total supply now stands at 92,631,255 ORN. Token supply details are as shown below:

Orion Protocol Price Prediction

As of Mar 27, 2024, ORN’s price was $2.20, a 92.4% drop from its ATH of $29.25 on Mar 22, 2021, and a 376.2% increase from its ATL of $0.4642 on Oct 12, 2023.

Price prediction platforms are pretty bullish on ORN's future price. Forecasting experts at PricePrediction believe that ORN will hit $1.44 in 2025 and rise to a maximum price of $8.62 in 2030. Meanwhile, CoinCodex has a somewhat mixed price outlook for ORN, as its experts believe ORN could trade at $10.28 in 2025 and drop to $8.74 by 2030.

That said, these price predictions don’t guarantee ORN’s future price. We highly recommend you do independent research before investing in ORN or any other altcoins.

Is Orion Protocol a Good Investment?

From its outset, Orion Protocol has set the pace with innovating technology that unifies liquidity from CEXs and DEXs, which wasn’t available previously in the DeFi space. Furthermore, the Orion Protocol  team has decided to venture into a DAO to transition the project into a more user-empowered and decentralized platform, a shift that enhances the stability of the project’s tokenomics and makes Orion more equitable and democratic.

This adoption of a DAO has allowed Orion Protocol to upgrade to Lumia, which is a game-changer in the DeFi space by virtue of its being a unified liquidity network. Lumia expands the project’s focus from only retail to accommodate the broader crypto ecosystem. It provides deCEX liquidity, which powers ultrafast and affordable trades. Lumia is also a foundational layer for projects to access the liquidity and tools to thrive, and top projects like 1Inch and Waves have already integrated Lumia into their platforms.

Based on Orion’s transition to Lumia, which offers superior prices and ample liquidity beyond retail, we believe Orion is a good investment for crypto enthusiasts looking for long-term value. That said, this isn't financial advice, and it's essential to do your own research before investing in Orion Protocol.

Where to Buy the Orion Crypto Token (ORN)

You can buy ORN as a Perpetual ORNUSDT contract on Bybit’s Derivatives platform.

Closing Thoughts

Orion continues to contribute considerably to the DeFi space by aggregating liquidity between CEXs and DEXs, allowing traders to access the best prices in a decentralized way. As it transitions into Orion 2.0 and upscales to Lumia, the project will continue to expand its value proposition and increase utility for the ORN token, which will soon become LUMIA.

DeFi is competitive, and the Orion ecosystem already has a competitive edge with its innovative liquidity aggregation technology, which includes a virtual order book and transmuted AMM price curves. For sure, it’s one project to watch in the web3 space.

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