On September 19, 2024, NATI🦉 was launched, a liquidity pool currency with reserves including NATI, tBTC, ETH, and VRSC. The preconversion period, lasting until September 22, 23:55 UTC, allowed users to deposit but not withdraw these reserve currencies.
Initial Valuation & Price Dynamics

At launch, NATI🦉’s reserves were immediately filled with 150 tBTC and 3,999 vETH (TBTC & Ethereum bridged over from Ethereum), giving the basket currency a total valuation of $36 million. The preconversion cap for VRSC was set at 3.3 million coins, effectively pegging its minimum value to around $2.80 (~4523 sats) per coin.

As the preconversion period neared its end, VRSC’s participation in the reserves remained low, driving its implied value within NATI🦉 to approximately $9 per coin. This discrepancy led to strategic movements of VRSC from other basket currencies like Bridge.vETH and Pure, further amplifying the VRSC value in those pools.
Post-Launch Market Activity

The moment the preconversion period ended, the protocol entered a phase of intense activity. Arbitrage opportunities emerged across various basket currencies, resulting in a staggering MEV-free 24-hour on-chain volume exceeding $60 million. This frenzy of trading activity pushed VRSC to a new all-time high of $4.17.

The high on-chain volume also resulted in miners and stakers being handsomely rewarded by block rewards of up to 27 VRSC (regular block rewards being 6 VRSC). Half of the conversion fees go to the block producers, the other half to the reserves of liquidity pool currencies.

The NATI🦉 launch and subsequent market dynamics have highlighted the interconnectedness of decentralized finance ecosystems and the potential for rapid value realignment in cryptocurrency markets. The TVL on the Verus Protocol is now more than $75 million.

For correct price and volume information on VRSC go to Coinpaprika.com. They are the only coin aggregator so far that show data from on-chain DeFi activity. It is worth noting that all on-chain trading activity on the Verus Protocol is MEV-resistant. Read more here.
Real Fair DeFi

Whatever market participant you are, you are best served with the Verus Protocol. Verus DeFi is fully functional on mainnet for everyone to use.

    No MEV (no front-running, back-running or sandwich attacks)
    Truly decentralized (it’s a credibly neutral protocol — not a business, company or otherwise rent-seeking)
    The same fair price for all market participants within 1–10 block(s)
    Secured at the protocol level
    Low conversion fees of max. 0.05%
    Permissionless launching of liquidity pools
    Bridged to Ethereum (all ERC-20s can be bridged to the Verus Protocol, in a non-custodial and trustless manner, and vice versa)
    Decentralized crowdfund mechanisms for your currency (e.g. token, liquidity pool, native PBaaS coin), such as pre-launch discounts, pre-launch carveouts and pre-allocations