Stellar Community Fund

By Normal

Normal Protocol

SCF #31

$70.0K

Build

Awarded

Normal enables Stellar investors to trade any Top 100 crypto with low fees and deep liquidity

Products & Services

xBTC, xETH, and xSOL (additional markets launching soon)
- Soroban tokens using Band price oracles to track the value of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana respectively
- Direct integration with Lumenswap, StellarX, and Allbridge for wider asset support on Stellar DeFi
A decentralized order book of XLM and USDC markets for the assets above:
- On-chain order management via Soroban contracts with off-chain order matching for speed and scalability
- Supports market, limit, take profit, and stop-loss order types
Normal AMM
- A unique liquidity engine ensuring every order is filled quickly and at a fair price
- Manages synthetic token minting, bridging, and burning
- Distributes trading fees in the form of yield to liquidity providers

Soroban

Yes

Requested Budget

$70.0K

Success Criteria

There are two key success metrics for us:

A resilient system that stands the test of time and market cycles
Acquire $10m in TVL on Stellar - enabling anyone with USDC access on Stellar to reliably trade Top 100 cryptos on-chain

Go-To-Market Plan

Partner with Beans to give their users Top 100 crypto investing via Stellar USDC
Token integration and co-marketing with:
- StellarX
- Lumenswap
- Aqua
- Soroswap
Sponsored videos on YouTube and threads on X with small to medium-sized influencers who focus on Stellar

Traction Evidence

1,000+ users
$220k TVL
Our current platform is not on-chain and will be migrated on-chain upon the launch of the Normal Protocol. The data above is restricted to our database and not publicly verifiable.

Tranche 1 (Deliverable Roadmap) - MVP

The Normal Protocol
1. Description = A suite of Soroban programs for decentralized central limit order books and the Normal AMM for the minting, trading, and management of synthetic assets on Stellar that track the value of BTC, ETH, SOL (and any other crypto).
2. Completion
  1. Open-source GitHub repository containing all smart contract code (https://github.com/normalfinance/normal-v1)
  2. Market creation, order management, order matching, and liquidity provision testable via Stellar Lab
  3. Successfully passing code tests with 80%+ coverage for the four features listed above
3. Deadline = February 1st, 2025
4. Budget = $30,000
  1. Hire a Rust smart contract engineer (a core team hire, not a contractor) for 400 hours of Soroban work @ ~$50/hour = $20,000
  2. Pay our co-founder and primary engineer, Joshua Blew, for 200 hours of Soroban work @ ~$50/hour = $10,000

Tranche 2 (Deliverable Roadmap) - Testnet

The Normal Trading Interface
1. Description = A Next.js web application deployed to https://stellar.normalfinance.io/ enabling beta testers to buy and sell xBTC, xETH, and xSOL on Stellar with market and limit orders and provide liquidity to the Normal AMM to earn yield.
2. Completion
  1. Open-source GitHub repository containing all UI code (https://github.com/normalfinance/ui)
  2. A complete list of Soroban testnet deployed program addresses available in our docs (https://docs.normalfinance.io/)
  3. Live testnet trading and liquidity provision available on our web app (https://demo.stellar.normalfinance.io/)
3. Deadline = March 1st, 2025
4. Budget = $15,000
  1. Hire a full-stack engineer (a core team hire, not a contractor) for 200 hours of Next.js work @ ~$50/hour = $10,000
  2. Pay our co-founder and primary engineer, Joshua Blew, for 100 hours of Next.js work @ ~$50/hour = $5,000

Tranche 3 (Deliverable Roadmap) - Mainnet

Security Audit
1. Completion = A commit to our Normal-v1 GitHub repo for a new /audits folder containing the initial audit results and subsequent review(s).
2. Deadline = April 1st, 2025
xBTC, xETH, and xSOL Markets
1. Description = Tradable assets via the Normal trading interface with full support for market and limit orders and liquidity provision.
2. Completion = Orders can be placed by anyone and are promptly executed at https://stellar.normalfinance.io/
3. Deadline = April 1st, 2025
4. Budget = $75,000
  1. AMM liquidity - to be deposited and locked in the AMM to fill orders until enough market maker and trader volume is achieved = $60,000 ($20k/market)
  2. Institutional market maker incentives - rebates on trading fees to attract outside liquidity = $12,000 ($4k/market)
  3. Keeper bot servers - bots that carry out off-chain order matching and maintain protocol integrity = $3,000 ($1k/market)
Launch GTM Campaign
1. Description = Relevant partnerships, integrations, and incentives for acquiring early users for Normal on Stellar
2. Completion
  1. Live xBTC, xETH, and xSOL trading support on Beans and Lumenswap and/or StellarX
  2. At least 3x co-marketing campaigns on X and Discord with listed Stellar partners
  3. A public Google sheet with links for tracking all sponsored YouTube and X content along with engagement data and our ROI via users acquired and volume generated
3. Deadline = April 30th, 2025
4. Budget = $10,000
  1. Partnership incentives - activity-based rewards and giveaways for partner users (i.e Beans, Lumenswap, StellarX, etc.) that trade or provide liquidity on Normal = $5,000
  2. YouTube content sponsorship - 4x dedicated videos about Normal created by Stellar-specific YouTubers and 3x 30-second sponsor ad slots on Stellar-based videos = $2,500
  3. X content sponsorship - 25x sponsored threads by esteemed Stellar thought leaders and users; 10x at launch and the remaining 15x spread out over 3 months = $2,500

Team

Joshua Blew - Co-founder & CEO - 7+ years coding, 5 years building fintech/crypto projects, built AI for stock trading, Linktree for Web3, & smart wallet w/ 30% less gas.
Justin Benjamin - Co-founder & COO - Previously product and growth at CoinFlip and Bitcoin of America, built a 300+ member international crypto trading community.
Amit Anand - Head of Marketing - Built 10m+ impression marketing strategies at Polygon, leads partnerships at Zo World.
Jake Penzato - Biz Dev Lead - Partnership and customer relations, content creation, BS Marketing & Business Admin @ Aurora University.
Nima Beheshtian - Head of Institutional Sales - Former Head of Sales at Ankr and BitGo with deep experience in blockchain security and infrastructure
Niko Gorjan - Developer - Web Designer, 3D Animation Expert, and Front-End Programmer
John Reyes - Intern with wicked skills