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By Hermes
Hermes is a decentralized perpetual exchange allowing traders to engage in leverage trading on Stellar.
Hermes aims to revolutionize trading on Stellar by offering leverage trading, advanced derivatives, and liquidity provision. This initiative fills a critical gap in Stellar's ecosystem, which excels in payments and tokenized assets but lacks advanced trading infrastructure. Perpetual exchanges are among the fastest-growing DeFi sectors, with platforms like GMX and Hyperliquid achieving billions in trading volume, demonstrating high user demand. Hermes leverages Stellar’s fast, low-cost transactions to provide seamless trading experiences, attracting both institutional and retail users. Its roadmap includes multi-token pools, advanced trading features like stop-loss and take-profit orders, and decentralized governance through a DAO. By onboarding traders from other networks and incentivizing liquidity providers, Hermes is poised to drive transaction volume, enhance Stellar's competitive edge in DeFi, and expand its ecosystem beyond remittances to include sophisticated financial applications.
Yes
$150.0K
Hermes’ success depends on achieving high liquidity and trading volume. Large liquidity pools will ensure tight spreads and low slippage, attracting traders and market makers. High volume will drive platform revenue and create a cycle of increased adoption and liquidity. Community engagement will be critical, with active DAO participation for governance and decision-making. Financial success will be measured by metrics like total value locked (TVL) and trading volume, while a clean audit record and ongoing user feedback will ensure platform trust and growth.
The go-to-market strategy for Hermes focuses on targeting cryptocurrency traders from other network users seeking advanced trading features. Pre-launch efforts will include building anticipation through social media campaigns, blog posts, and Stellar-focused community engagement such as AMAs and webinars. Partnerships with Stellar-based projects, like OrbitCDP, will help expand visibility and reach.
The launch strategy begins with an incentivized testnet trading competition to onboard early adopters and refine features based on real-world usage. The mainnet launch will be accompanied by press releases, partner announcements, and Stellar community events to maximize visibility. Post-launch, Hermes will focus on user acquisition through liquidity incentives, referral programs, and educational resources, making the platform accessible to both experienced traders and newcomers. Continuous engagement will be driven by regular updates, trading competitions, and governance activities to maintain user interest and participation.
1. Industry Demand:
Perpetual exchanges are one of the fastest-growing sectors in decentralized finance (DeFi), with leading platforms like Jupiter, Hyperliquid, and GMX achieving billions in trading volume. This validates the widespread demand for decentralized derivatives trading. By bringing perpetuals to Stellar, we can tap into an established market while addressing gaps in Stellar's current ecosystem.
2. User Interest:
The popularity of perpetual exchanges lies in their ability to offer leverage trading, hedge risks, and access diverse assets—all of which attract a broad spectrum of traders. Integrating a perpetual exchange on Stellar provides an opportunity to onboard users from traditional perpetual platforms and expand Stellar's user base into a lucrative market segment.
3. On-Chain Metrics from Leading Platforms:
- Platforms like Hyperliquid and Jupiter consistently process over $1 billion in daily trading volume.
- HyperLiquid and the top perpetual exchange have proven that decentralized perpetuals can achieve deep liquidity, attracting both institutional and retail users.
- To see the stats more in depth check out: https://defillama.com/protocols/Derivatives
4. Current Gap on Stellar:
Stellar currently excels in payments and tokenized assets but lacks advanced trading infrastructures for leverage trading and other advanced derivatives. Adding this feature could fill a key gap, increasing Stellar’s competitiveness and expanding its appeal beyond remittances to DeFi-native users.
Justification for Meeting SCF Build Award Criteria
- Traction in the Market: The proven success of perpetual exchanges in the broader DeFi market highlights their scalability and user appeal. Introducing this functionality to Stellar could open new doors for user acquisition and ecosystem growth.
- Validation: The success of competitors validates the model, and bringing perpetual exchanges to Stellar offers a unique value proposition: leveraging Stellar's fast, low-cost transactions to make perpetuals more accessible and efficient.
The current version of Hermes was initially developed during two hackathons, HackMeridian and Dev.to, as a proof of concept for the platform's vision. While it demonstrates the fundamental functionality, it lacks several critical features and remains relatively centralized due to the time constraints of hackathon development. The codebase is publicly available, providing a starting point for further iteration. To transition Hermes into a fully operational MVP, we plan to:
Implement support for multiple positions to allow users more flexibility in their trading strategies.
Add functionality to support multiple tokens within pools and the ability to create multiple pools, enhancing the platform's scalability and token interoperability.
Refactor and fix specific function calls and parameters to ensure smooth execution of all key operations.
The MVP will be considered complete when the following milestones are achieved:
Feature Validation: Successfully supporting multiple positions and multiple token types in pools across several live test cases. Multiple pools functioning concurrently without errors, with seamless interaction for users.
Decentralization Progress: Demonstrable steps toward decentralization, such as integrating more Stellar-based smart contracts and reducing reliance on centralized elements.
User Feedback: Positive feedback from early testers regarding usability and feature completeness, supported by specific indicators like transaction success rates and pool participation.
3 Months Competition Time
$80,000
The testnet launch of Hermes will focus on ensuring robust functionality and user engagement. We will deploy the updated platform to the Stellar testnet, where users can participate in incentivized testing through events like a trading competition. This competition will encourage users to interact with key features such as multiple token pools, limit orders, take profit/stop loss (TP/SL), and liquidation functionalities. To facilitate advanced trading features, a dedicated bot powered by Mercury will handle liquidation processes and order execution. The trading competition will run for a set period (e.g., X days), with prizes awarded to top participants. This approach not only fosters user testing but also helps identify areas for improvement based on real-world usage.
The MVP will be considered complete when the following milestones are achieved:
Deployment Validation: Successful deployment of the Hermes platform to the Stellar testnet with all planned features operational.
Bot Functionality: Mercury-powered bots executing liquidation, TP/SL, and limit orders without errors during testnet operations.
Feedback Collection: Gathering and analyzing user feedback to identify and address bugs or usability issues.
Feature Stability: Stable performance of all core functionalities under varied test conditions, ensuring readiness for mainnet launch.
2 Months Completion TIme
$50,000
The mainnet launch of Hermes will represent a significant milestone, transitioning from testnet to a fully operational and audited platform. Prior to deployment, we will conduct a comprehensive audit to identify and resolve any vulnerabilities or inefficiencies in the codebase. Once the audited version is finalized and all identified issues are addressed, the platform will be deployed to the Stellar mainnet. A key addition for the mainnet version will be the implementation of a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) to manage pool governance, ensuring decentralized decision-making and community-driven growth.
The MVP will be considered complete when the following milestones are achieved:
Audit Completion: A comprehensive third-party audit conducted, with all identified vulnerabilities resolved and the final report available for transparency.
Successful Deployment: The Hermes platform deployed to the Stellar mainnet without critical errors or downtime.
DAO Implementation: A functional DAO integrated to govern pool operations, with users actively participating in governance decisions.
Performance Stability: Stable performance under mainnet conditions, with features like pool creation, token trading, and limit/TP/SL orders functioning seamlessly.
User Adoption: Measurable user activity on the mainnet, including metrics like daily active users, transaction volumes, and pool participation rates.
Community Feedback: Positive community feedback and engagement through governance and feature use, signaling readiness for scaling and further feature development.
1 Month Completion Time
$20,000
Our team currently consists of three members. Ishan Singh, the CEO and Founder of Zenith Protocols, oversees both the business and logistical aspects of our projects. Robin Olthuis, the CTO and Co-Founder, is the technical mastermind behind Zenith Protocols, handling all the coding for the dApps we develop. Brent Tenboom is the expert responsible for the mathematics and logistics that power our products.
Ishan Singh
Robin Olthuis
No other submissions.