By James Davis
The developer behind the decentralized crypto exchange PancakeSwap revealed on Sunday that a new version of its platform would roll out to its users in April on BNB Smart Chain.
PancakeSwap boss Mochi said the platform will be packed with new features that offer users a better experience while making Decentralized Finance (DeFi) accessible to more people.
According to the company’s blog post, the launch of the PancakeSwap version 3 is set to happen in the first week of next month. It will be accompanied by a series of updates to the service, like improved liquidity provisioning and more affordable trading fees.
PancakeSwap Plans to Run a Rewards Campaign
PancakeSwap also hinted about a rewards campaign that will see its users airdropped the exchange’s native token, CAKE, if they commit a certain amount of funds to the liquidity pools.
In addition, those users will also get NFTs that will act as a symbol of loyalty toward the exchange. However, PancakeSwap explains that these digital assets are non-transferable, so holders cannot sell them. Furthermore, the exchange issued a disclaimer stating that the rewards campaign can be canceled at any moment.
According to data from CoinGecko, the CAKE token currently has a market cap of roughly $700 million. The token is now trading at $3.77, representing a 92% drop from its all-time of $44.1, hit in April 2021.
PancakeSwap version two is the fourth largest decentralized exchange by trading volume. The platform has posted $83 million in trades over the past 24 hours, as per DefiLlama.
Launched in September 2020, PancakeSwap is developed on the BNB chain, unlike other bigger decentralized exchanges such as UniSwap, which are built on Ethereum.
Decentralized Vs. Centralized Exchanges
Decentralized exchanges differ from centralized platforms like Binance and Coinbase by enabling crypto users to trade directly with each other while retaining the possession of their assets the entire time.
Many decentralized exchanges operate by inviting users to provide liquidity through an automated market maker system, which lets users lock up their tokens to earn rewards.
But the total value locked on PancakeSwap has dropped sharply. It has fallen from $6.4 billion posted in December 2021 to $3.6 billion today, as per DefiLlama.