📚Add Liquidity

How to Provide Liquidity on THORSwap

A liquidity provider (LP) is an individual who deposits their assets into liquidity pools. Traders will use these liquidity pools to swap their assets. By providing liquidity for traders, you will earn yield on your assets from trading fees, incentives, and block rewards.

Impermanent Loss Protection (no longer available) With the advent of Savers Vaults eliminating the need for Impermanent Loss Protection (ILP), ILP for new Dual LP deposits was removed at block 9450000 (estimated Feb 6th 7:50pm EST). Learn more: https://twitter.com/THORChain/status/1622652548984209418

All ILP was disabled on THORChain on estimated Dec 6, 2023 (EST): https://twitter.com/THORChain/status/1732602848611844549

Native Assets

The pools use native assets on their native chain. i.e deposit native BTC into the RUNE-BTC liquidity pool to earn yield. For every deposit, there must be an equal proportion of RUNE paired with the ASSET. Every liquidity pool will equate to 50% RUNE and 50% ASSET.

i.e if you deposit $20,000 ETH then it must be paired with $20,000 RUNE, or the pool will rebalance your deposit into a 50:50 split equating to $10,000 ETH and $10,000 RUNE.

Asym or Sym?

Liquidity providers can deposits assets in two ways: Asymmetrically or Symmetrically.

Asymmetrical Deposit is when you pool one-sided with an asset. You are depositing an unequal proportion of ASSET in an equal paired liquidity pool, hence why it is asymmetrical. When you pool asymmetrically your ASSET is converted into 50% RUNE and 50% ASSET (this is called rebalancing).

If you deposit asymetrically you can only withdraw assymetrically.

user deposits 100% BTC. The pool will rebalance their assets to convert them into 50% RUNE and 50% BTC.

You can also pool asymmetrically with RUNE. Same principle, your 100% RUNE will be converted into 50% RUNE and 50% ASSET. Essentially you are selling half your RUNE for said asset.

Keep in mind that you are now exposed to both assets.

When your deposit is rebalanced, you are subject to slippage and fees when entering the pool.

Due to slippage, the total rebalance value of the deposit will not be exactly 100% of the total value of the initial deposit. Slippage is due to the depth of liquidity pools, the deeper the pools (aka the more liquidity) the less slippage occurs and the amount you will receive will be closer to the initial deposit.

Slippage also depends on the size of the deposit. Bigger deposits occur more slippage. Always take into account slippage for your asymmetrical deposits.

If you asymmetrically deposit into an empty or shallow pool, you may potentially LOSE all of your ASSETS. Basically, you unbalance the pool to such an extreme that an arbitrager can pay peanuts for the asset you deposited. As the arbitrager is enticed to balance the pool.

There are 3 types charged on asymmetrical deposits: 1. The on-chain deposit transaction fee (inbound tx) 2. The liquidity fee as a function of slip 3. The on-chain redemption transaction fee (outbound tx)

There is no difference between swapping into a symmetrical proportion of asset, then depositing that, as you still experience the same net slip as if you were depositing asymmetrically.

LP vs Hold is calculated when assets have been rebalanced into a symmetrical deposit.

Symmetrical deposits are when users deposit an equal value of RUNE and ASSET.

If you deposit symetrically you can withdraw both symmetrically or asymetrically.

User deposits 50% BTC and 50% RUNE into the BTC-RUNE liquidity pool.

As the deposit is already balanced, the pool does not need to rebalance your deposit.

Withdrawal Deposits

Liquidity providers can withdraw their assets at any time, there is no lock-up period.

For every withdrawal whether it is an asymmetrical or symmetrical deposit, there is always a fee to be paid in native RUNE to withdraw funds from the pool.

BUT, for NON-RUNE asymmetrical deposit, the withdrawal fee will be native to the asset when withdrawing the asset asymmetrically.

i.e when withdrawing an asymmetrical BTC deposit you will have to pay a withdrawal fee in BTC.

Why ASYM or SYMM?

There are many reasons why a user would use different methods of depositing assets. Sometimes it due to the flexibility of the protocol and sometimes it’s a choice.

Sym deposits have more withdrawal options, you can withdraw your deposit asymmetrically and symmetrically. Whereas for Asym deposits you can only withdraw asymmetrically.

This depends on your country’s legislation and the position a taxpayer takes. However, when adding liquidity asymmetrically it can be considered either a taxable event on half your position or a none taxable event because you do not swap assets before adding them to the pool. It becomes a taxable event when you withdraw your deposit.

If you were bullish on RUNE and another ASSET, but you do not own the other ASSET. You could simply asymmetrically deposit RUNE to acquire the ASSET, as you will be essentially selling half your rune for the asset. Likewise, if you only owned the ASSET and no RUNE (which is a sin) but you wanted to acquire RUNE, then you could deposit your ASSET asymmetrically.

Before you deposit you need to understand that the pool is essentially an auto-balancing portfolio. The liquidity pool’s goal is to maintain an equal proportion of RUNE and ASSET relative to the dollar value. If you deposit and then RUNE skyrockets in price, then the pool will auto-balance itself by selling RUNE for the ASSET, therefore you would acquire more ASSET but less RUNE. Likewise, you would acquire more RUNE if the ASSET rise in price.

How to Add Liquidity?

Adding Symmetrically:

Adding RUNE Asymmetrically:

Adding ASSET Asymmetrically:

You will need the native asset to pay gas for the deposit transaction. i.e depositing BTC, you will need additional BTC to pay for tx fees.

Expert Mode You will have to enable expert mode!

It allows you to pool 2-sided assets asymmetrically i.e 2 BTC + 1000 RUNE

However, you might experience slippage due to rebalancing from depositing asymmetrically.

Add liquidity After connecting your wallets, you can start adding liquidity from the Desktop/Web app.

Navigate to “DEPOSIT’" in the sidebar, select the asset you want to pool, how much, and what composition (symmetrically, asymmetrically, or pro). Click add liquidity, congratulations you are now a THORChain Liquidity Provider!