A $400m Ethereum address known as “0xb1” is doing a giveaway to boost DeFi
If you’ve been following DeFi on Twitter over the past few months, you likely know of the address with the prefix “0xb1.”
I’ve tweeted about the address a fair bit. To recap: 0xb1 is the largest yield farming Ethereum address, with over $450 million worth of net worth circulating around in the DeFi space’s top yield farms and protocols through dozens of transactions a day. (A fun fact is the address has spent over $150,000 worth of Ethereum in transaction fees.
What makes the address especially interesting is that the address literally has a Twitter address, whose name is the address. The Twitter account is verified to be the same group that runs the address.
By far, one of the most interesting Ethereum addresses I've seen is @0x_b1.
It's quite an interesting social experiment as well – a $300m whale starting a Twitter account for fun. Check their bio.
Let's break down the address and see what they are doing with their capital. ?
— Nick Chong (@n2ckchong) January 3, 2021
0xb1 recently announced that they are going to be giving away some of their DeFi assets to boost the space.
The DeFi giveaway
On Jan. 13, 0xb1, who describes themselves as “champions of the people of DeFi,” announced that they will be “commemorating the true year of #DeFi, the year of the Ox, and the year of #0x_b1.”
To commemorate the year of DeFi, as they explain, they will be giving away some of their holdings to a number of protocols:
- 50 percent of their BadgerDAO DIGG airdrop, expected to have a value of a few hundred thousand dollars, to developers of the BadgerDAO protocol. They are donating the funds to three specific developers.
- 500 YF Link (YFL) to YF Link’s automated market maker, LInkSwap, for further liquidity mining incentives.
- 5,000 Yaxis (YAX) to the project’s Metavault Strategies Hackathon to boost yields for users.
- $150,000 prize for a “Commemorative NFT” celebrating the 0xb1 address and their involvement in a number of crypto-asset projects.
1/
Without the people, there is no DeFi.We are champions of the people of #DeFi, announce opening the 2021 year with a celebratory series of games commemorating the true year of #DeFi, the year of the Ox, and the year of #0x_b1.
With gratitude,
Let the games begin!
— 0xB1AdceddB2941033a090dD166a462fe1c2029484 (@0x_b1) January 13, 2021
Many celebrated the collaborative effort, with the thread garnering over 600 likes and retweets from innovators such as Andre Cronje of Yearn.finance and Ameer Rosic, advisor of Badger DAO.
A yield farming beast
Aside from giveaways, 0xb1 is a yield farming beast.
More than 99% of their capital is active in yield farms. For instance, the address has $150 million worth of ETH and WBTC collateral deposited in Compound, which is being used to borrow $80 million worth of stablecoins.
The address generates many dozens of millions of dollars in yield each year.