Introduction
The motivation of this proposal is to upgrade the $SYN token to $CX. This will allow for a stronger, more unified protocol for all $SYN holders to benefit from Cortex Protocol. This unifies the focus, liquidity, and ownership among our community, users, and other stakeholders across one token, instead of two separate ones. We are therefore suggesting to upgrade $SYN and give the value of Cortex to $SYN holders.
Cortex Protocol
Cortex is building an AI trading agent, allowing users to “prompt to trade”.
AI agents with on-chain capabilities will be the primary way to interact with blockchains. These agents will be the easiest way to use crypto, layering on knowledge about every facet of crypto, 24/7 liveness and understanding from any data source. Using crypto without an agent will be obsolete.
Synapse Protocol
Synapse Protocol is a decentralised interchain network, allowing developers and users to read and write data between different blockchains.
Synapse products provide the rails for cross-chain messaging, no-slippage bridging, any-to-any asset swaps, and truly chain abstracted protocols. To date, it has settled $55B, been used by more than 2.5M users and generated $30M+ in fees. Synapse’s vision is to be the HTTPS for crypto, allowing developers to build apps without the constraints of individual blockchains.
Motivation
Why upgrade $SYN to $CX instead of having two separate tokens?
The motivation to have one unified token is clear:
One upgraded token allows unified liquidity, community and incentives:
a) Labs and DAO contributors have a unified token and project to contribute to. Small nimble startups are not fit
for managing two separate projects.
b) All holders and team members have their incentives aligned preventing diverging incentives from having two
separate holder bases.
c) Unified liquidity across CEXs and on-chain allows for deeper and more efficient liquidity leading to less value
leakage for holders and traders.
CEX support: Given the extensive listings of $SYN across leading exchanges such as Coinbase, Binance, Bybit, Kraken and other venues, having an upgraded token that can benefit from these listings allows the maximum value accrual instead of balancing the liquidity and custody of two tokens with several counterparties.
Allow for all $SYN holders to benefit from the new utility and value of the Cortex Protocol. Granting $CX tokens to $SYN holders holding on exchanges or through custodial services is hindered by those counterparties. By simply upgrading the token, all $SYN token holders benefit from the Cortex Protocol immediately and all future development and product releases that the protocol will build.
Proposal Implementation:
Ratify the medium proposal from Cortex Labs approving the $CX allocation for $SYN holders. Users receive 5.5 $CX for every $SYN.
Transfer ownership, IP and governance of Cortex Protocol from Labs to the new Cortex DAO for the benefit of $CX holders.
Merge all existing $SYN utility into $CX resulting in a unified token. Resulting in a unified $CX token and DAO inheriting:
a) $CX as the native governance token for all Synapse and Cortex related contracts and protocol operations
b) A combined DAO with all assets
Open a two way token migration portal between $CX and $SYN for the next three months. All major CEXs are
in communication and expected to support the token upgrade by this deadline. After this deadline, there will be
an additional 9 month grace period where $SYN will be able to migrate to $CX but not the other way around.
Afterwards, $SYN will have no utility.
$CX Transferability and liquidity management:
a) Turn on $CX transferability
b) Migrate the SYN/ETH protocol owned liquidity to a $CX/SOL pool on Solana, additionally incentivise this pool
at a rate to be determined
c) Migrate the SYN/ETH pool and OP incentives on Velodrome to a $CX/ETH pool and increase incentives from
5k OP per week to 15k OP per week for 12 week
Voting:
Option 1: Ratify the proposal above and start implementation immediately leading to a unified protocol
Option 2: Reject the proposal above disconnecting $SYN and $CX. In this case Cortex Protocol would be its own token and project completely separate from Synapse and $SYN holders.
Frequently Asked Questions can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13rhRrD5orsee7LzW7heRSEe4uPz5KnN61ZtgUBct2DI/edit?usp=sharing