Ampleforth makes a surprise expansion beyond Ethereum

Ampleforth will bring its Ethereum-based stablecoin to three other blockchains, according to a team announcement.

AMPL to be expanded in a few months

Within the next few months, the AMPL token will be available on NEAR, TRON and Polkadot’s Alcala parachain.

While Ampleforth will still be available to Ethereum users, the expansion represents the growing vision of the project. Ampleforth co-founder Brandon Iles explained to Crypto Briefing that the project wants to ensure that AMPL is not limited to a blockchain:

AMPL was designed to be a truly independent currency, which can work to name stable contracts and fill a much needed niche as an input into the crypto world.

The term “stable contracts” refers to the AMPL architecture. AMPL is a stablecoin with an elastic offering, which means that the number of circulating tokens changes in line with its market capitalization. AMPL achieves this effect by operating a relining mechanism similar to that used in other DeFi projects such as YAM.

Referring to interoperability, Iles noted that a cross-chain approach would be beneficial for the AMPL token “so that the currency is independent and universal”.

Relationship with other projects

The blockchains Ampleforth chose to work with have made positive statements about the expansion. Illia Polosukhin, one of NEAR’s co-founders, spoke of her enthusiasm for the project:

NEAR is thrilled to be part of Ampleforth’s vision of a multi-chain future, especially in DeFi. We focus on enabling the NEAR developer community to build robust and scalable projects across a range of use cases, so partnering with Ampleforth is a natural fit.

TRON’s Justin Sun also approved the project, stating that TRON is “obsessed with cutting-edge DeFi resources and capabilities.” However, TRON’s involvement is likely to raise eyebrows, as blockchain is somewhat maligned in the cryptocurrency industry due to numerous white paper plagiarism controversies, misleading promotions, and internal violence allegations.

Alcala has not released any official statement on the partnership, although key members of the Polkadot community have spoken positively about the project’s plans. Jack Platts, co-founder of Hypersphere Ventures, says Ampleforth has the “kind of big thinking and bold experimentation” his company is looking for.

Ethereum leads the DeFi

Ampleforth’s decision to add its coin to three new blockchains is a sign that DeFi is gaining ground. I also signal the team’s belief that other chains have merits when it comes to DeFi.

Although Ethereum is currently the market leader for decentralized finance, it has faced a fair amount of criticism. Since the vast majority of DeFi activity takes place on the network, it can often suffer from traffic congestion, which leads to high fees and slow transactions. It aims to overcome these problems with the ongoing launch of Ethereum 2.0.

Despite these problems, Ampleforth has maintained a high position. It is currently the 54th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, valued just under $ 370 million at the time of writing.