BRIDGE Token: Reducing Emissions & increasing Utility

7 min readJun 13, 2022

After collecting six months’ worth of data, we are proud to say that the Cross-Chain Bridge has evolved into a stable, well-respected product. To improve the product and tokenomics based on community feedback and decisions, over the coming weeks, we will deploy some changes that will significantly increase the utility of the BRIDGE token and the reasons to use the Cross-Chain Bridge.

We all know that most Altcoins are down by up to 95%. This is unfortunate, but for everyone who has experienced previous bear markets — this is normal. For tokens that launched right before the start of the bear market, this is frustrating — but timing is always tricky to plan. Over these times, tokens that started as farm tokens — with higher emissions as a “marketing spend” — reduced in value even more.

We will update significant aspects regarding the BRIDGE token, its utility, and the product. Emissions will go down by 90%, and other major token utilities and updates will be introduced (see below).

At the same time, the vision and huge potential remain the same. We are confident that bridging demand is just getting started. In a multi-chain world where more and more gets tokenized, the bridging requirement for fungible and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will explode. And we are confident that a permissionless, security-focused, and decentralized bridge is the way to go.

In addition, we are waiting for the TXL team to finalize the Autobahn Network — a Layer 2 for Binance Smart Chain (integration inside the Bridge is already advanced!). The Cross-Chain Bridge will be the first and main bridge connecting their network with other networks — which will become a game changer for the Cross-Chain Bridge too. Most TXL moving in and out of the Autobahn Network will generate fees for BRIDGE token holders.

Updates

Over the next couple of weeks, the following updates will be deployed.

Reducing Emissions by 90%

On June 20th, 2022, we will change the BRIDGE tokens minted per minute that go to the Farms from the current 80 BRIDGE per minute to just 8 BRIDGE per minute. The % minted to finance the dev team and to collect tokens for protocol-owned liquidity (see below) will stay the same.

At the same time, we will stop supporting all Farms except for the USDT Farms on all networks. USDT has been the main driver of volume and thus bridging fees that go to BRIDGE stakers in the Rewards Pools. The other Farms have not generated enough volume or fees, respectively — meaning the increased emission rate or Farm rewards only led to dilution while the liquidity was not needed for bridgings. After June 20th, 2022, USDT will get a 100% Multiplier, meaning that the entire 8 BRIDGE per minute minted for the Farms will go to that Farm. Other Farms may be introduced again in the future.

Users who staked their LP tokens in other Farms are invited to stake these in the corresponding Liquidity Mining Pools after this date.

Reducing Reward Pool Withdrawal Fee

With the launch of v2, we introduced a 30% withdrawal fee for people unstaking the BRIDGE tokens from a Reward Pool. This needed to be introduced to avoid users/bots jumping from pool to pool to collect fees (by watching the on-chain data).

To increase the flexibility for generating passive income, the 30% withdrawal fee will be lowered to just 1% for everybody who withdraws 7 days or later after the deposit. In the first 7 days, the 30% fee remains. Both the 30% in the first 7 days and the 1% after that are utilized to burn BRIDGE.

This will allow users to change Reward Pools with much more flexibility and thus increase the value and utility for BRIDGE token holders.

This change will take some development time, but will be implemented asap.

BRIDGE Buy-Back-and-Burns

Until now, 15% of the fees have been collected, and the community was able to trigger a buy-back-and-burn of TXL tokens with the collected tokens. To further drive the value of BRIDGE, this will change to BRIDGE. We will announce a migration date soon. All Buy-Back-and-Burns triggered by the community between the announcement and the migration date (approx. 3 full days) will still buy-back-and-burn TXL. After the migration date, the community can use the collected fees to trigger BRIDGE buy-back-and-burns.

Introducing bridging Discounts for BRIDGE-LP Holders

We are in the final stages of developing a bridging fee discount model for BRIDGE holders. After the go-live date, holders that meet the threshold with a) BRIDGE-LPs in their wallet or b) BRIDGE-LPs staked in the Liquidity Mining Pool will be eligible to a bridging discount. Further details such as how much BRIDGE will be required will be shared closer to the go-live date.

Introducing more Governance

BRIDGE token holders will be able to vote on the first proposals and play a crucial part in the future direction and strategy of the Cross-Chain Bridge. To be eligible to participate in governance, you must have BRIDGE in a wallet, staked in a Reward Pool, provided as BRIDGE liquidity, or provided as liquidity on a DEX on all 5 networks.

Building up Protocol-Owned Liquidity (POL)

We continue collecting a small relative amount of minted BRIDGE in a dedicated “POL” wallet. These BRIDGE tokens will be swapped for different tokens — which will then be used to supply protocol-owned liquidity to our Cross-Chain Bridge.

One-time BRIDGE Buy-Back-and-Burn

In the early “V1” version of the Bridge, we collected the bridging fees in a fee wallet (the fees were not yet circulated back to BRIDGE token holders as there was no BRIDGE token yet, or liquidity providers, respectively). During that time, the Cross-Chain Bridge was a small side project of the TXL team before evolving into a separate project with the V2. To compensate for the time invested by the TXL team before the BRIDGE token launch, the fees collected by the V1 will be 50% utilized for a one-time TXL-Buy-Back-and-Burn. The remainder will be used for a one-time BRIDGE Buy-Back-and-Burn. Of course, we will not announce the date and time when the BRIDGE and TXL Buy-Back-and-Burns will happen.

Cross-Chain Bridge in 2 Years

We have a couple of more exciting improvements in mind to either increase BRIDGE utility or value or make the product more user-friendly, respectively. These might be discussed and put up for votes in proposals in the coming months.

Our goal is to achieve:

✅ Fully Permissionless Cross-Chain Ecosystem
✅ Multiple Revenue Streams with a sustainable business model
✅ Real “Cross-Chain dApps” launched
✅ Bridging Data instead of tokens only (e.g., Chainlink Random Numbers)
✅ All other features from the roadmap on https://www.crosschainbridge.org/

Separate Note for TXL Farmers

The Autobahn Network is about to kick off with 5 projects already committed to deploying on the network.

While the TXL team was developing the Autobahn Network, TXL inside the Cross-Chain Bridge was an attractive way to earn. With the Autobahn Network being ready and TXL getting its core use case as the gas (and in the future governance) token of the Autobahn Network, it’s in every TXL holder’s interest that the Cross-Chain Bridge and its token recover as much as possible. Without a working, well-known bridge, the core way in and out of the Autobahn Network would be gone or much less user-friendly. There’s no need to confuse users of TXL being somehow integrated into a bridge anymore.

Former TXL-Cross-Chain-Bridge-Farmers will have different and more attractive ways to stake & earn. The TXL Buy-Back-and-Burns that have come from Cross-Chain Bridge fees were minimal.

Building Bridges

There is no doubt that the entire crypto-market has suffered — and continues to suffer — through a bear market. Newer projects, in particular, have been hit hard by market fluctuations. Instead of giving up or slowing the development of the project, we have used this period to grow the team, restructure for maximum efficiency, and develop the best bridging solution we can.

We continue to strategize, build and implement ideas into the bridge that the market wants and needs. We continue to work to make the Cross-Chain Bridge the best it can be, increasing the value of the token and rewarding supporters of the project.

Bear markets come and go, but quality projects with utility will survive and prosper. We continue to be committed to the vision and direction.