Weekly Bonzo Bytes 🎙️🐵

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Bonzo Finance Labs
@bonzo_financeJan 30, 2026

The Spaces focused on Bonzo Vaults B1 launching in beta, user feedback, and detailed explanations of the two vault strategies: Single-Asset DEX (inventory protection, TWAP-driven adjustments, ratio-based withdrawals) and Dual-Asset DEX (main and alt ranges, implied-volatility cadence rebalancing without swaps). Brady and Renley highlighted upcoming vaults for wETH and wBTC, improved UX for ERC-20 bridged assets versus HTS, and wallet icon support, plus strong media coverage. Developer initiatives include an APEX hackathon track for vault strategies with strategist fee incentives and planned audits, and forthcoming farms to stake LP tokens for incentives on new token launches. A governance discussion with SaucerSwap seeks to allocate native staking rewards on wrapped HBAR contributed via Bonzo Lend, aiming to avoid bifurcation while ensuring fairness. The team shared current TVL and market stats, discussed Dell’s trusted AI whitepaper leveraging Hedera HCS for verifiable compute, and introduced new Hedera Skills AI tooling for agent integrations. In open discussion, the importance of multiple DEXs for arbitrage and flash loans was underscored; Wrap DEX outlined its Q2 MVP and potential collaboration. The session closed with calls for feedback, participation, and continued community engagement.

Bonzo Bytes x Spaces Weekly Recap

Participants

  • Brady (Bonzo Finance)
  • Renley (Bonzo Finance; host)
  • Rap DEX representative (guest)
  • Absent: Goran (Bonzo Finance)

Agenda Overview

  • Bonzo updates: Vaults B1 beta launch, upcoming assets, documentation and UX improvements
  • Community Q&A: Vault strategy mechanics, hackathon incentives, liquidity behavior, staking interactions, governance around wrapped HBAR
  • Market/industry updates: Bonzo and Hedera TVL, HBAR price, chain rankings
  • Hedera ecosystem news: Dell’s Trusted AI framework leveraging HCS, new Hedera AI tooling (“Hedera Skills”)
  • Ecosystem collaboration: Rap DEX elevator pitch and potential synergies

Bonzo Vaults: Launch, UX, and Upcoming Assets

  • Status
    • Bonzo Vaults B1 are live in beta, with strong community feedback guiding fast iteration cycles.
    • Initial polish largely addressed cosmetic/UI aspects; content and promo materials rolling out.
  • Asset support and UX considerations
    • Vaults incorporate bridged assets that are ERC‑20 tokens (EVM-side) in addition to Hedera Token Service (HTS) assets.
    • UI and documentation have been updated to clearly visualize ERC‑20 vs HTS distinctions, with guidance on seeing tokens in HashPack.
    • HashPack is rolling out token icons for ERC‑20 assets (icons for Bonzo Lend already present).
  • Upcoming
    • New vaults for wrapped ETH (WETH) and wrapped BTC (WBTC) targeted for next week.
    • Not financial advice, but a potential flow highlighted: borrow WETH from Bonzo Lend and deposit into Bonzo Vaults.
  • Media & community
    • Crypto News Flash published a well-researched article covering Bonzo Vaults (reviewed documentation and audits), picked up by CoinGecko and Bitget; Hedera Foundation promoted on X.
    • Bonzo encourages users to share hands-on experiences to help others and informs ongoing improvements.

Community Q&A: Vault Strategy Mechanics and Key Behaviors

Q1 (Zion): Preventing overtrading and minimizing loss/fees; how ranges are set

  • Vault types
    • Single Asset DEX Vaults: deposit one asset; vault routes liquidity to a DEX and manages it to optimize yield while protecting inventory of the primary deposited asset.
    • Dual Asset DEX Vaults: deposit two assets (a pair); vault manages ranges and rebalancing to optimize yield.
  • Single Asset DEX Vault mechanics
    • Inventory protection: aims to keep withdrawals predominantly in the deposited asset denomination.
    • Dynamic optimization on price moves: monitors time-weighted average price and autonomously shifts composition to realize gains and mitigate losses.
    • Example (DOVU-HBAR vault): during a strong DOVU rally (late December), vault shifted HBAR into DOVU (observed ratio temporarily around 99% DOVU / 1% HBAR) to capture appreciation, then reverted to a balanced ratio (~75% DOVU / 25% HBAR) once price settled for sustained yield in range.
    • Withdrawals: users receive the current vault mix (e.g., deposit DOVU; withdraw DOVU plus some HBAR based on the prevailing ratio).
    • Overtrading safeguards: the vault acts autonomously on price movements to optimize outcomes, reduce fees, realize gains, and mitigate losses; as with any code, edge cases can exist.
  • Dual Asset DEX Vault mechanics
    • Two ranges: a main range (50/50 composition wrapped around current price) and an alt range (excess tokens placed to the left/right to keep earning if price moves quickly).
    • Rebalancing cadence depends on implied volatility of the pair.
      • Example: USDC-HBAR dual-asset vault rebalances roughly every 4 hours.
    • Rebalancing does not swap tokens (no swap fees incurred); it repositions liquidity around the current price and adjusts alt ranges.
  • Next steps: Bonzo will publish more visuals and explanations (blogs, tweets, documentation) to make mechanics easier to consume.

Q2 (Mac): Hackathon reward for vault strategies—Is it for the upcoming APEX?

  • Yes, for the APEX hackathon.
  • Bonzo will offer a pool of Bonzo tokens as rewards for vault strategy creation.
  • Developers can build strategies ranging from simple to highly complex; Bonzo aims to support audits for third-party strategies.
  • Strategist fee: creators of deployed strategies earn a configurable strategist fee (commonly ~0.5% of vault yield), aligning incentives for robust yield-generating designs.

Q3 (Dovu Bro): Bizzen/Byzan Link and potential relation to Bonzo; vaults for token launches; farms

  • Current status: no partnership in place yet; team has reviewed their announcement and platform concept.
  • Bonzo’s longer-term vision for new token launches
    • Token secures a SaucerSwap v2 pool (paired with HBAR or USDC).
    • Bonzo Vault created for that token; users deposit liquidity; vault manages liquidity automatically for optimal yield.
    • Benefits: bootstraps liquidity, reduces slippage for traders, improves market quality relative to manual LP management.
    • Farming: Bonzo is working with partners to enable farms where users stake LP tokens from vault deposits to earn incentives (especially from the newly launched token), further bootstrapping liquidity.
    • Outreach: Bonzo plans to engage Bizzen/Byzan Link to explore such integrations.

Q4 (Dovu Bro): Wrapped HBAR governance with SaucerSwap; native staking rewards for Bonzo Lend’s wHBAR

  • Background
    • Bonzo Lend’s HBAR pool uses SaucerSwap’s wHBAR contract (smart contracts require tokenized/“wrapped” representations of native assets; consistent with Ethereum’s WETH paradigm).
    • SaucerSwap stakes the HBAR held in the wHBAR contract to a node; currently earns ~2.5% APY.
    • Bonzo users have contributed ~$5M worth of HBAR to that wHBAR contract via Bonzo Lend.
  • Question: Are Bonzo depositors earning their rightful native staking rewards?
    • Today: No.
    • Proposal: On SaucerSwap governance forums, Bonzo proposed that 90% of rewards attributable to Bonzo-contributed HBAR be distributed to Bonzo users, with 10% retained by SaucerSwap.
    • Initial response from SaucerSwap: No.
    • Alternatives and considerations
      • Bonzo could switch to its own wHBAR contract, removing ~$5M HBAR from SaucerSwap’s wHBAR—undesirable ecosystem fragmentation.
      • Goal: find a fair solution avoiding bifurcated wHBAR across Hedera, supporting efficient liquidations and cohesive liquidity.
    • Status: Discussions ongoing; Bonzo will keep the community updated.

Q5: Why does the DOVU vault show more DOVU relative to HBAR than the underlying pool? Isn’t maximizing pool liquidity preferable?

  • Not a 1:1 comparison: vault composition is optimized and dynamic; underlying SaucerSwap pool composition reflects arbitrary user deposits and ranges.
  • Single Asset DEX vault emphasizes protecting the primary deposited asset (DOVU in this case) and optimizing yield; thus, vault ratios diverge from the pool’s aggregate liquidity composition.
  • Underlying pools can be skewed by user inventory (e.g., many LPs with more HBAR than DOVU), while vaults target intelligent, automated ratios.

Q6 (Peter): If I deposit staked Bonzo (xBONZO) into a vault, do I still earn the Bonzo staking APR?

  • Yes. Liquid staking tokens (xBONZO, xHBAR, xPAK, xKBL, etc.) maintain inherent yield via a rising conversion rate to the base asset; that continues in the vault.
  • Caveat: In a Single Asset DEX vault, withdrawals return a ratio including the base BONZO asset, not purely xBONZO; expected vault yield should offset any difference, but users must evaluate based on market assumptions and risk tolerance.

Bonzo Stats and Market Snapshot

  • Bonzo Finance TVL: ~$19.5M (down from ~$21M last week)
    • In HBAR terms: ~195.8M HBAR (up from ~190M)
  • Lending protocol rank (overall): # 65 (unchanged from last week)
  • Hedera protocol ranks and TVL
    • Bonzo Finance: # 3
    • SaucerSwap: # 2; TVL ~$42M (down from ~$43M)
  • Hedera network TVL: ~$63M (down from ~$65M)
  • Cross-chain ranking: Hedera at # 48 (up from # 49)
  • USDC issued on Hedera: ~$41.8M (down from ~$46.1M)
  • HBAR price: ~$0.0999 (down from ~$0.11)

Hedera Ecosystem News and Industry Context

Dell’s “Trusted AI” white paper integrating Hedera

  • Dell proposes hardware-based cryptographic notaries to audit AI training—recording each data object and compute step as immutable, timestamped entries on Hedera.
  • Highlights Hedera Consensus Service (HCS) and tokenization capabilities as the public ledger layer enabling AI auditability and compliance.
  • Builds on earlier work with Equideum Labs (Equity Labs), Intel, and NVIDIA—tying next-gen AI hardware directly to on-ledger verification.
  • Brady’s view
    • Hedera is well-suited for verifiable compute: verifying training data and generative outputs (LLMs, image/video models).
    • As models become more powerful, authenticity verification (human vs AI-generated) needs immutable proofs; HCS offers economically feasible verification relative to other networks.
    • Long-term success requires unsubsidized adoption: organic fee flow, gas token purchases, and network revenue flywheel under sound regulatory conditions now emerging for institutions.

“Hedera Skills” AI tooling for builders

  • Led by Jay Cool: marketplace of plugins/skills for AI coding agents (e.g., Claude Code) to build on Hedera.
  • Initial plugins include:
    • Agent Kit plugin: scaffolding for custom Hedera agent tools.
    • HTS system contract reference: standardizing token creation/management via smart contracts.
  • Brady’s view
    • Momentum around autonomous AI agents (Claude/Malt Bot) is accelerating—agents collaborate on dedicated forums, fix bugs, and perform tasks autonomously.
    • Adding a payments/value layer is critical; Hedera can provide efficient rails for agent-to-agent economic activity.
    • Hackathons (e.g., Moonscape’s AI agent events) demonstrate strong developer interest; expect more agent-driven innovations.

Ecosystem Collaboration: Rap DEX Elevator Pitch and Synergies

  • Brady invited Rap DEX to share; they outlined:
    • Vision: A DEX that wraps top 50 assets by market cap via Hedera’s bridge stack (Stargate, Axelar, CCIP) and native Hashport; HTS minting where needed.
    • Product: Portfolio tracker with dynamic login, integrated on/off ramps; UX mirroring centralized exchanges with full self-custody.
    • Integrations: Collaborations with Drop Payments, IvyFi, Bonzo, etc.; aim to route swaps across best providers.
    • Architecture: Hybrid approach using HSuite SDKs and custom smart contracts; target atomic swaps (inspired by Silk Suite SDKs).
    • Timeline: MVP in Q2; early access via “raft ones” NFTs; building a 100-member DAO for feedback, bug bounties, and continuous improvement.
  • Synergies with Bonzo
    • Multiple high-liquidity DEXs enable flash-loan arbitrage across venues, improving price accuracy, LP/trader experience, and protocol fee generation for Bonzo Lend.
    • Brady suggested exploring vault compatibility with concentrated liquidity pools (e.g., Aerodrome/Uniswap v3-style CL); teams to follow up via DMs.

Key Takeaways

  • Bonzo Vaults B1 beta is live; ERC‑20 support on Hedera’s EVM side is clearly communicated in UI/docs, with HashPack icon support improving UX.
  • Single Asset and Dual Asset DEX vaults have distinct mechanics tailored for inventory protection, price-aware optimization, and volatility-based rebalancing; documentation and visual explainer content will expand.
  • Hackathon incentives (APEX) will drive community-built vault strategies with aligned rewards via strategist fees.
  • Wrapped HBAR governance with SaucerSwap remains in active discussion—Bonzo seeks a fair path to distribute native staking rewards to Bonzo users while avoiding ecosystem fragmentation.
  • Hedera continues to gain traction in AI verifiable compute use cases (Dell’s Trusted AI white paper) and AI-agent developer tooling (“Hedera Skills”), positioning the network for agent-native payments and auditability.
  • Ecosystem breadth (Rap DEX) is increasing, offering potential arbitrage, liquidity routing, and user experience enhancements that complement Bonzo’s lending and vault products.

Action Items and Next Steps

  • Bonzo
    • Launch WETH and WBTC vaults next week.
    • Publish deeper strategy explainers with visuals; continue updating docs.
    • Share finalized APEX hackathon details (criteria, rewards, audits support).
    • Advance governance dialogue with SaucerSwap on wHBAR rewards; evaluate alternatives if needed.
    • Progress farming integration for vault LP tokens (incentives for liquidity bootstrapping).
  • Community & Partners
    • Developers: explore vault strategy creation; consider strategist fee alignment.
    • Rap DEX x Bonzo: follow-up meetings to explore arbitrage routing, vaults for CL pools, cross-network asset support.
    • Users: test vaults, provide feedback via Discord (Gen chat or tickets), share experiences publicly to support broader adoption.

Sentiment and Closing

  • The team is pragmatic and humble, valuing community feedback to refine products.
  • Optimism for 2026 as a broader adoption inflection point, propelled by real-world use cases, unsubsidized on-chain activity, and institutional clarity.
  • Session closed with an open floor for questions and a call for continued collaboration across the Hedera ecosystem.