What is Spell Token?

The SPELL Token is an ERC-20 governance token for the decentralised crypto lending platform Abracadabra Money, which employs interest-bearing tokens as collateral in the minting of Magic Internet Money (MIM), a USD-pegged stablecoin.

The loan liquidation process on Abracadabra Money differs from other stablecoin/lending protocols like MakerDAO in that it utilises interest-bearing tokens (ibTKNs) — a type of LP token — as collateral.

A brief history of Spell Token

Launched in May 2021, Abracadabra Money is a cross-chain lending protocol that enables its users to make use of the interest-bearing tokens they have earned in vaults (e.g., xSUSHI, yvUSDT) so that the capital can be utilised.

The project is run by a co-founder known only as "Squirrel,” along with Daniele Sesta, who is responsible for Popsicle Finance (a decentralised market maker) and Wonderland (an OlympusDAO fork), both of which are on the Avalanche chain.

Abracadabra Money has three main tokens:

SPELL: the protocol's token, which is used for incentivisation

sSPELL: obtained by staking SPELL tokens and used for fee-sharing and governance

MIM: a multichain stablecoin backed by interest-bearing tokens

SPELL is the native governance and staking token of the platform, and available on Ethereum, Fantom, Avalanche, and Arbitrum. It was distributed in May 2021, after which half of all SPELL tokens were burned, reducing the supply from 420 billion to 210 billion. A further 5.25 billion tokens were burned in January 2022.

How Spell Token works

SPELL is the native token of Abracadabra Money, a platform primarily built on the Ethereum blockchain and bridged to other networks like Fantom and Avalanche via AnySwap. It serves as a governance and incentive token within the Abracadabra Money ecosystem. Its primary use cases are governance and fees earned from the protocol (interest, borrowing, and 10% of liquidation for certain markets).

Holders of SPELL can stake their tokens to receive sSPELL, which grant holders voting rights and passive income from fees generated by the protocol. sSPELL tokens represent users’ shares of the SPELL fee pool with a mechanism similar to the SUSHI/xSUSHI model, with 10% of all liquidation fees hardcoded to be taken out and used to purchase SPELL tokens in certain markets. These SPELL tokens are also added to the SPELL fee pool, and 75% of the protocol’s revenue is used to buy back SPELL tokens, while 25% builds up a treasury.

Depending on the amount of ERC-20 sSPELL (staked SPELL) held, users can create new proposals for the protocol. The proposal threshold is 100 million sSPELL. Voting power is given by holding sSPELL tokens in the wallet, as collateral in Abracadabra Money's sSPELL lending market, or any other contracts recognised by the protocol; or with SPELL/ETH SushiSwap LP tokens deposited in Abracadabra Money's farm. Once a proposal is passed, the team considers whether or not to implement it.

What is Spell Token used for?

The main use of the SPELL Token is for the liquidity mining program in order to keep liquidity deep on Abracadabra Money's lending markets, with 63% (132.3 billion) of SPELL allocated to that purpose. Different lending pools have different levels of SPELL emissions. A total of 665,448,024 SPELLs are currently minted per week as of the time of writing.

Additionally, owners of SPELL can stake their SPELL tokens to obtain sSPELL, which represents users' share of the SPELL fee pool. When users unstake their sSPELL tokens, they receive their original SPELL Token plus any additional SPELL earned from the protocol fees generated.