What is Loopring (LRC)?

former software engineer for Google & JD Sports, Daniel Wang (@Daniel_Loopring on Twitter) founded Loopring in 2017 and was able to raise over $45M worth of ETH from an Initial Coin Offering (ICO).

Sadly, at the time China made Crypto regulations tough and required Loopring to give China $36M (80%) of the funds they raised!

The Layer 2 now has a TVL of $116M…

How does Loopring work?

Loopring is a Layer 2 open-source protocol built on Ethereum which allows users to trade, swap, provide liquidity, and make payments with cheap and high-speed transactions; all done without jeopardising Ethereum’s security, but how?

Loopring was the first to launch the use of a ‘zkRollup’ (zero-knowledge rollup) on the Ethereum network.

Zero Knowledge Rollups

A zkRollup is a unique L2 scaling solution which enables higher throughput and significantly reduces costs by grouping up hundreds of transactions into ‘one’ and moving them off-chain to complete ‘one’ cheap and secure transaction.

Loopring aims to provide users with cheap, fast and secure transactions when using any of their services e.g. trading/swapping and this is primarily done using the zkRollup cryptography.

Because of zkRollups, Loopring is able to offer a throughput which is roughly 1,000x larger than Ethereum, which equates to 2,025 trades per second (TPS). Transactions are also 10,000% cheaper than using the Ethereum network directly.

‍

The Loopring Mission

The protocol deeply believes users should have complete control over their assets, promising that no company, person or entity can come between the user and their Ethereum assets. “Loopring still has 100% Ethereum-Level security guarantees.”

Loopring is a platform that uses multiple cryptocurrencies such as their native token LRC, ETH, MANA and many more. The protocol leverages the power of both centralised and decentralised crypto exchanges and to use the platform, all you need is an Ethereum-compatible wallet.

Loopring L2 dApp

The platform has over 210K unique users, over $98.7M in Total Value Locked (TVL), over 5.1M trades performed and an incredible overall volume of $5.88B and counting!

Let’s take a look at all the features:

Loopring Trade

There are a few products that lie within the Trade category:

Loopring DEX

As we have mentioned, you can swap any Ethereum assets on the Loopring Layer 2 dApp DEX which has a huge variety of assets to choose from. You will save a remarkable amount on gas and trading fees!

Block Trade

A cool and unique feature that allows users to swap tokens using liquidity from Centralised Exchanges (CEXs). There is no price impact or loss of liquidity to the decentralised exchanges! This is an ultimate feature that many decentralised exchanges will start to implement!

You will also find an Order Book, an On & Off-Ramp for FIAT and soon come Stop-Limit for the hardcore traders.

Loopring Earn

Again, there are a few products that lie within the Earn category:

ETH Staking

As you may guess, you can Stake your Ethereum for extra yield using either Lido Finance (4%) or Rocket Pool (2.87%) but it’s even better because you will save a lot on gas fees by using Loopring!

LRC Staking

Users can Stake LRC to earn daily rewards! Your LRC tokens will have to be locked up for a minimum of 90 days to receive rewards, but it can prove to be nicely profitable! The APY is altered daily and is also governed by Loopring DAO.

Loopring AMM Pool

You can add Liquidity to the AMM DEX and earn from the fees that are generated from the platform! APR % will vary, however at the moment, you can earn upwards of 5% APR, depending on the assets! Either way, passive income is always appreciated!

Dual Investment

A unique feature that gives users the chance to either sell their assets at a high price or buy at a desired low price! This has its pros and cons and is also required to do your own research before using it properly.

Home to the ecosystem is also an NFT section for users who wish to create their own NFT Collections.

Loopring LRC Token

LRC is the native token of the Loopring protocol and is primarily used for governance, positive protocol behaviour from liquidity providers and more. The token is available on their platform, many CEXs & on the Ethereum network.

It’s amazing that LRC is deflationary and over 96% of its tokens are in circulation. Here are the Tokenomics as it currently stands:

Max Supply: 1,374,513,896

Total Supply: 1,373,873,397.44

Circulating Supply: 1,331,508,925.68

Over time, Loopring LRC will become extremely scarce!

How to Buy Loopring (LRC)

The LRC token is available on the Ethereum and Solana networks and is also available on 99.99% of major centralised exchanges.

There are two main ways to buy LRC, but you will always go through a centralised exchange (CEX). Here are the options:

Option 1- Centralised Exchange

We recommend using one of these centralised exchanges when buying or trading the LRC token. Here is a list of CEXs with a few delicious promotions:

Binance - The most popular CEX in the world
ByBit - EARN UP TO $30K in DEPOSIT BONUSES
BitGet - Trade on BitGet and receive 0% Deposit Cashback + $5,000 DEPOSIT BONUSES
Coinbase - Spend $100 and Get $10 back!

Option 2 - DeFi Wallet & Decentralised Exchange

To get started you will need a DeFi wallet and make sure to secure your seed phrase with a hardware wallet (Trezor):

If you are buying LRC through your DeFi wallet, we recommend using the Ethereum network which requires ETH tokens for gas fees. Alternatively, you can use the Solana network which is also cheap in gas fees (SOL). If you haven’t set up the Ethereum or Solana networks, you can follow our YouTube tutorials down below. Here are the essential links:

Conclusion

At the time of writing, Loopring is sitting at a price of $0.18, ranked #108 on CoinMarketCap and has a market cap of $237.3M! The LRC token once peaked at an ATH of $3.83 and reached a crazy market cap of over $4.41B!

‍

If you’re also interested in other Layer 2’s I have written threads on both Arbitrum & Optimism. You can also start your Layer 2 journeys by watching the YouTube tutorials:

Arbitrum Tutorial

Optimism Tutorial