Overview. What Is Ren (REN)?
Ren (REN) is an open protocol built to provide interoperability and liquidity between different blockchain platforms with having to wrap or unwrap tokens
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Formerly known as Republic Protocol, Ren launched RenVM, its virtual machine mainnet, in May 2020, having completed a $34 million initial coin offering (ICO) in 2018.
The protocol’s native token, REN, functions as a bond for those running nodes which power RenVM, known as Darknodes.
Ren aims to expand the interoperability, and hence accessibility, of decentralized finance (DeFi) by removing hurdles involved in liquidity between blockchains.
Three reasons for the potential price reversal in REN are the launch of its first layer-one application Catalog, the launch of VarenX on Polygon and several new partnerships and integrations for REN and the Ren Virtual Machine (RenVM).
Catalog launches
The biggest development to come out of the REN project lately was the release of Catalog, the first application built on the Ren blockchain.
Catalog is a “Metaversal” exchange according to Ren and is designed to be a secure cross-chain decentralized exchange (DEX) with built-in liquidity mechanisms that allow users to swap assets across popular networks at a minimal cost.
The liquidity mechanism for Catalog will tap into native asset pools as well as liquidity across third-party DEXes, meaning that Ren will be able to support a wide array of projects without worrying about liquidity constraints.
Other features of Catalog include zero gas fees and low, flat-rate trading fees, the ability to earn passive income on crypto held in a Catalog account without needing to stake or participate in liquidity pools and future plans to add the ability to link a bank account for easy deposits and withdrawals.
Founders of Ren.
Ren was founded by Taiyang Zhang, its CEO, in 2017. Initially called Republic Protocol, Ren was first announced in January 2018, with Zhang explaining its initial use case as a “decentralized dark pool.”
Zhang himself has existing experience in the cryptocurrency space, having also co-founded crypto hedge fund Virgil Capital.
Prior to that, Zhang co-founded Neucode, a software and web development startup, in 2014. Jaz Gulati, Neucode’s other co-founder, now works as a software developer for Ren.
What Makes Ren Unique?
Ren is a complex platform with multiple use cases, but it is ultimately designed to overcome barriers to entry and investment for DeFi projects.
As a plug-in, it allows DeFi projects to bring foreign cryptocurrency assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Zcash (ZEC) to their offerings. More broadly, users can in essence swap any token between any two blockchains without middle steps such as using so-called “wrapped” versions of tokens, for example Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and Wrapped Ethereum (WETH).
RenVM is a network of virtual computers making up a virtual machine. The machines powering the network which makes up RenVM are called Darknodes.
Ren charges various fees for internal operations, but most do not go towards direct profitability, instead being paid to miners. As an ERC-20 token, REN also attracts varying gas fees to power transactions.
How Many Ren (REN) Coins Are There in Circulation?
REN has a fixed supply cap of 1 billion (1,000,000,000) tokens. Ren conducted a presale and public token sale in 2018, during which a total of 60.2% of the supply was sold to investors.
Ren has a reserve fund which was originally allocated 19.9% of the total supply, while another 9.9% was allocated internally to advisors, the team and its founders. Team tokens came with a two-year lock-up period, with a six-month lock-up for advisor allocations.
Another 10% of the REN supply is specifically intended for activities such as partnerships and development.
REN is an ERC-20 standard token.
Where Can You Buy Ren (REN)?
REN is a freely-tradable token and has a presence on various major exchanges. If you would like to know where to buy Ren, the top cryptocurrency exchanges for trading in Ren tokens are currently Binance, OKX, Hotcoin Global, Mandala Exchange, and Bitget
