Whitelist Address to Launch Persistence DEX natively on Babylon

📜 Proposals 🔧 Parameter Change Proposals
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TL;DR

This proposal requests the Babylon community’s approval to whitelist a Persistence Labs address in order to deploy the Persistence DEX on Babylon Genesis shortly after launch. This DEX will unlock essential liquidity infrastructure for BTCfi by enabling trading of $BABY, BTC, BTC-LSTs, and stablecoins natively on Babylon. The whitelisted address will be used strictly for deploying Persistence DEX contracts, pool creation and incentives distribution.

Objective

Whitelist a smart contract deployment address managed by Persistence Labs in order to launch the Persistence DEX directly on Babylon Chain. This is a one-time parameter change that gives us upload access for the DEX’s CosmWasm contracts — no other contracts will be uploaded without future governance approval. The address will also be able to create new pools and create incentives.

Background

Persistence currently has 2 main product offerings:

1. Persistence DEX — AMM-based DEX supporting stablecoins, LSTs, and Bitcoin assets, live on the Persistence Chain since 2022, with over $36M in cumulative volume. (Previously called Dexter).
2. Persistence Interop — an intent-based Bitcoin interoperability layer enabling fast, secure, and zero-slippage swaps across BTC Layer 2s and sidechains (testnet complete, mainnet imminent). Once battle-tested on Bitcoin L2s, we can also bring Bitcoin interoperability to the Babylon chain.

What This Enables

At Launch

  • Native swaps between Babylon native assets like BABY or BTC LSTs or any bridged assets (via IBC, Axelar, Eureka)
  • Permissioned pool creation and LP incentives
  • Trading venue for Babylon ecosystem tokens
  • Aggregator integration (e.g., SKIP) for optimal routing

At a later stage

  • Autocompounding strategies for LST providers, enabling yield-bearing BTC assets
  • Babylon users able to convert staking rewards into BTC with 1-click swaps
  • Integration with Persistence Interop to enable cross-chain swaps for BTC, variants or any other listed assets.

Deployment Details

  • Type: Parameter Change Proposal
  • Module: wasm.code_upload_access
  • Method: MsgAddCodeUploadParamsAddresses
  • Proposed Address: bbn1ljntyrs8smypepcpqzdunkfr3cl7wajtk8pvyh

Security & Track Record

  • Audited by Halborn, Oak Security, and Peckshield
  • Continuous testing and simulations in staging environments
  • Real-time contract monitoring and alerting mechanism
  • View audit reports: Persistence DEX Audits
  • Persistence Chain has been live for over 4 years, the team knows the Cosmos tech-stack through and through.

Why Babylon x Persistence?

Battle-tested AMM built for LSTs: We bring two years of experience on mainnet in trading, liquidity provisioning for BTC and LSTs. The unique Meta-stable pool AMM is custom-built to provide optimal rates for LST trading.

Innovative AMM Pools:

  • Metastable Pools: Designed for efficient trading of assets with varying price correlations (e.g., LSTs and their base assets BTC/LBTC, BABY/liquid staked BABY)
  • Stableswap Invariant Pools: Optimized for low-slippage trades between closely correlated assets up to 5 tokens (e.g., USDC/USDT)
  • Weighted Pools: Customizable weight ratios catering to diverse trading strategies up to 8 assets

Multi-Token Incentives: Projects can reward LPs for bonding with multiple tokens through the Multistaking contract.

Instant LP Unbonding: Liquidity Providers (LPs) can withdraw liquidity immediately, bypassing standard unbonding periods.

Fee Rebate: The Rebate Program is designed to incentivize traders by providing airdropped rebates on swap fees paid. This can be customized in one direction to incentivize rebalancing pools.

BTCfi Alignment: We’re laser-focused on building DeFi around Bitcoin — the same vision Babylon is championing.

Customizable Infra: We’re fast, modular, and ready to adapt DEX mechanics specifically for Babylon’s needs.

Strategic Synergy: We already plan to secure Persistence with Bitcoin Staking as a BSN, and now we’re ready to deploy our DEX on top of the Babylon chain itself — deepening our commitment to this ecosystem.

Proposed Timeline

  • Now: Know what you’re voting for: check out how it works on testnet.
  • Shortly post-genesis: Governance proposal goes live
  • Upon proposal passing: Contracts will be deployed and initial pools & incentives created. Trading starts.
  • After deployment: Frontend app.persistence.one will support Babylon alongside the Persistence Chain.

Team and Resources

  • Proposing Team: Persistence Labs
  • Contact: Jeroen Develter (TG: @dneorej, email: jeroen[at]persistence.one)
  • Website: persistence.one
  • App: app.persistence.one

Final Notes

This proposal doesn’t grant blanket contract upload rights. It is narrowly scoped to enable the Persistence DEX to launch on Babylon. Future feature expansions will always be proposed via governance. Approving this proposal will enable a full-fledged DEX with proven track records to be deployed natively on Babylon Genesis.

Let’s unlock BTCfi on Babylon — together.

8 Likes
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Solid proposal & feels well-timed with Babylon’s genesis coming up. Focus on BTC, LSTs, and stablecoins makes a lot of sense, especially for kickstarting liquidity early on. I like that the scope is clear—just deployment and initial setup, with future changes still needing governance.

Also good to see the infra is already tested on Persistence Core-1 & backed by audits. The meta-stable & stableswap pool designs seem well suited for the kind of assets Babylon will support.

All in all, this looks like a strong foundation to support real BTCFi activity from day one.

4 Likes
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I support the proposal as a great opportunity for Babylon to onboard BTC Liquidity Hub with very good products, technology backed by many audits managed by great Team on Genesis. Starting from day one it will offers leading technology and opportunity to move BTCFI to next level. The proposal is well described and clear.

4 Likes
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Caliber supports this proposal and we think this will prepare babylon genesis smooth launch! We would love to see liquidity from BTC, and stablecoins be ready right from the beginning! Looking forward to more permissionless pool creation in future

5 Likes
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At Staking4All, we proudly validate on the Persistence network and continue to support their journey as the team keeps building with focus and purpose.

Over the past year, the Persistence narrative has aligned strongly with Bitcoin, thus making Babylon a natural fit. This proposal to whitelist an address and bring PersistenceDEX natively to Babylon reflects a growing synergy between Bitcoin staking security and Cosmos-native DeFi.

We’re fully behind this initiative and excited to see what unfolds as these ecosystems come together.

1 Like
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We at the Everstake team support this proposal because it will give Babylon a major boost right after Genesis. The Persistence team has already proven itself in the Cosmos ecosystem.

We think that early liquidity is critical for user adoption and ecosystem growth, and Persistence’s DEX is built exactly for that. The limited whitelist ensures safety, while the deep Bitcoin DeFi expertise from Persistence Labs is a huge advantage :handshake:.

1 Like
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QuantNode fully supports this proposal to whitelist the address for launching the Persistence DEX natively on Babylon.

As a long-time contributor and validator in the Persistence ecosystem, we’ve been actively supporting the network in various ways for over two years. We’ve witnessed its continuous evolution and are excited to see this next step in expanding its DeFi capabilities through the Babylon ecosystem.

It is important to note that the Persistence DEX has completed a security audit, showing the team’s commitment to building a robust and secure platform for users.

Besides Persistence AMM’s support track record indicates that their DEX will provide additional incentives for liquidity provision within the Babylon ecosystem. This initiative directly aligns with the Babylon team’s long-term vision of bringing altcoins’ value and yield into the Bitcoin ecosystem.

We believe this integration will bring meaningful value to both ecosystems, and we’re looking forward to what’s next :rocket:

Full support from the QuantNode team!

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Kleomedes DAO fully supports this proposal! We have been validating the persistence chain for over a year now and have continued to trial their bitcoin products on testnet. The team has been persistent in refining their vision to align with bitcoin’s future and we believe alignment with Babylon is great for both ecosystems.