Liquidity Mining with the veBAL and Gauge System

How does liquidity mining in the Gauge system work?

With the introduction of the tokenomics revamp to veBAL and the introduction of gauges, the liquidity mining mechanics on Balancer changed drastically compared to the legacy system. The new system involves staking of liquidity provider positions in the official gauges that are eligible to receive incentives.

You can see which pools receive liquidity mining incentives by the 3 star icon next to the pool position on https://app.balancer.fi/#/ :

Example of a gauge receiving BAL incentives as well as other incentives as well as swap fees indicated on the tooltip when hovering over the 3 star symbol

What does Min. BAL and Max. BAL APR mean?

All APRs are extrapolated estimates based on recent data; they are not guaranteed.

With the introduction of the veBAL and gauge system, Balancer also introduced a boosting system on mainnet. This boosting system allows veBAL holders to increase their liquidity mining distributions on mainnet pools based on their locked veBAL and locked liquidity position.

• The Min. APR is the minimal APR a user can expect when staking any amount of liquidity in a gauge while not holding any veBAL

• The Max. APR is the max. theoretically achievable APR of 2.5x the Min. APR.

Please note that liquidity mining boosting is only available on Mainnet

If you want to better understand the relationship between the Min. and Max. APR boost and your liquidity position relative to your veBAL holdings, we recommend to consult the community boosting calculator.

How are Liquidity Mining Incentives distributed?

The gauge system introduced staking of LP positions. Therefore, rewards are calculated every block and can be claimed immediately through the claim page. You can consult the claim guide here.

How are incentives directed to the Gauges?

The flow of incentives are now fully controlled by veBAL holders. Following rules apply

• A pool may receive liquidity mining only if it is eligible for voting. To be eligible to vote, a pool has to be allowlisted through a community proposal and vote

• Incentives for the running week have been voted upon on the previous week

• Voting epochs last between Thu-Thu 00:00 UTC.

What do I have to be aware of when voting?

The voting system enables full control over how incentives are distributed; however, not all mechanisms are directly clear to the user. Please be aware of following mechanisms when voting:

• Voting involves a 10 day cool-down period

  • Changing a vote on a certain gauge also imposes a 10 day cooldown on that gauge

• If you increase your veBAL position, make sure to revote to fully register your newly acquired veBAL

• Additional rewards can be obtained by partaking in vote bribing like on the Hidden Hand Market Place