Gearbox (GEAR)

Lending and Borrowing

Gearbox is a decentralized leverage lending protocol on Ethereum. It connects depositors and borrowers through credit accounts, allowing users to borrow assets with up to 10x leverage. Borrowers can use these funds to trade, farm, or stake on various DeFi platforms like Uniswap, Curve, and Lido.

Composable Leverage

Gearbox enables users to take leverage in one place and use it across many DeFi protocols in a flexible, plug-and-play way. This means you can margin trade, yield farm, or stake with borrowed funds seamlessly across different platforms.

Capital Efficiency

By providing a permissionless credit layer, Gearbox helps users and other DeFi protocols become more capital efficient. Protocols can integrate Gearbox to offer leverage to their users without changing their own architecture.

Passive Yield for Lenders

Liquidity providers can deposit assets into Gearbox pools to earn passive yields from borrowers who use leverage, creating a lending market with returns based on asset utilization.

Credit Accounts

Gearbox uses isolated smart contracts called credit accounts that hold both user collateral and borrowed funds. These accounts interact with other DeFi protocols while keeping user assets non-custodial and secure.

Governance and Ecosystem

The protocol is governed by a DAO, allowing the community to manage parameters like fees and supported assets, helping Gearbox evolve with the DeFi ecosystem.

For more details, visit gearbox.fi.

Pros

• Composable Leverage: Gearbox allows users to borrow and use leverage across many DeFi protocols like Uniswap, Curve, and Lido, enabling more flexible and powerful trading and farming strategies.
• Permissionless Credit Layer: Anyone can access up to 10x leverage without needing permission, making it open and accessible.
• Modular Architecture: Gearbox uses smart contracts that are plug-and-play, allowing easy integration with other DeFi projects.
• Non-Custodial: Users keep control of their funds at all times, as Gearbox does not hold custody of assets.
• DAO Governance: The protocol is run by a decentralized community, which helps it stay adaptive and community-focused.
• Smart Credit Accounts: These manage collateral and borrowed funds securely and allow complex strategies.
• Integration with Major DeFi Protocols: Works with Curve, Yearn, Convex, Lido, Maker, and others, increasing utility and liquidity.

Cons

• Complexity for Beginners: Using leverage and credit accounts can be complicated for new users without experience in DeFi.
• Limited Frontend Platforms: The protocol itself is backend-focused, so users may need third-party interfaces to trade or farm easily.
• Market Performance: Gearbox’s token price has seen significant volatility and underperformance compared to some other Ethereum ecosystem tokens.
• Still Growing: While promising, Gearbox has not yet gained massive mainstream traction and depends on further adoption and development.
• Smart Contract Risks: Like all DeFi protocols, it relies on smart contracts, which can have bugs or vulnerabilities despite audits.

Overall, Gearbox offers powerful leverage tools for DeFi users who want to amplify their strategies, but it requires some knowledge and comfort with DeFi mechanics.

Founders

Gearbox was founded by Mikhail Lazarev and Ivan Gimaltdinov. Mikhail Lazarev serves as the Founder and CTO, while Ivan Gimaltdinov is also recognized as a founder involved in the project.

Background

The team started Gearbox in 2021, aiming to create a leverage protocol that allows users to take DeFi-native leverage and use it across various DeFi platforms.

For more details, you can visit their official site: gearbox.fi

Investors in Gearbox

Gearbox has attracted a variety of investors including venture capital firms and crypto-focused funds. Some notable investors are:

• 1kx: A well-known crypto venture capital firm.
• Placeholder Capital: A prominent investor in blockchain projects.
• A.Capital Ventures: A venture fund investing in crypto startups.
• Cyber.Fund: A fund focused on blockchain and crypto assets.
• eGirl Capital: An investment firm supporting crypto projects.
• Fisher 8 Capital: Another investor involved in Gearbox funding rounds.

These investors have participated in different funding rounds to support Gearbox’s development and growth in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.

Halal Status of Gearbox

• No: Gearbox is a DeFi leverage lending protocol that involves borrowing and lending with leverage, which often includes interest (riba) and financial practices generally considered non-compliant with Islamic finance principles.
• Reason: Islamic finance prohibits interest and excessive uncertainty, and leveraged DeFi protocols like Gearbox typically do not meet these criteria.
• Note: The halal status of any crypto token depends on its underlying use and compliance with Shariah law, and Gearbox’s lending and leverage features generally make it non-halal.