Morpher vs Synthetix vs Mirror vs UMA
Which synthetic asset protocol is best? That’s for you to decide. But we think you’ll appreciate this breakdown of how Morpher compares to other DeFi derivatives platform.
Compare Synthetic Asset Protocols
Morpher | Synthetix | Mirror | UMA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trading Fees | Ø | 0.3%-2% per trade | 0.3% per trade | Oracle fees |
| Leverage | 10x, long & short | 3x, only short via CDP (debt risk) | 3x, only short via CDP (debt risk) | 5x, only short via CDP (debt risk) |
| Shorting | Yes | Yes via iSynth Only Crypto & Indices | Yes, via CDP | Yes, via CDP |
| Infinite Liquidity | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Trades Processed | 800,000 | 58,000 | 23,000 | < 10k |
| Total Markets | 660+ | 40+ Long, 20+ Short | 20+ | 10+ |
| Market Availability | 24/7 | Market hours only | 24/7 to buy, market hours to short/mint | n/a |
| Market Downtime | Rare | 95% of iSynths currently frozen | n/a | n/a |
| Current Markets | Stocks, Cryptos, Commodities, Forex, Indices | Stocks, Cryptos, Commodities, Forex, Indices | Stocks, Cryptos, Indices | Cryptos, Indices, Forex |
| Market Spreads | Yes | n/a | Yes | n/a |
| Perpetual Markets | Yes | Yes | Yes | In development |
| Collateral Required | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Collateral Ratio | n/a | 5.0 SNX, 1.50 ETH | 1.5 | 1.25 |
| Collateral Options | n/a | SNX, ETH | UST, mAssets | Many |
| Token | MPH | SNX | MIR | UMA |
| Token Purpose | Trade settlement | Collateral | Governance, Collateral | Governance, Collateral |
| Token Inflation | Yes | Yes | First 4 years | Yes |
| Inflation Rate | 5.48% + aggregate user returns | 75% to 2.5% in 2023 | 233% to 0% | 5% of voting stakes |
| Stable Token | n/a | sUSD | UST | n/a |
| Rewards | 5.48% to stake MPH | 26% to stake SNX 30%+ to stake short (add liquidity) | 68% to stake MIR 40%+ to stake market | 3.55% to stake UMA & vote |
| Scaling Solution | Morpher Sidechain (Ethereum PoA) | In development (Optimism Ethereum) | Terra Chain (dPoS) | n/a |
| Price Oracle | Morpher Oracle | Chainlink | Band Protocol | UMA DVM |
| Price Updates | Live | Varies, updated daily or after 1% move | Every 30s | n/a |
| On-chain Price Required | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Requirements for New Markets | Datafeed | Chainlink support | Band Protocol support Bootstrapped liquidity for each market | DVM support Bootstrapped liquidity for each market |
| Liquidations | Live off-chain via Oracle, lazy on-chain | Liquidation 3 days after C-Ratio below 200% | Anyone can call liquidation and get collateral at discount | Anyone can call liquidation and claim reward |
| Penalty for Low C-Ratio | n/a | 10% | No | 10% |
| Withdrawal Fees | n/a | n/a | 1.5% to close CDP | n/a |
| Zero-Sum | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Source of Returns | Minted MPH | Staked SNX | Staked collateral per market | Staked collateral per market |
| Counterparty | None | SNX stakers | mAsset stakers | Market stakers |
| Collateral Risk | No | Yes, but pooled | Yes | Yes |
| Max Loss (Position) | 100% | 500% (worse if levered) | 150% (worse if levered) | 125% (worse if levered) |
| Currency Risk | Yes | Yes | No | Depends on collateral |
| Portfolio Risks | MPH inflation MPH price volatility. | SNX price volatility sUSD de-pegging CDPs going under (per pool) | UST de-pegging CDPs going under (per market) | CDPs going under (per market) Other risks based on collateral type |
| Governance | Voting by MPH holders (developing) | SIPs, community proposed changes | Voting by MIR holders on polls | UMIPs voted on by UMA holders |
| Security Audits | Yes, by Solidified | Yes, by iosiro | Yes, by Cyber Unit | Yes, by OpenZeppelin |
| Project Funding | $2.5M | $46M | $58M | $3.9M |
Updated 6/5/2021
Sources: delphidigital.io, defirate.com, coinbureau.com, coindesk.com, stakingrewards.com, veradiverdict.com, crunchbase.com, newsletter.banklesshq.com, messari.io, synthetix.io, mirror.finance, umaproject.org
What Makes Morpher Unique?
The Morpher Protocol launched June 2020: enabling 300,000 wallets to make 800,000 trades in 660+ markets (see our sidechain block explorer).
Morpher does not require any collateral to create synthetic markets. That’s why we already have 10x more markets and growing. There's also a huge variety of markets we can support: from weed spot price to NYC real estate to corporate fundamentals. You can trade an unlimited number of markets on Morpher, especially markets that can’t exist in traditional finance.
Liquidity is the lifeblood of markets, so having to build up liquidity through staking is a significant hurdle. On Morpher, all markets are available to trade with one currency: MPH. For users that means there are no debt positions to repay, they can just swap MPH for ETH/USDC/DAI to exit the Morpher ecosystem. For our team it means there’s only one market we need to foster & maintain (in liquidity and value).
Moreover, Morpher is easy to use and simple to understand. Using leverage and shorting is effortless, these critical trading features are just parameters in our smart contracts. That’s really important because complicated financial instruments are hard to use and obscure the real risks. To democratize investing we believe shorting has to be as simple as buying a stock. As for professional traders, they can enjoy a maximum leverage of 100x or more in the future.
In traditional finance, the trading volume of derivatives dwarfs the underlying asset markets. The same is true for the Morpher Protocol and our virtual markets, which have few limitations on scale. Morpher can support significantly more trading volume than any other protocol from day one.
Most important of all, there is no counterparty in the Morpher Protocol. In contrast, SNX stakers are counterparties for Synthetix and each market on Mirror and UMA has direct counterparties. The financial crises showed counterparties can and will default. Morpher is the only protocol that is completely solvent by design.
DEX Features
- Long & short exposure to every market
- 24/7 trading
- Stocks, commodities, forex, and cryptos
- Infinite liquidity
- Zero slippage on any order size
- 10x leverage
- Go long Bitcoin 10x
- Global permissionless access (no signup)
- No counterparty
- Swap any ERC20 token directly into a market position
- Morph ETH into Tesla / Amazon
- Morph DAI into Polkadot / Cardano / Tron
- Earn over 5% a year by staking
Discover the difference for yourself.