Welcome to Valio, the premier omnichain asset management platform that connects traders to capital. As we gear up for launch, we’ll be taking some time to lay out our reasons behind building this platform, explain the technical aspects of its design, and preview the roadmap. This first installment will be focused on the ‘why’ behind Valio; outlining the opportunity at hand for on-chain asset management, what gaps exist in the current state of the market, and how Valio will fill those gaps for both depositors and managers.

Starting from square one: why is asset management valuable? In the world of TradFi, asset managers oversee more than $100 trillion in funds globally. These professionals range from individual financial advisors to multibillion-dollar hedge funds, each operating with specific investment goals and risk profiles. Instead of researching, executing, and monitoring their own investments, individuals and institutions entrust asset managers to carry out actions on their behalf. In exchange for their service, money managers typically charge fees for both management and performance. Plain and simple, asset management gives retail investors access to the expertise and resources of professionals.

Nonetheless, TradFi asset management leaves much to be desired, and the advent of blockchain technology has opened up the door to solving many of these issues. Some of the notable problems with traditional asset management:

These factors are the driving force behind the burgeoning on-chain asset management sector. As blockchain technology continues to permeate the world of finance, demand for a new generation of asset management services will as well, presenting a massive opportunity for platforms that can better connect investors and managers.

Platforms currently available for crypto asset management solve some of the issues outlined above; transparency is achieved through immutable on-chain records, setting up vaults and onboarding deposits can be done much faster, and depositors retain custody of their funds. However, current platforms often lack the versatility that managers desire and the level of security required to assure depositors.

On versatility, platforms out right now are limited in scope. Most are constrained to a single chain and sometimes to a single trading platform. When options are limited to, say, Ethereum only or GMX only, then depositors and managers miss out on opportunities in the broader crypto asset class. Moreover, some platforms will cater specifically to retail investors or specifically to institutional investors and treasuries. The ideal platform would provide options for both, unifying the on-chain asset management marketplace.

To the second point, security is a massive concern when it comes to on-chain asset management, which presents an opportunity for innovation. At the base level, blockchain-based platforms allow depositors to retain custody of their assets, which has proven to be a top selling point for DeFi. Transparency is another element of security where crypto platforms win out, as depositors can view in real time what actions managers are taking. The most difficult security issue to solve so far has been achieving trustlessness between depositors and managers. For the existing on-chain asset management solutions, trust in vault managers is a prerequisite for depositing, as loopholes for misuse of funds are not properly addressed.

Valio’s core purpose is to provide an all-encompassing solution for on-chain asset management. It’s designed as a seamless talent discovery marketplace, where top traders can quickly spin up vaults, and investors can easily find an option that fits their goals and risk profile. Whether you are a retail investor looking to allocate capital with talented traders or looking for management strategies geared towards protocol or DAO treasuries, Valio makes it simple to find a vault that fits your needs.

Valio is built on top of LayerZero, offering users a natively omnichain experience. This removes the limitations encountered by other asset management platforms, allowing traders access to the best financial instruments on a wide variety of chains. Beyond increasing access to new trading opportunities, omnichain functionality allows managers to seek out deeper liquidity or lower transaction fees. More choices for managers mean better returns for depositors.

Due to the level of control that vault managers have over funds, preventing manipulation is top of mind for Valio. The simple fix is to prevent managers from sending vault funds to a personal wallet or trading in a non-approved protocol that may have a high chance of being exploited.

However, a more complex issue has yet to be solved by existing platforms. Nefarious vault managers can siphon funds out by making trades with large price impacts. This method involves the manager buying up a small cap token that they personally hold in a separate wallet, then dumping their own tokens at the artificially elevated price. Valio addresses this risk with its proprietary CPIT mechanism. CPIT (Cumulative Price Impact Tolerance) prevents managers from performing this type of pump-and-dump activity by restricting trades that have a large price impact. CPIT is expressed as a percentage and is established upon vault creation.

If a manager is frequently losing money on illiquid or small-cap tokens but trading within the price impact constraints, it may indicate a miniature version of this pump-and-dump scheme. In this case, depositors are advised to withdraw from the vault. Valio places no restrictions on withdrawal size or timing aside from an initial 24-hour lockup upon deposit.

This mechanism and its importance will be explored in full in an upcoming blog post, but the core concept is that it makes the economics of rugging a vault through price manipulation non-viable compared to the up-front cost of building up a sizable AUM.

Valio is stacking together the value of asset management, the advantages of bringing it on-chain, and the versatility of omnichain, all in an intuitive and secure platform. Traders will have all the tools necessary to build an on-chain track record and monetize their expertise, while investors, treasuries, and funds will be able to find vaults that fit their specific goals.

We’re extremely excited to introduce the future of asset management. Stay tuned for part two of our intro series, which dives deeper into the mechanisms that power Valio.

Welcome to Valio, the premier omnichain asset management platform that connects traders to capital. As we gear up for launch, we’ll be taking some time to lay out our reasons behind building this platform, explain the technical aspects of its design, and preview the roadmap. This first installment will be focused on the ‘why’ behind Valio; outlining the opportunity at hand for on-chain asset management, what gaps exist in the current state of the market, and how Valio will fill those gaps for both depositors and managers.

Starting from square one: why is asset management valuable? In the world of TradFi, asset managers oversee more than $100 trillion in funds globally. These professionals range from individual financial advisors to multibillion-dollar hedge funds, each operating with specific investment goals and risk profiles. Instead of researching, executing, and monitoring their own investments, individuals and institutions entrust asset managers to carry out actions on their behalf. In exchange for their service, money managers typically charge fees for both management and performance. Plain and simple, asset management gives retail investors access to the expertise and resources of professionals.

Nonetheless, TradFi asset management leaves much to be desired, and the advent of blockchain technology has opened up the door to solving many of these issues. Some of the notable problems with traditional asset management:

These factors are the driving force behind the burgeoning on-chain asset management sector. As blockchain technology continues to permeate the world of finance, demand for a new generation of asset management services will as well, presenting a massive opportunity for platforms that can better connect investors and managers.

Platforms currently available for crypto asset management solve some of the issues outlined above; transparency is achieved through immutable on-chain records, setting up vaults and onboarding deposits can be done much faster, and depositors retain custody of their funds. However, current platforms often lack the versatility that managers desire and the level of security required to assure depositors.

On versatility, platforms out right now are limited in scope. Most are constrained to a single chain and sometimes to a single trading platform. When options are limited to, say, Ethereum only or GMX only, then depositors and managers miss out on opportunities in the broader crypto asset class. Moreover, some platforms will cater specifically to retail investors or specifically to institutional investors and treasuries. The ideal platform would provide options for both, unifying the on-chain asset management marketplace.

To the second point, security is a massive concern when it comes to on-chain asset management, which presents an opportunity for innovation. At the base level, blockchain-based platforms allow depositors to retain custody of their assets, which has proven to be a top selling point for DeFi. Transparency is another element of security where crypto platforms win out, as depositors can view in real time what actions managers are taking. The most difficult security issue to solve so far has been achieving trustlessness between depositors and managers. For the existing on-chain asset management solutions, trust in vault managers is a prerequisite for depositing, as loopholes for misuse of funds are not properly addressed.

Valio’s core purpose is to provide an all-encompassing solution for on-chain asset management. It’s designed as a seamless talent discovery marketplace, where top traders can quickly spin up vaults, and investors can easily find an option that fits their goals and risk profile. Whether you are a retail investor looking to allocate capital with talented traders or looking for management strategies geared towards protocol or DAO treasuries, Valio makes it simple to find a vault that fits your needs.

Valio is built on top of LayerZero, offering users a natively omnichain experience. This removes the limitations encountered by other asset management platforms, allowing traders access to the best financial instruments on a wide variety of chains. Beyond increasing access to new trading opportunities, omnichain functionality allows managers to seek out deeper liquidity or lower transaction fees. More choices for managers mean better returns for depositors.

Due to the level of control that vault managers have over funds, preventing manipulation is top of mind for Valio. The simple fix is to prevent managers from sending vault funds to a personal wallet or trading in a non-approved protocol that may have a high chance of being exploited.

However, a more complex issue has yet to be solved by existing platforms. Nefarious vault managers can siphon funds out by making trades with large price impacts. This method involves the manager buying up a small cap token that they personally hold in a separate wallet, then dumping their own tokens at the artificially elevated price. Valio addresses this risk with its proprietary CPIT mechanism. CPIT (Cumulative Price Impact Tolerance) prevents managers from performing this type of pump-and-dump activity by restricting trades that have a large price impact. CPIT is expressed as a percentage and is established upon vault creation.

If a manager is frequently losing money on illiquid or small-cap tokens but trading within the price impact constraints, it may indicate a miniature version of this pump-and-dump scheme. In this case, depositors are advised to withdraw from the vault. Valio places no restrictions on withdrawal size or timing aside from an initial 24-hour lockup upon deposit.

This mechanism and its importance will be explored in full in an upcoming blog post, but the core concept is that it makes the economics of rugging a vault through price manipulation non-viable compared to the up-front cost of building up a sizable AUM.

Valio is stacking together the value of asset management, the advantages of bringing it on-chain, and the versatility of omnichain, all in an intuitive and secure platform. Traders will have all the tools necessary to build an on-chain track record and monetize their expertise, while investors, treasuries, and funds will be able to find vaults that fit their specific goals.

We’re extremely excited to introduce the future of asset management. Stay tuned for part two of our intro series, which dives deeper into the mechanisms that power Valio.