CoW DAO Launches MEV-Capturing Automated Market Maker to Address LVR Problem

According to Blockworks, CoW DAO, the decentralized autonomous organization behind CoW Swap, is introducing a new automated market maker (AMM) called CoW AMM to tackle the 'loss versus rebalancing' (LVR) issue faced by liquidity providers (LPs). Most AMMs currently depend on data from other exchanges to determine an asset's market price, which can result in discrepancies between the AMM and exchange prices. Opportunistic traders often exploit these differences for arbitrage, causing LPs to lose value. LVR refers to the loss LPs must bear due to arbitrage bots rebalancing liquidity pools. Andrea Canidio, a senior research analyst at CoW Swap, stated that LVR is a significant centralizing force today, with three builders creating over 70% of blocks and having considerable control over transaction inclusion in the blockchain. Research from Cornell University indicates that major token pair LPs earn less than 5-7% on their deposits due to LVR, with arbitrageurs accounting for an estimated $500 million in LP losses annually. CoW AMM aims to transform the competition into arbitrage liquidity pools that benefit LPs. After a liquidity provider deposits tokens into a CoW AMM pool, the funds become available to CoW Swap traders. Solvers then compete to settle trades on CoW Swap and bid to rebalance the AMM pools when arbitrage opportunities arise. The solver offering the most surplus can rebalance the pool, protecting LPs from MEV bots. Liquidity can be deployed into the CoW AMM through programmatic orders. To initiate the process, CoW DAO has allocated 6 million COW and 139 WETH to boost COW/WETH market liquidity. Fernando Martinelli, CEO of Balancer Labs, expressed excitement about exploring custom AMM designs like CoW AMM, as MEV/LVR is a key issue preventing LPs from joining AMMs.