Tendermint, the team behind the interoperable blockchain ecosystem Cosmos, is building out a decentralized exchange (DEX) with a new acquisition.
The development studio has acquired B-Harvest, a DeFi project that has developed on Cosmos since the early days and which runs one of Cosmos’ validator nodes. Tendermint would not disclose all the details and dollar amount behind the acquisition, but it includes a four-year vesting of ATOM tokens.
Tendermint will integrate B-Harvest’s Gravity DEX into Cosmos to facilitate “trustless and permissionless” trades, Tendermint’s CEO Peng Zhong told CoinDesk.
“We started working with B-Harvest in October because we were looking for a team with experience in finance and DeFi to create a decentralized exchange. With the Gravity DEX, it’s designed not just to be a native exchange for ATOM, but an exchange for tokens that use other blockchains, as well,” Peng said.
One of the more ambitious crypto projects, Cosmos is a network hub that connects other blockchains using “bridges.” The network supports both public and private blockchains with the ultimate goal of creating a nexus where all these different blockchains and coins can interact.
Peng said that the Ethereum bridge is in testnet and could be live as soon as the DEX launches, while bridges for Bitcoin and other chains would come later. As with Uniswap and other decentralized markets, anyone with the technical savvy will be able to write a contract for the Cosmos blockchain to integrate a coin or trading pair, Feng said.
Tendermint estimates Gravity DEX will be live next month.