Moonwell

Our Mission

Moonwell was built around one idea: lending onchain should not require a finance degree. Most people who want to put their assets to work face confusing interfaces, opaque risk parameters, and no clear starting point. That is the problem the Moonwell platform was designed to solve.

Since its initial deployment, the protocol has grown to support markets on Base and Optimism — two of the most active Ethereum Layer 2 networks. The goal has stayed the same throughout: give anyone with a wallet the tools to supply assets, borrow against them, and earn rewards, all without needing to read a whitepaper first.

Simple does not mean limited. Moonwell's protocol supports cbBTC, USDC, ETH, AERO, VIRTUAL, cbXRP, VVV, and a growing list of assets across both networks. The range keeps expanding through community governance.

Technology

The Moonwell protocol is a fork of Compound v2, extended with multi-chain governance and cross-chain token distribution. Smart contracts are written in Solidity and tested using Foundry, an auditor-preferred framework that allows property-based fuzzing and precise gas accounting. Foundry's test suite runs against every pull request before any code reaches mainnet.

Interest rate models are set by governance — not by a multisig or a core team with override keys. Each market has its own parameters: collateral factor, reserve factor, borrow cap, and supply cap. These are all adjustable via on-chain Moonwell Improvement Proposals (MIPs).

The cross-chain architecture uses Wormhole messaging to relay governance decisions from the Governor contract on Moonbeam to deployment contracts on Base and Optimism. xWELL, the cross-chain version of the WELL token, moves between networks via bridge adapters that were themselves upgraded through MIP-X52 in early 2025.

Foundry's invariant testing helped catch edge cases in the bridge adapter before deployment — a good example of why the team behind Moonwell treats test coverage as non-negotiable.

Our Approach to Risk

Every asset listed on Moonwell goes through a risk assessment before any governance vote is called. The protocol works with independent risk advisors — including Anthias — who publish parameter recommendations on the governance forum. Anyone can read the analysis, comment, and vote.

Supply caps and borrow caps exist on every market. They limit the protocol's exposure to any single asset and reduce the damage a price manipulation attack could do. When the bad debt event of October 2025 occurred, the community voted to use protocol reserves for remediation — a transparent, onchain decision backed by 91.5% of participating voters.

Multiple security audits have been completed across the protocol's lifetime. Reports are publicly available. The staking module — where WELL holders lock tokens to backstop the protocol — adds a second layer of protection beyond standard liquidation mechanisms.

Governance

Moonwell is governed by WELL token holders. The process is not symbolic — proposals that pass on-chain are executed automatically. No team member can block or delay an approved MIP.

Proposals typically start as discussions on the governance forum, move to a Snapshot vote for temperature checks, and then proceed to an on-chain Governor vote if community support is strong. The whole trail is public and permanent.

Recent proposals have included automated liquidity incentive programs (MIP-X51C), new market listings, and upgrades to the xWELL bridge. Quorum thresholds are set high enough to prevent small groups from pushing through changes unilaterally. As of early 2026, most contested votes have seen 95%+ participation from tokens that actually showed up to vote — not just from circulating supply.

Want to get involved? You can read current proposals or visit the support page for more details on how the process works.

Products

Get in Touch

The team behind Moonwell is active on Twitter and Discord. Governance discussions happen in the public forum. There is no private support channel — everything is open.

If you have questions about how a specific market works, how to start staking WELL, or how to submit a governance proposal, the support page covers the most common topics in detail.