Following a productive round of community discussion and feedback [here], I think it makes sense to move forward with the next set of asset integrations for Namada. The goal is to continue building the MASP’s utility and reach, while balancing ease of integration with ecosystem alignment.
Assets Selected for Integration
We propose to add support for the following assets: USDC (via Noble), USDY (via Noble), UM (Penumbra DEX), NYM (Nym mixnet), NTRN (Neutron).
These assets were selected based on a mix of community feedback, ecosystem alignment, and integration feasibility. They represent a thoughtful next step in expanding MASP coverage across key narratives (privacy, dollar access, and interchain experimentation) while staying within current technical constraints.
Rationale
We’ve loosely organized our asset strategy into categories, guiding which assets are added and when
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Mindshare & Ecosystem Assets - High-value, widely held assets like BTC, ETH, and SOL.
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Stables - Dollar-backed tokens like USDC and USDY provide the basis for real-world use cases (grants, payments, DeFi).
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Privacy Allies - Tokens like UM and NYM align with Namada’s privacy ethos and represent adjacent communities with shared values.
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Low-Lift Adds - Assets that are easy to integrate and maintain momentum during high-focus engineering phases.
The five selected assets check the box in a few of these categories, while being relatively low lift from an IBC integration standpoint (an important consideration as the Heliax team focuses engineering efforts on the roadmap toward Phase 5.).
Incentives
These assets won’t be incentivized at launch, but could be prioritized soon depending on how usage and incentives evolve for the currently “incentivized” asset list. As noted in previous threads, we expect incentive dynamics to shift as some caps are reached, usage varies, and data becomes available for reallocation decisions.
Integration Steps
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Opening and testing IBC channels on the Campfire testnet
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Verifying compatibility and completing integration testing
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Championing a mainnet governance proposal to:
a. Raise IBC rate limits
b. Enable each new token to be used to pay gas fees
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Add the assets to the chain registry
The Heliax team will be coordinating with ecosystem relayers to ensure smooth rollout. These integrations are relatively low lift, so we aim to move quickly without blocking core development progress!
