GM, PancakeSwap Community!

We're excited to introduce two transformative features: Gauges Voting and veCAKE, revolutionizing our governance system for CAKE Emissions. This strategic update is designed to empower CAKE holders with increased governance influence, boost liquidity across our pools, and supercharge rewards for CAKE stakers.

Introducing Gauges Voting

The new Gauges Voting system allows veCAKE holders to influence the distribution of CAKE emissions in essential products like Farms on BNB Chain, Ethereum, and Arbitrum at launch. As a veCAKE holder, you directly impact how CAKE emissions are distributed within each pool - rewarding specific liquidity pools and projects in your favor. The more veCAKE a pool accumulates through Gauges Voting, the more CAKE emissions will be allocated. Hence, liquidity providers (LPs) will earn more CAKE through liquidity mining in the (next) 14-day epochs.

As illustrated above, veCAKE holder can vote for their preferred pool within each Gauge to determine the CAKE Emission allocation. Core Kitchen proposals will govern the allocation between all Gauges, ensuring a balance. Gauges are categorized as “core” and “non-core,” with core gauges controlled by the Kitchen for major LPs like BNB, stables ETH, and BTC.

Gauges Types and Characteristics

Our first type of Gauge, Emissions Gauges, lets users vote for CAKE Emissions allocation in essential products like Farms on BNB Chain, Ethereum, and Arbitrum at launch. LayerZero seamlessly facilitates the cross-chain bridging emissions. The influence of veCAKE holders' votes plays a pivotal role in determining the weighting of each Emissions Gauge.

Within Emissions Gauges, you’ll find two characteristics:

• Boosted gauges feature vote count multipliers from 1x to 2x to encourage votes and liquidity for important trading pairs.
• Capped gauges have weight limits ranging from 2-20%, promoting fairness in allocation and preventing abuse of the gauge system

For example, consider these scenarios:

• Gauge A has a 2x boost, and Alice and Bob each voted 2 veCAKE. With a 2x boost, the final votes for Gauge A would be calculated as (2 + 2) * 2, resulting in 8 votes.
• Gauge B has a 10% cap and receives 10 VCAKE votes. Meanwhile, all other gauges receive 10 veCAKE as well. Gauge B would have 50% of the final allocation without a cap. However, due to its 10% cap, the final allocation of Gauge B will be restricted to 10%.

As an illustration, consider the chart above; the USDT-WBNB BNB Chain pool receives approximately 9.65% of votes from all veCAKE voters. Hence, all liquidity providers within this pool will share 9.65% of the daily CAKE rewards for the next 14-day epoch when the current voting period finishes and results are applied. It is important to note that each voting epoch determines the emission for the next epoch, and these changes take effect only after the current voting concludes.

Understanding veCAKE: What Sets It Apart

Participating in PancakeSwap's DAO governance is now driven by veCAKE, a new vote-escrowed (ve) system separate from vCAKE. veCAKE tokens allow you to vote on PancakeSwap's governance proposal and determine the CAKE Emissions allocations from Gauges Voting.

It’s important to note that veCAKE cannot be transferred; the only way to obtain veCAKE is by staking CAKE. The maximum lock time is 4 years; the longer you lock your CAKE, the more veCAKE you’ll receive. Please refer to this documentation on how to acquire veCAKE.

For veCAKE holders, this opens the doors to exciting benefits:

• Claim CAKE rewards for CAKE Staking and Revenue Sharing weekly.
• You can participate in Gauges Voting and results will be concluded and applied every 2 weeks. For each gauge, you may change your vote decision less frequently than 10 days.
• Claim vote incentives from other protocols through external markets
• Boost CAKE emissions in your favorite pools.
• Boost your CAKE rewards just like bCAKE when providing liquidity to v3, v2, stableswap, or even through position managers sequentially: November 27th, 2023, for BNB Chain v3, followed by BNBChain v2 and Position Managers.
• Your participation in Gauges Voting depends on your veCAKE balance, which decreases as your lock time shortens. The veCAKE formula is: veCAKE = amountCakeLocked * (remainingLockWeeks / maximumLockWeeks).
• You can add more CAKE and extend your CAKE Staking anytime before your veCAKE position expires.

Migration from vCAKE to veCAKE

Say farewell to vCAKE and CAKE Syrup Pool as we usher in the era of veCAKE. As of 19:30 pm (UTC+8), 22nd November 2023, CAKE Syrup Pool is discontinued and will no longer be distributing rewards. All CAKE staking positions must migrate to veCAKE to continue receiving rewards. Lock your CAKE tokens in the new veCAKE contract to accumulate veCAKE balances. Please refer to this documentation for the veCAKE migration guide.

How Can You Participate in Gauges Voting?

The first epoch will occur at 00:00 UTC, November 23, 2023, however users will only be able to start voting from 12:00pm UTC, November 27, 2023. You can add Gauges and/or submit your votes in your preferred pool, directly influencing the allocation of CAKE emissions within each gauge. However, be mindful that your veCAKE balance drops weekly, impacting your voting power. To bolster your influence, consider adding more CAKE or extending the CAKE staking duration - just remember to revote and update your votes manually. Your voting decision persists throughout epochs, allowing you to adjust preferences every 10 days for each gauge. Each epoch runs for 14 days, and the CAKE Emissions allocation will depend on the total veCAKE votes received from all voters. It is important to note that each voting epoch determines the emission for the next epoch, and these changes take effect only after the current voting concludes.

The beauty of this system lies in its exclusivity, as only veCAKE holders can channel CAKE emissions towards the pools where you have stakes, earning additional CAKE emissions as their pools garner more votes, resulting in potential higher APR and increased liquidity.

Introducing Vote Incentives through External Markets

Projects aiming to get more votes and liquidity can offer "vote incentives" in pools through external bridging markets. These vote incentives vary by project and are distributed to their participants via external bribing markets. This will help enhance ROI and simplify liquidity mining for projects.

veCAKE holders can opt to receive vote incentives from projects by voting through external bribing markets, creating additional rewards for those engaging in CAKE staking. veCAKE holders can choose freely if they would like to vote through external markets or the PancakeSwap Gauges Voting, vote incentives will only be offered by projects through external markets. Please note that PancakeSwap does not offer any vote incentives or develop these external bribing markets. Users are strongly advised to conduct their own research, fully comprehend the associated risks, and exercise caution before using any services.

Liquidity Providers holding veCAKE can actively steer CAKE Emissions, maximizing their earnings potential by voting for specific pools. At the same time, traders potentially benefit from lower slippage thanks to the deeper liquidity the Gauges system provides.

Supercharging Benefits for CAKE Stakers

CAKE stakers enjoy various benefits with veCAKE, including governance power, deeper liquidity, and vote incentives. CAKE stakers also receive bCAKE, a Farm boost that can potentially double your CAKE yield, now supercharged to boost every single liquidity staking products on PancakeSwap, including V3, V2, and even position manager vaults, and rCAKE, entitling you to share in 5% of PancakeSwap’s v3 Trading Fee Revenues from ALL PancakeSwap v3 pairs with 0.01% and 0.05% fee tiers on a recurring and weekly basis.

In simpler terms, you have more influence, rewards, and opportunities to grow. It’s all about Your CAKE, Your Voice.

With the introduction of Gauges Voting and veCAKE, we are entering a new era in PancakeSwap's governance system. We are dedicated to enhancing your experience within our ecosystem. Stay tuned for more exciting developments! If you have more questions about veCAKE and the Gauges Voting mechanism, please check out our FAQ and our documentation.

Stack’em

The Chef’s