Carbon’s progress is great, but many fees still come from AMMs. Plans to scale Carbon’s volume or increase fee generation elsewhere?
First, a distinction: fees in Carbon DeFi don’t go to liquidity providers. They go to the protocol itself. That was a deliberate design choice, and it ties directly into Bancor’s broader growth strategy.
Mark explained:
“We always plan to scale and grow things. But there’s no recipe for how to achieve it. It depends heavily on the environment Carbon appears in and whether it receives support from the community and the blockchain it’s deployed on.”
He pointed to COTI as an example of the right conditions. Carbon DeFi was welcomed with strong community engagement — including grassroots tokens like Pengo that made the protocol their home base.
By contrast, Mark noted that deploying on a chain like Arbitrum, with its deeply entrenched ecosystem, would be an uphill battle:
“You don’t want to be the new kid at school, trying to get in with the cool group. The political momentum on those chains can be very difficult to overcome.”
Scaling, then, isn’t just about choosing a popular chain. It requires the right timing, the right relationships, and the ability to execute quickly. TAC provided that combination — backed by business connections, reward campaigns, and even mini-app development to accelerate adoption.
“These things are always done to scale volume and increase fees. It’s the only reason we do anything really.”
But Carbon DeFi isn’t the only driver of protocol revenue. The Arb Fast Lane is also generating fees across multiple chains. Together with Carbon DeFi and the Vortex, these products form the bigger picture: Bancor’s business model isn’t about one app — it’s about infrastructure that works collectively.
