Acala Launches EVM-Compatible Solution for Polkadot Projects

Acala, a leading DeFi project on Polkadot, has unveiled a new solution to enable Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility for Polkadot projects.

On the evening of February 8, Acala (ACA) announced the launch of the Acala EVM+ mainnet, a programming environment compatible with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This development will allow Polkadot projects to seamlessly interact with Ethereum-based applications.

Acala, known as the "financial hub" of the Polkadot blockchain layer-1, secured the first parachain auction win on Polkadot at the end of 2021. In 2022, Acala announced a $250 million development fund for Polkadot's DeFi sector and launched the algorithmic stablecoin aUSD. However, in August, aUSD suffered an attack, leading to a $3 billion "printing error" and forcing the platform into a prolonged downtime to address the vulnerabilities.

Following its recovery, Acala's latest significant development is the introduction of Acala EVM+.

Acala stated that any Polkadot-based decentralized application can now deploy EVM-compatible smart contracts on Acala EVM+ and utilize popular tools such as MetaMask, Truffle, and Waffle.

Instead of using a standard EVM like other blockchains to connect to Ethereum, Acala explained that the decision to build EVM+ was to leverage the advantages of Polkadot’s Substrate programming language.

Moreover, DeFi projects will also be able to access liquidity from other ecosystems like Solana, Polygon, and Avalanche through Wormhole, a cross-chain solution recently supported by Acala.

ACA saw a slight increase in price around the launch of Acala EVM+, though it subsequently retraced despite a broader crypto market rally on February 8. Acala's token has not shown a notable recovery in January 2023, rising by just about 15%.

1H Chart of ACA/USDT on Binance as of 09:35 AM, February 8, 2023