# BENQI

> Largest DeFi Platform (Liquid Staking and Lending) on Avalanche by TVL

BENQI is a decentralized finance platform on Avalanche. It provides liquid staking, lending and borrowing markets, and validator deployment tools for DeFi users.

BENQI is a decentralized finance platform built on Avalanche, offering liquid staking, lending and borrowing markets, and validator infrastructure. It lets users stake AVAX, supply or borrow digital assets, and deploy validators through a single set of applications. The platform serves Avalanche users seeking yield-generating and liquidity tools without giving up custody of their assets.

Liquid staking is provided through sAVAX, a token that represents staked AVAX and accrues staking rewards while remaining transferable and usable across other decentralized applications. Lending markets let users supply crypto assets to earn interest and rewards, or borrow against their holdings without an intermediary. A validator program lowers the capital needed to operate an Avalanche validator by letting participants pay for compute in smaller increments rather than locking the full requirement upfront.

BENQI's product lineup centers on its liquid staking token, sAVAX, alongside its lending and borrowing markets and a node-hosting service for validators, supported by a voting mechanism that lets participants direct delegated AVAX toward specific validators. These tools are used by AVAX holders, DeFi participants, and node operators across the Avalanche ecosystem.

- Type: Project
- Sector: DeFi
- Status: Active
- Founded: 2020-12-01
- Profile: https://thegrid.id/profiles/benqi

## Products

- [BENQI Liquid Staking](https://thegrid.id/profiles/benqi): BENQI Liquid Staking is a liquid staking protocol that lets users stake AVAX directly from the Avalanche C-Chain and receive sAVAX, a yield-bearing token representing the staked position. Delegations from the staking pool are split between validators chosen through community voting and validators randomly assigned from those meeting minimum performance criteria. Holders of BENQI Miles can direct part of that delegation to specific validators through Node Voting, earning additional AVAX rewards for doing so. sAVAX itself remains usable across Avalanche DeFi applications as collateral or a tradable asset while the underlying AVAX continues earning staking rewards. (Liquid Staking, Live, Main Product)
- [BENQI Markets](https://thegrid.id/profiles/benqi): BENQI Markets is a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol offering two isolated pool structures on Avalanche. Core Markets serve widely used liquid assets such as AVAX and USDC, letting users supply assets to earn algorithmically determined interest and borrow against that collateral. Avalanche Ecosystem Markets extend borrowing and lending to long-tail assets and tokenized real-world assets, restricting borrows to USDC and applying separate risk parameters to isolate volatility from Core Markets. Isolated market configurations and collateralization rules are set per asset to protect the broader protocol from liquidity shocks. (Decentralised Borrowing & Lending, Live)
- [Ignite](https://thegrid.id/profiles/benqi): Ignite is a node hosting service that deploys Avalanche validators and Subnets without requiring users to manage validator infrastructure themselves. Users choose between a Pay-As-You-Go option, paying a weekly fee starting at 8 AVAX with no upfront stake, or a staking option where QI is staked to cover hosting fees for an automated validator that earns QI rewards. The service removes the technical complexity and the large upfront AVAX requirement otherwise needed to run a validator. (Node Hosting, Live)

## Assets

- [QI (QI)](https://thegrid.id/profiles/benqi): QI is the governance token of BENQI, a DeFi protocol on Avalanche. Holders stake QI to accumulate BENQI Miles, which grant voting power for validator delegation and protocol governance decisions. Unstaking resets a user's accumulated Miles balance, which incentivizes long-term participation over short-term speculation. (Governance)
- [BENQI: Staked AVAX (sAVAX)](https://thegrid.id/profiles/benqi): sAVAX is a liquid staking token representing staked AVAX issued by BENQI Liquid Staking. It is used as collateral in DeFi protocols while accruing validation rewards from the Avalanche network. The protocol allocates delegations using a fixed split between community-voted validators and randomly selected validators, which balances decentralization with staking efficiency. (Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs))

## Links

- [Main](https://benqi.fi)
- [Privacy policy](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EphMf-Y5ANb50cAxCCk4n27FZ454AqttNLg4_QAa5lI/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.wo6z7nslvqaj)
- [Terms of Service](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I-bPvJqBApu1PtzwLBFQ9VzcX8unVWMM3RK2HQxCghc/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.b53g01uvy8ng)
- [Documentation](https://docs.benqi.fi)
- [Media Kit/branding](https://docs.benqi.fi/resources/media-kit-logos-and-graphics)
- [GitHub](https://github.com/Benqi-fi)
- [Twitter / X](https://x.com/BenqiFinance)
- [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/jyPAjZjwk6)
- [Telegram](https://t.me/BENQIFinance)
- [Telegram](https://t.me/benqifinance_announcements)
- [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/c/benqifinance)
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/benqi)

## Legal

This data is provided under two licensing models.

Model 1 - open data. The open data core is licensed under the Open Database License (ODbL) — a copyleft/share-alike license allowing free use, modification, and sharing for any purpose. Attribution is required: include "Powered by The Grid" linking to https://thegrid.id wherever the data is used. Derivative databases must be shared under ODbL terms. Trademarks, logos, and brand names (marked "Special TPIP") are not covered by the ODbL. For ML/AI use: training datasets that substantially extract ODbL data are Derivative Databases and must be shared under ODbL if publicly used; models must be attributed in documentation.

Model 2 - commercial licenses. The Grid Data Service (TGDS) is also available as a commercial license. See [Web Services Terms](https://about.thegrid.id/legal/web-services-terms) for commercial use that is not covered by the open data service.

The following applies to both licensing models.
- All data is provided AS IS with no guarantees of accuracy.
- The Grid does not provide investment, legal, or tax advice, and
- a project's presence in The Grid's data does not imply endorsement.


- [Data Licensing & Disclaimers](https://about.thegrid.id/legal/data-licensing-and-disclaimers): Licensing models and disclaimers
- [Open Data (ODbL)](https://about.thegrid.id/legal/open-data): Open Database License terms and scope for The Grid's open data service.
- [Attribution Guidelines](https://about.thegrid.id/legal/open-data-attribution-guidelines): How to attribute The Grid's data when using the open data service.
- [Web Services Terms](https://about.thegrid.id/legal/web-services-terms): commercial Terms for using data services.
- [All Legal Documents](https://about.thegrid.id/legal): Full index of terms, policies, and disclosures

## Optional

- [TGS Field Descriptions](https://github.com/The-Grid-Data/workspace-public/blob/main/references/tgs-field-descriptions.md): Schema field definitions for The Grid's data model
- [TGS JSON Structure](https://github.com/The-Grid-Data/workspace-public/blob/main/references/tgs-json-structure.md): Data model structure and relationships
- [Product Type Definitions](https://github.com/The-Grid-Data/workspace-public/blob/main/references/product-type-definitions.md): Definitions for each product type
- [Product Type Classification](https://github.com/The-Grid-Data/workspace-public/blob/main/references/product-type-classification.md): Guide for classifying products into types
- [Grid MCP Guide](https://github.com/The-Grid-Data/workspace-public/blob/main/grid-search/skills/grid-query/references/grid-mcp-guide.md): How to query The Grid programmatically via MCP