Alephium launches Powfi with CLMM DEX and xALPH liquid staking on PoW
By Node Zero
September 23, 2026
Alephium launched Powfi, its core DeFi application, on mainnet on September 23, activating what the project calls Phase Two: Aligned Economics. A Chainwire release from Neuchâtel says Powfi combines a concentrated-liquidity market maker (CLMM) DEX with liquid staking through xALPH, primitives purpose-built for Alephium’s native sUTXO model. The app is live at powfi.alephium.org. Alephium positions the launch as the first liquid-staking path on a Proof-of-Work Layer-1—attribute that claim to the company, not an independent audit.
The Dev & Protocol Pulse lead is the stack, not a token price. Powfi’s CLMM lets liquidity providers allocate capital inside specific price ranges. Its first foundational market is ALPH x USDT, framed as an on-chain venue that can compete for flow beside ALPH markets on Bitget, MEXC, and Gate. Through the Alephium Bridge, the release says ALPH x USDT markets on Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, and Alephium become linked across Uniswap, PancakeSwap, and Powfi, with Powfi as the Alephium-side liquidity layer and the bridge moving tokens among the three chains.
Liquid staking is the second pillar. Users stake ALPH and receive xALPH, a liquid representation meant to stay usable across DeFi instead of forcing a choice between staking and deploying capital. Alephium COO Maud Bannwart called Powfi “a trusted cornerstone” that “lowers the barrier to entry for DeFi and ALPH utility while providing composable primitives that other applications can integrate with,” and framed xALPH as a foundational building block for “true alignment.” Planned follow-ons include yield strategies, lending, and collateralized apps—roadmap language, not live product proof.
Distribution extends beyond the dApp. Powfi’s White Label stack lets third parties integrate ALPH staking and xALPH into their own products. As an initial pilot, ASIC maker Goldshell (via Goldshell Stake) and DXPool have integrated that white-label staking path and say they will offer ALPH staking to miners, with more detail “coming soon.” That B2B2C route is meant to push liquid staking through existing mining businesses rather than relying only on direct DeFi adoption. Larger LPs are also invited to use CLMM ranges for more sophisticated liquidity strategies as depth builds.
Launch incentives are target-based, not fixed coupons. The ALPH x USDT farming campaign targets $200,000 in liquidity with rewards equivalent to a 15% APY at that level; liquidity must be two-sided and in range to qualify. If TVL stays below the target, the same monthly reward pool is split across less liquidity, which can raise effective APYs for early LPs. The xALPH staking campaign targets 15% of circulating ALPH—about 20.5 million ALPH—with a 5% APY at that participation level, again with higher potential APYs if staking undershoots the target. Both campaigns will be re-evaluated monthly. Separately, a share of Powfi protocol fees is slated to buy back ALPH, then split 50% burned and 50% to stakers, tying trading activity to supply and staking rewards on paper.
Why an NFT and crypto protocol desk opens the wire: settlement assets and GameFi treasuries still need native DeFi rails, and a PoW L1 shipping CLMM plus liquid staking is a concrete protocol event after a week of ETF and RWA launches. Alephium cites BlockFlow sharding and more than 20,000 TPS with a single-chain UX; treat throughput claims as vendor specs. What to watch next: whether ALPH x USDT depth clears the $200K farming target, whether Goldshell and DXPool actually surface miner staking, and whether community apps such as Linx, Aura, and Factor plug into xALPH. What not to invent: that APYs are locked, that liquid staking on PoW is independently verified as a global first, or that fee buybacks have already moved measurable circulating supply.
Bottom line: On September 23, Alephium launched Powfi on mainnet with a CLMM DEX and xALPH liquid staking—Phase Two DeFi rails for a Proof-of-Work L1, per Chainwire.
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