Mango (MNGO) is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform designed to combine the liquidity and usability of centralized finance (CeFi) with the permissionless innovation of DeFi, aiming to reduce costs for users. The platform offers margin trading, lending, perpetual futures, and incorporates decentralized governance to guide its future development.
Mango operates on the Solana blockchain, utilising its high-speed and low-cost features for seamless trading experiences. It leverages a consensus mechanism involving Proof of Stake (PoS) with a variant called Proof of History (PoH). Mango uses smart contracts to facilitate decentralised governance and trading activities, allowing developers to contribute to the ecosystem. The platform provides cross-margin trading with up to 5x leverage and incorporates an oracle system to bring in spot prices from various exchanges.
Mango Markets was founded by Maximilian Schneider and Daffy Durairaj in 2021. Despite some controversy regarding its founding, with claims from Alejandro Betancourt dating back to 2017, Mango officially launched in August 2021. It raised over $70 million during its initial 24-hour sale. Since then, Mango Markets has focused on providing a completely decentralized trading platform with features like low transaction costs, flash loans, and integration with the Solana blockchain and the Serum DEX for enhanced performance. The platform continues to evolve, emphasizing advanced security features and accessing all liquidity available on Solana.