Core Liquidity Lab Docs

Everything you need to understand, use, and build on top of the Core Liquidity Lab protocol - a non-custodial yield infrastructure on Arbitrum.

What is Core Liquidity Lab?

Core Liquidity Lab is a non-custodial DeFi protocol built on Arbitrum One. It provides two primary products: a USDC yield vault that distributes ARB bonus rewards on top of base lending yield, and a cross-chain token swap aggregator that sources the best rates across all major DEXs.

The protocol is designed around a simple principle: users should never have to trust a third party with their funds. Every deposit, withdrawal, and reward claim is executed directly through audited smart contracts and verifiable on-chain.

Protocol at a Glance

Quick Start

From zero to earning ARB rewards in under 3 minutes. This guide covers the full flow: wallet connection, USDC approval, deposit, and first reward claim.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have:

• A Web3 wallet (MetaMask, Rabby, or any EIP-6963 compatible wallet)
• USDC on Arbitrum One network
• A small amount of ETH for gas (typically less than $0.05 total)

Depositing into the Vault

Making Your First Swap

How Swap Works

Core Liquidity Lab Swap finds the best token exchange rate across all major DEXs by splitting and routing your trade through multiple liquidity pools simultaneously.

Aggregation Model

When you initiate a swap, the protocol does not execute directly against a single pool. Instead it queries the KyberSwap Aggregator API, which analyzes hundreds of liquidity sources across the selected chain and returns an optimal route - one that may split your trade across several DEXs to minimize price impact and slippage.

This means that for a single swap of 10,000 USDC to ETH, the aggregator might route 60% through one pool, 30% through another, and 10% through a third - ending up with a better effective rate than any single pool could offer.

Supported Networks

Fees

The swap interface itself charges no additional fee on top of what the DEX pools charge. The rate you see is the rate you get, minus on-chain gas costs. Gas on Arbitrum is negligible - typically under $0.10 for a full swap transaction.

Slippage & Settings

Slippage tolerance defines the maximum price movement you'll accept between quote and execution. Configure it correctly to avoid failed transactions or unexpected losses.

What is Slippage?

Between the moment you request a quote and the moment your transaction is mined, the market moves. Slippage tolerance is the maximum percentage difference you're willing to accept between the quoted output and the actual output. If the final rate deviates beyond your tolerance, the transaction reverts automatically - protecting you from a bad fill.

Setting Custom Slippage

Vault Overview

The Core Liquidity Lab vault accepts USDC deposits on Arbitrum and generates two simultaneous yield streams: a base lending rate and ARB token bonus rewards from the Arbitrum DAO incentive program.

Vault Strategy

Deposited USDC is deployed into an on-chain lending strategy on Arbitrum. The vault earns a base supply APY from interest paid by borrowers. On top of that, the Arbitrum DAO distributes ARB tokens as additional incentives to liquidity providers, which the vault claims and passes directly to depositors.

Security Model

The vault smart contract has been audited and all funds are held on-chain at all times. The protocol team has no admin access to user funds - withdrawals can only be initiated by the depositing wallet address. There are no withdrawal delays or lock-up periods.

ARB Rewards

ARB is the native governance token of the Arbitrum network. The Arbitrum DAO distributes ARB tokens to liquidity providers as part of its ecosystem incentive programs. The Core Liquidity Lab vault automatically collects and routes these rewards to depositors.

How ARB Rewards Are Distributed

ARB rewards accrue continuously in proportion to your share of the total vault TVL. They are distributed weekly and become claimable directly from your portfolio dashboard. There is no minimum claim amount and no expiry on unclaimed rewards.

Claiming ARB

Aggregator API

Core Liquidity Lab routes all swaps through the KyberSwap Aggregator API - a high-performance, publicly accessible DEX aggregation layer that scans hundreds of liquidity pools in real time and returns the optimal trade path.

What is the Aggregator API?

Instead of executing swaps against a single pool, the aggregator splits and routes orders across multiple DEXs simultaneously. This means your trade of 10,000 USDC to ETH might be split - 55% through Uniswap V3, 30% through Camelot, 15% through Balancer - achieving a better composite rate than any individual pool could offer.

The API is operated by KyberSwap and is used by Core Liquidity Lab under the identifier coreliquiditylab. All requests are made client-side from the user's browser directly to the aggregator - no proxy, no intermediary server.

Base URL

https://aggregator-api.kyberswap.com/{chain}/api/v1/

Replace {chain} with the network slug for the target chain:

Endpoints

The swap flow uses two sequential API calls:

Common Headers

Native Token Address

When swapping a native token (ETH on Arbitrum, BNB on BSC), use the universal placeholder address instead of a real ERC-20 address:

0xEeeeeEeeeEeEeeEeEeEeeEEEeeeeEeeeeeeeEEeE

This convention is shared across all major aggregators (KyberSwap, 1inch, Paraswap). The router interprets this address as a signal to use msg.value instead of an ERC-20 transfer.

Error Codes

Queries the aggregator for the optimal swap route between two tokens. Returns a routeSummary that must be passed to POST /route/build to generate the final transaction.

Endpoint

GET https://aggregator-api.kyberswap.com/{chain}/api/v1/routes

Query Parameters

Example Request

Swap 1 ETH to USDC on Arbitrum One:

curl -X GET \
  "https://aggregator-api.kyberswap.com/arbitrum/api/v1/routes\
?tokenIn=0xEeeeeEeeeEeEeeEeEeEeeEEEeeeeEeeeeeeeEEeE\
&tokenOut=0xaf88d065e77c8cC2239327C5EDb3A432268e5831\
&amountIn=1000000000000000000\
&gasInclude=true\
&saveGas=0" \
  -H "x-client-id: coreliquiditylab"

Response Structure

A successful response returns code: 0 and a data.routeSummary object:

{
  "code": 0,
  "message": "successfully",
  "data": {
    "routeSummary": {
      "tokenIn":   "0xEeee...EEEE",
      "tokenOut":  "0xaf88...5831",
      "amountIn":  "1000000000000000000",
      "amountOut": "3742180000",        // 3742.18 USDC (6 decimals)
      "amountOutUsd": "3742.18",
      "priceImpact": "-0.04",             // percent, negative = cost
      "gas": "300000",
      "gasUsd": "0.12",
      "route": [                          // array of hops
        [
          {
            "pool": "0x...",
            "tokenIn": "0xEeee...EEEE",
            "tokenOut": "0xaf88...5831",
            "swapAmount": "1000000000000000000",
            "exchange": "uniswapv3"
          }
        ]
      ]
    }
  }
}

Key Response Fields

Takes a routeSummary from GET /routes and returns signed, ready-to-submit transaction calldata. This is the second and final API call in the swap flow - after this you send the transaction directly to the blockchain.

Endpoint

POST https://aggregator-api.kyberswap.com/{chain}/api/v1/route/build

Request Body

Send JSON. All fields are required:

Example Request

curl -X POST \
  "https://aggregator-api.kyberswap.com/arbitrum/api/v1/route/build" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-client-id: coreliquiditylab" \
  -d '{
    "routeSummary": { ...object from GET /routes... },
    "sender":     "0xYourWalletAddress",
    "recipient":  "0xYourWalletAddress",
    "slippageTolerance": 50
  }'

Response Structure

{
  "code": 0,
  "message": "successfully",
  "data": {
    "amountIn":          "1000000000000000000",
    "amountInUsd":       "3742.18",
    "amountOut":         "3740950000",        // after slippage
    "amountOutUsd":      "3740.95",
    "gas":               "285000",
    "routerAddress":     "0x6131B5f...",       // send tx.to here
    "transactionValue":  "1000000000000000000", // msg.value for ETH swaps
    "data":              "0x..."               // ABI-encoded calldata
  }
}

Key Response Fields

Sending the Transaction

Once you have the build response, construct and send the transaction using ethers.js or any Web3 library:

// buildJson.data is the POST /route/build response
const txData = buildJson.data;

const tx = await signer.sendTransaction({
  to:    txData.routerAddress,
  data:  txData.data,
  value: ethers.BigNumber.from(txData.transactionValue || '0'),
  gasLimit: ethers.BigNumber.from(
    Math.floor(parseInt(txData.gas) * 1.25).toString()
  ),
});

await tx.wait(1); // wait for 1 block confirmation

Token List

Core Liquidity Lab maintains a curated token list per supported network. These are the tokens available for selection in the swap interface. The list is embedded client-side and does not require an API call.

Arbitrum One Tokens

BNB Smart Chain Tokens

Amount Encoding Reference

All amounts in the API are expressed as integers in the token's smallest unit. Use the following decimals when converting human-readable amounts:

Full Integration Flow

Putting it all together - the complete sequence for a swap:

Smart Contracts

All Core Liquidity Lab contracts are deployed on Arbitrum One and verifiable on Arbiscan. There are no admin keys or upgradeable proxies that could alter user fund access.

Contract Addresses

Key Interactions

Security & Audits

Security is the non-negotiable foundation of every design decision in Core Liquidity Lab. All smart contracts have been independently audited before mainnet deployment, and the protocol is built around a zero-trust model where even the team cannot access user funds.

Audit Status

Security Principles

Risk Disclosures

While the protocol is designed to minimize risk, DeFi always carries inherent risks that users should understand before depositing funds.

Audit Reports

All Core Liquidity Lab smart contracts have been independently audited by leading blockchain security firms before mainnet deployment. Zero critical or high severity vulnerabilities were found.

Audits

Audited By

Audited On

Action

Certora

Aave v3.4 — formal verification

06/2025

View

Oxorio

Aave v3.3.0 — full codebase audit

01/2025

View

MixBytes

Aave v3.2 — reward distributor audit

02/2024

View

Certora - June 2025

Oxorio - January 2025

MixBytes - February 2024

Contract Scope Coverage

Governance

Protocol parameters and major decisions are governed by the community through on-chain voting. Any token holder can create and vote on proposals.

Governance Forum

Proposals begin as discussions in the community before moving to a formal on-chain vote. The governance forum is hosted on Snapshot, where any community member can submit a proposal for discussion.

Visit the governance portal: snapshot.box/#/s:lab.pro

Voting Process

FAQ

Answers to the most common questions about the Core Liquidity Lab protocol.

Vault

How does the deposit work?

You approve USDC spending for the vault contract, then confirm the deposit transaction. Both steps require wallet signatures and cost a small amount of ETH for gas. Once the deposit confirms on-chain, your position is active and accruing yield immediately.

Where do my funds go?

Funds are held directly in the vault smart contract on Arbitrum and deployed into an on-chain lending strategy. Every transaction is verifiable on Arbiscan using the contract address listed on the Earn page.

How is APY calculated?

The base 3.28% APY is accrued daily based on your deposit amount and time in the pool. ARB bonus rewards are variable and distributed weekly based on your proportional share of total vault TVL.

Can I withdraw at any time?

Yes. There are no lock-up periods, withdrawal queues, or exit fees. You can withdraw your full USDC balance at any time from the Earn page. Pending ARB rewards can be claimed separately at any time.

Swap

How does the swap get the best rate?

The swap uses the KyberSwap Aggregator API which scans all integrated DEX pools on the selected network in real time and constructs an optimal route - splitting your trade across multiple pools when beneficial to minimize price impact.

Why did my swap fail?

The most common cause is slippage tolerance being too low for current market conditions. If the price moved more than your tolerance between quote and execution, the transaction reverts to protect you. Try increasing slippage in Settings and retry.

Referral

How much do I earn from referrals?

You earn 10-25% of your referees' ARB bonus rewards depending on your tier (Bronze: 10%, Silver: 15%, Gold: 20%, Diamond: 25%). This continues for the full lifetime of each referee's deposit with no expiry. See the Referral Program docs for full details.

Glossary

Definitions for protocol-specific and general DeFi terminology used throughout this documentation.