Simple Summary
This proposal extends the CoW Swap Affiliate Program established by CIP-84 (Moo & Earn), with the incentives cap reduced from 500,000 USDC to 50,000 USDC.
CIP-84’s term ended on 2 October 2026. If this proposal is approved, rewards accrued from that date until approval would be paid retroactively under the CIP-84 parameters.
Specification
1. Relationship to CIP-84
This CIP extends CIP-84. All CIP-84 provisions stay in force unless modified below. The changes are:
2. Gap period
Between 2 October 2026 and approval of this CIP:
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referral attribution and reward calculation have continued under CIP-84 parameters
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no payouts have been made
If this CIP is approved, rewards accrued in that period are paid in the first payout batch after implementation and count toward the 50,000 USDC cap. If it is not approved, no rewards are paid for the gap period and the program ends.
3. Budget
The incentives cap for the extension term is 50,000 USDC, including gap-period rewards. This is a hard cap.
The Core Team reserves the right to allocate part of that funding to other marketing campaigns, and needs to report on that (e.g. shift funds to other initiatives like the KOL Program).
In case of a significant increase in spend, the Core Team can decide to support the extra cost to keep the program running while a new CIP is drafted.
6. Parameter envelope, abuse controls, pause and termination
Unchanged from CIP-84, sections 3–5.
7. Results of the first term
GM1 is protocol revenue minus solver rewards. Rewards are 0.8 bps of eligible volume, split equally between affiliate and trader. For every 1 USDC paid in rewards, referred trading generated about 3.8 USD of GM1.
Net GM1 was positive every month. Volume peaked in May–June and has held at about 6M per month since July. Volume is concentrated: the top 5 codes account for 63% of it, and the largest single code for 29%. One code produced 46% of all trades but 0.5% of volume, which fits an incentive-farming pattern. It does not materially affect the volume or GM1 figures.
Rationale
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The program was net-positive in every month of its first term: 13.9K USD of GM1 against 3.7K USDC in rewards.
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Continuing avoids a break for active affiliates.
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Volume has declined from its May–June peak. The extension is a low-cost period to test reactivation of lapsed affiliates and to measure whether referred traders stay.
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Reducing the cap to 50,000 USDC better sizes it to actual spend. The first term used 0.7% of its budget.