Injective Protocol, a decentralized exchange offering advanced features such as cross-chain margin trading, derivatives, futures, etc., is the first specialized protocol compatible with interoperability created for DEXs. It aims to create a freer and more inclusive financial system through decentralization.
Created as a high-performance exchange protocol, Injective uses a Cosmos-backed layer-2 sidechain infrastructure. This provides speed, accessibility, and decentralization through optimized connections to the main Ethereum chain. Ethereum-based tools can quickly create new cross-chain DApps using instant finality through Injective.

The primary goal of Injective is to remove access barriers to DeFi markets. It also aims to be a decentralized platform that eliminates gas fees without reducing transaction speed. Several key features have been implemented towards these goals:

The native token of the Injective Protocol is referred to by the abbreviation INJ. We can list some areas where INJ is used, including governance:
Protocol and Ecosystem Management: INJ allows users to participate in ecosystem governance by voting on proposed changes in the futures protocol, exchange parameters, and other protocol upgrades through a DAO structure.
Collateral Support for Derivative Products: The INJ token can also be used as a stablecoin alternative to provide collateral for margin trading and the use of Injective's derivatives market.
Tendermint-Based Proof of Stake (PoS) Security: The Injective Protocol is secured with a PoS consensus based on Tendermint. The ecosystem encourages nodes to participate in network consensus by providing staking rewards. This mechanism inflates the supply of INJ tokens starting at 7% annually at inception and decreasing to 2% over time.
Market Maker Incentives: The Injective DEX initially charges a 0.1% exchange fee for market makers and 0.2% for takers. Fee discounts are provided to market makers who help to reboot liquidity on the DEX trading platform.

The Injective DEX is designed as a highly technical device that offers a good user experience for users while being censorship-resistant, trustless, and verifiable by anyone. To make all these possible, the technical architecture of Injective Protocol is built on four different layers within the software development stack.

The fundamental protocol interactions and token economy of the Injective ecosystem are enabled through the following types of Ethereum-based smart contracts:
Injective Coordinator Contracts: Injective coordinator contracts facilitate the use of derivative transactions on both Ethereum and the Injective chain.
Stake Contracts: Stake contracts are designed to manage the core functions of stakers in the Injective Protocol through rewards, slashing, delegation, and governance mechanisms.
Injective Futures Contracts: Injective Futures contracts are smart contracts that allow traders to create, execute, and use decentralized perpetual swaps on any arbitrary market.
Injective Bridge Contracts: Injective Bridge contracts are smart contracts managing the two-way pegging between Ethereum and the Injective Chain.
Injective Token Contracts: Injective token contracts are ERC-20 contracts designed for different uses employed by the INJ token.

Injective Protocol is leading a new decentralized economy to create a freer and more inclusive financial system. Injective has created a solution that allows crypto exchanges to become a decentralized public utility, enabling users and communities to capture much-needed value in the exchange environment. Injective technology allows everyone in the world to participate in cross-chain blockchain-based derivatives, futures, and forex trading.
By leveraging technological innovations that increase the speed of settlement and trade execution in a truly decentralized, permissionless, and censorship-resistant manner, Injective Protocol is building an exchange model with the potential to transform the industry as we know it.
It aims to empower individuals in our society with the ability to allocate capital more efficiently by providing unlimited and unprecedented ability to express different views in decentralized financial markets.

INJ is a mineable cryptocurrency. It can be obtained through liquidity mining as well as staking. The maximum supply is set at 100,000,000, of which 43,655,554 are in circulation.