Yields: Up to 30% APR on Stablecoins, 14-16% on ETH and BTC
Starter Tutorial: Earn An Upfront 15.64% APR By Flashstaking ETH
Degen Tutorial: Earn 60% APR On ATOM With Stride Liquid Staking
DeFi Alpha is a weekly newsletter published for our premium subscribers every Friday, contributed by Defiant Advisor and DeFi investor at 4RC, DeFi Dad, and our Degen in Chief yyctrader. It aims to educate traders, investors, and newcomers about investment opportunities in decentralized finance, as well as provide primers and guides about its emerging platforms.
Motivation
Two years ago, DeFi investors could easily name every yield farming opportunity without much effort. It was a simpler time, when only a handful of teams had launched with any liquidity to trade, lend, borrow, provide liquidity, or even demonstrate new primitives such as no-loss savings by PoolTogether.
But times have changed! Before the current bear market took hold, DeFi liquidity had grown to hundreds of billions of dollars across Ethereum with new burgeoning DeFi economies taking shape on EVM-compatible chains such as Polygon and Avalanche and non-EVM chains such as Cosmos and Solana. Any given day, a new DeFi or NFT project is launched.
So, after writing and creating countless DeFi guides and tutorials since 2019, we at The Defiant agreed it’s time we publish a more detailed weekly guide on all you need to know to keep up with new and old yield earning opportunities.
This is DeFi Alpha by The Defiant.
Any information covered in DeFi Alpha should not form the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation or advice to engage in investment transactions. Any mention of a token or protocol should not be considered a recommendation or endorsement.
🙌 Together with:
DeFi Saver provides you with automated management strategies for most trusted protocols. Alongside Stop loss, Take profit and automated leverage, Maker and Liquity users can now rely on the advanced Trailing stop strategy.
📈 Yield Alpha
Each week we will provide options to earn yield on ETH, WBTC, stablecoins, and other major tokens.
Stablecoins – 29.96% APY with the Concentrator Original Vault for the Curve pusd LP
This yield is backed by Curve trading fees + CVX and CRV rewards periodically harvested and compounded into staked cvxCRV. The yield will ultimately be claimed via Concentrator’s aCRV (equal cvxCRV).
To participate, one must first deposit into the Curve pusd LP and then stake the LP here on Concentrator -> Original Vaults -> search pusd -> Deposit. Alternatively, I can skip the Curve deposit and use most any stablecoin with the Concentrator single-asset deposit under Concentrator pusd Original Vault -> Deposit.
ETH – 14.36% APR with the wETH/sETH LP staked in Velodrome on Optimism
This yield is accrued in VELO.
To participate, one must deposit and stake in this wETH + sETH LP.
WBTC – 16.45% projected vAPR with the Curve pBTC LP staked in Convex
This yield is accrued in CRV, CVX, and trading fees.
To participate, one must first deposit pBTC, renBTC, sBTC and/or WBTC into this Curve pBTC pool and then stake the LP here in Convex.
AVAX – 6% APR lending sAVAX to the sAVAX/AVAX pool on Platypus via Vector
This yield is issued in VTX, PTP, QI, and AVAX.
To participate, one must deposit into the AVAX Stake option here on Vector.
SOL – 6.06% APY lending stSOL on Tulip Protocol + 5.5% APY from the underlying SOL liquid staking rewards issued to stSOL holders
This yield is backed by interest paid by borrowers on Tulip + staking rewards.
To participate, one must deposit stSOL in the Tulip lending tab.
To obtain stSOL, one can trade on a Solana DEX or mint it here on Lido.
MATIC – 18.76% APY with the 50/50 MaticX-WMATIC LP on MeshSwap
The yield is backed by validator rewards using the MaticX liquid staking derivative + MeshSwap trading fees + MESH rewards + SD rewards.
To participate on Polygon, I use the Stader MaticX dApp to mint MaticX.
Then, I deposit into the MaticX-WMATIC pool on MeshSwap and stake the LP.
ATOM – 60% APR on ATOM/stATOM Osmosis LP with Stride Liquid Staking
The yield earned is issued and claimable in ATOM and STRD tokens.
A step-by-step guide is provided in this week’s Degen Tutorial.
FTM – 13% APY staking with sFTMx liquid staking derivative by Stader
The yield is issued in FTM rewards, as sFTMX is earning FTM via validator rewards to support Fantom’s PoS network.
To participate, one must deposit FTM to receive sFTMX here on Stader.
HBAR – 23.91% APY staking with HBARX liquid staking derivative by Stader
The yield is issued in HBAR rewards, as HBARX is earning validator rewards.
To participate, one must deposit HBAR to receive HBARX here on Stader.
🪂 Airdrop Alpha
In each DeFi Alpha guide, we update a list of the most obvious DeFi protocols that have yet to announce and/or launch a token.
SUDO Airdrop
NFT AMM SudoSwap has released details about its SUDO token and airdrop.
🎉If you followed our guide from August 12 and created some trading pools, you should be eligible!🎉
Arbitrum Odyssey
Layer-2 rollup Arbitrum kicked off a months-long program on June 21.
Participants will be able to claim NFTs based on completing various tasks.
Week 1 was Bridge Week and we walked you through it in a previous issue of DeFi Alpha.
In a previous Degen Tutorial, we covered a series of on-chain quests.
We’ll be watching for the Odyssey to resume, now that Nitro is live.
Optimism Airdrop
Congratulations if you followed our guide betting on a hunch that Optimism would release a token!
$OP is Live! Claim guide here.
Arch Finance – a protocol for comprehensive indices that provide access to differentiated sources of market risk.
Concentrator – Congrats if you used Concentrator! They’re currently running an Initial Farming Offering (IFO) and are expected to distribute CTR tokens to early users of Concentrator.
DeFi Saver – a one-stop dashboard for creating, managing and tracking DeFi positions across Aave, Compound, Maker, Liquity, and Reflexer
Francium – leveraged yield farming similar to Alpha Homora but on Solana, one can choose to simply lend single assets or hold leveraged LPs to potentially earn an airdrop here
Jupiter – The leading DEX aggregator by trading volume on Solana
LI.FI – A cross-chain bridge and DEX aggregator protocol
Liquality – A cross-chain, non-custodial browser extension wallet, similar to MetaMask but with more integrations for swapping cross-chain.
Magic Eden – The leading NFT marketplace by trading volume on Solana
Nested – a crypto social trading platform built on Ethereum and other chains
Opyn – one of the OG decentralized options protocols on Ethereum, with major investors that signal a token has to be in their future. Buy/sell puts or call options to earn a possible future airdrop.
Polymarket – one of the strongest players in the DeFi prediction market vertical, bet on an outcome related to crypto, politics, sports and more or add liquidity
Polynomial – A newer DeFi derivatives vault creator, built on Optimism
Sense Protocol – A decentralized fixed-income protocol on Ethereum, allowing users to manage risk through fixed rates and future yield trading on existing yield bearing-assets
Set Protocol – one of the earliest DeFi protocols yet to launch a token for DeFi asset management, popular for TokenSets and known for powering IndexCoop indexes
Socket (formerly Movr) – their bridge aggregator Bungee moves assets between chains, finding the cheapest, fastest route
Volmex – Volmex is a tokenized volatility protocol, similar to the VIX but ETHV
Wormhole – a cross-chain messaging protocol known for bridging between Solana, Terra, Polygon, BSC, Avalanche, Fantom, and Oasis
Yield Protocol – a newer protocol for fixed-term, fixed-rate lending in DeFi, backed by Paradigm, one might earn a future airdrop by lending DAI or USDC
Zapper – participate in Zapper trading, lending, providing liquidity, or yield farming; given the Zapper Quests and NFT Rewards program, it can be surmised that if Zapper ever releases a token, this is one way they might do a retro airdrop
Zerion – same can be said speculated about Zerion; if they ever release a token, they’re likely to reward those who interacted with their smart contracts swapping, lending, providing liquidity, or borrowing
ZigZag – a DEX on zkSync that’s announced an upcoming airdrop.
zkSync is a Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum that uses zero-knowledge proofs to enable scalable low-cost payments. Bridge some assets and do some swaps for a potential airdrop. Guide here.
👨🎓 Defiant Starter Tutorial
Earn An Instant Upfront 15.64% APR By Flashstaking ETH
Have you ever wished to borrow or simply spend your future yield? A protocol called Flashstake recently launched, where one can earn instant upfront yield, while their staked assets remain locked up for a fixed term.
Flashstaking looks like a mash-up of the benefits of Alchemix self-repaying loans and fixed interest protocols such as APWine or Element, where you deposit for a fixed term and can sell your yield tokens upfront.
With Flashstake, you just select which token to lock up, for how long in minutes, hours, or days, and then instantly claim your yield upfront. While your tokens are locked up, Flashstake deposits them into a yield source to earn back the yield you were paid upfront.
For example, their current WETH Flashstaking strategy deposits into Aave v2 on Ethereum to lend WETH.
Here’s a few other pros and cons of this very experimental protocol:
Although Flashstaking looks a bit like a self-repaying loan by Alchemix, you instead have a guaranteed date to withdraw your original deposit.
There are no liquidations given this is not a lending/borrowing protocol.
If you want to unstake early, just return your yield and redeem your original stake.
While yields across DeFi may be lower, Flashstake is offering FLASH as a reward to compensate Flashstakers while the protocol is still new, which is how they’re currently offering 15.64% APR for ETH deposits.
One major drawback is there are limits to larger Flashstaking, given there’s only so much liquidity to sell FLASH rewards upfront, while the FLASH FDV = $3.75M. If I were to Flashstake, I would first estimate how much yield I might earn in FLASH and then check the slippage selling this amount on this Uniswap pool.
A newer protocol like this carries lots of risk, including all the usuals like smart contract bugs and whether it can bootstrap enough interest while its own low cap token FLASH is used as an incentive.
Today, I’ll show how I might flashstake ETH for 30 days to claim upfront yield denominated in FLASH, equivalent to 15.64% APR.
Before we get started, please be aware of these risks.
Smart contract risk in the Flashstake protocol
Front-end spoof attack on app.flashstake.io
Exploits in economic design
Governance attacks or admin key compromise
Liquidity crunch when trying to sell upfront yield in FLASH on Uniswap
Systemic risk in DeFi composability
Step 1: To get started, I go to the Flashstake dApp here and connect my Ethereum wallet.
Step 2: If it doesn’t already default to WETH, I’ll choose WETH from the dropdown (currently only supports WETH/ETH or USDC). For a limited time, through 12 pm EST on Sept 18th (or less) the Flashstake protocol is incentivizing WETH/ETH Flashstakers with higher than usual FLASH rewards, estimated around 15.64% APR.
So I’ll specify depositing 1 WETH for just 30 days, to lock in claiming an upfront yield of 15.64% APR (meaning about 1.3% ROI on my deposit). I then follow the prompts to Approve WETH + Flashstake (2 transactions).
Step 3: Lastly, I’ll receive my estimated yield upfront, based on a deposit of 1 WETH and a yield of 15.64% APR, meaning 742.925 FLASH while price ~$0.025/FLASH, which I can then choose to hold or instantly sell here on Uniswap. This liquidity pool has only $144k of FLASH/WETH liquidity, so there’s going to be clear limits on how large of a Flashstake is rational for any DeFi user. I can return in ~30 days to reclaim my deposited 1 WETH!
🦍 Defiant Degen Tutorial
Earn 60% APR On Cosmos’ ATOM With Stride Liquid Staking
Cosmos’ ATOM token has outperformed this week after the ‘Internet of Blockchains’ unveiled Interchain Security, a way for ecosystem projects to use ATOM validators to secure their application-specific chains.
We discussed ATOM on the latest Alpha Call and it seems like a revamp of its often-criticized inflationary tokenomics may be on the horizon.
Disclaimer: This is not a recommendation to buy ATOM.
If you’re looking to earn yield on ATOM, the regular staking yield on Cosmos Hub is roughly 18% APR.
Stride is a new liquid staking protocol that launched last week and it has announced an airdrop for ATOM, OSMO and JUNO stakers, likely claimable at the end of the month.
🎉Back in February, I wrote a guide on staking ATOM for potential airdrops. If you did so, you should be eligible for the STRD airdrop.🎉
Users can mint stATOM by staking ATOM through Stride. Similar to stETH on Ethereum, stATOM allows you to earn additional yield through DeFi opportunities while your original ATOM tokens earn the native staking yield.
Stride is incentivizing an ATOM/stATOM pool on Osmosis, the dominant DEX in the Cosmos Ecosystem. 31% of the STRD supply is allocated to community incentives and the pool is currently yielding 63% APR.
Impermanent loss will be minimal since you’ll be LPing essentially the same asset.
Let’s get started.
If this is your first time on Cosmos, you’ll need to set up a compatible wallet. A full guide to getting started with a Keplr wallet can be found here.
In this tutorial, we’re going to bridge some USDC from Ethereum to Cosmos, buy ATOM, mint stATOM and provide liquidity on Osmosis.
Step 1: You’ll need some ATOM tokens for transaction fees. The easiest way to buy ATOM is on centralized exchanges such as Coinbase and Binance. A list of exchanges can be found here.
Alternatively, you can get a small amount using this ATOM faucet from Stakely.
Once you have some ATOM in your Keplr wallet, proceed to Step 2.
Step 2: Bridge assets to Osmosis using the Axelar Bridge.
Once you’ve connected your Metamask and Keplr wallets, generate a deposit address and send USDC to it.
Your tokens will arrive on Osmosis in around 15 minutes.
Step 3: Get some OSMO tokens for gas fees using this faucet.
Step 4: Swap the bridged USDC for ATOM on Osmosis.
https://frontier.osmosis.zone/
Step 5: Withdraw ATOM from Osmosis to Cosmos Hub from the ‘Assets’ page.
https://frontier.osmosis.zone/assets
Click the ‘Withdraw’ button and confirm the transaction.
Step 6: Head over to Stride and mint stATOM with half the ATOM tokens.
Note: Make sure to retain a small amount for transaction fees or you could be left stranded!
The staking process requires you to transfer your ATOM tokens to the Stride chain.
Step 7: Deposit ATOM and stATOM to Osmosis on the Assets page.
Step 8: Add liquidity to the stATOM/ATOM pool on Osmosis
https://frontier.osmosis.zone/pool/803
Click on ‘Add Liquidity’.
Step 9: Bond your LP tokens.
Maximal STRD rewards are available to users who bond for 2 weeks. This means that you will need to wait 14 days to withdraw your tokens once you initiate an unbonding transaction.
Click on ‘Start Earning’ and bond your tokens.
That’s it! You’re now earning STRD and ATOM tokens which will show up on the Assets page after each distribution.
📱DeFi Alpha Call
The DeFi Alpha call is held every Monday at 2pm ET in Discord.
In case you missed it, check out the recording of this week’s call.
📰 Elsewhere on The Defiant
Tuesday Tutorial on The Defiant YouTube: This week, Robin covered four ways you can stake ETH after Ethereum’s Merge. Learn how and subscribe to The Defiant on YouTube!
The information contained in this newsletter is not intended as, and shall not be understood or construed as, financial advice. The authors are not financial advisors and the information contained here is not a substitute for financial advice from a professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation. We have done our best to ensure that the information provided is accurate but neither The Defiant nor any of its contributors shall be held liable or responsible for any errors or omissions or for any damage readers may suffer as a result of failing to seek financial advice from a professional.