Yields: Up to 18% APR on Stablecoins, 6-14% on ETH and BTC
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 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.
📈 Yield Alpha
Each week we will provide options to earn yield on ETH, WBTC, stablecoins, and other major tokens.
ETH -13.98% APR with wETH/sETH LP staked in Velodrome on Optimism
This yield is accrued in VELO.
To participate, one must deposit and stake in the wstETH + WETH LP.
WBTC – 5.82% projected vAPR with Curve tBTC2 LP staked in Convex
This yield is accrued in CRV, CVX, and trading fees.
To participate, one must first deposit tBTC, renBTC, sBTC and/or WBTC into this Curve tBTC2 pool and then stake the LP here in Convex.
AVAX – 8.62% APR with AVAX in Vesper Grow Pools
This yield is issued in 8.14% AVAX + 1.38% VSP.
To participate, one must deposit into the AVAX pool here in Vesper
There is a 0.6% fee on withdrawal from Vesper Grow pools and a 15% platform fee on yield generated by the deposited assets.
SOL – 11.62% APY lending stSOL on Tulip Protocol
This yield is backed by 6.12% APY paid by borrowers on Tulip + 5.5% APY in staking rewards thanks to Lido.
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 – 15.87% APY with 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 – 19.8% APR staking ATOM with Keplr Wallet on Cosmos Hub
The yield earned is issued in ATOM.
To participate, one must set up a Keplr Wallet, go to the Cosmos Hub validators on Keplr Dashboard, rank by APR, choose a validator, and click Delegate.
Then, I specify how many ATOMs and follow the prompts to Delegate.
FTM – 4.7% APY staking 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 – 10.36% 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.
Stablecoins (USD) – 18.41% APY with sUSD in an auto-compounding vault strategy on Reaper Farm on Optimism
This yield is accrued in sUSD.
To participate, one must deposit and stake in the sUSD Sonne Crypt.
Caution: This farm is in a higher risk protocol that launched on Fantom in summer 2021 and has since suffered a $1.7M exploit in August 2021.
📱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.
👨🎓 Starter Tutorial
Earn ETH Yield on zkSync L2 with Argent Wallet and Potentially Earn a zkSync Airdrop
One of the most promising and respected teams in the Ethereum L2 race is Matter Labs, which built zkSync. zkSync is a zkRollup-based L2 scaling solution, that currently includes low gas transfers of ETH and ERC20 tokens, including atomic swaps and limit orders. zkSync has been responsible for 98% of the last 4-5 Gitcoin Grants rounds.
Prior to zkSync’s implementation, Gitcoin suffered from lower participation due to a challenging UI with high gas fees. zkSync was a major breakthrough for enabling fast, cheap, easy payments.
After nearly 100 days since their announcement on July 20th, the next major milestone is upon us with the launch of zkSync 2.0, meaning the first-ever zkEVM, a virtual machine that executes smart contracts in a way that’s compatible with zero-knowledge-proof-computation. This zkEVM will mean we can benefit from a zkRollup-based architecture while enjoying the myriad of applications built with EVM-compatibility. It’s a big deal!
For a long time, we’ve known a token is coming to zkSync based on their documentation. It’s never been a secret. The Matter Labs team has specified in the zkSync documentation, “when zkSync becomes fully decentralized, the token will be used for staking in order to become a validator in the zkSync network.”
In preparation for the launch of zkSync 2.0, anticipating a token could come in the near future, today I’ll cover how I’m earning ETH with one of 3 options thanks to the seamless support of zkSync 1.0 (and soon 2.0) of the smart contract wallet Argent, with the potential (not guarantee) to possibly earn an airdrop from zkSync.
Before we get started, please be aware of these risks.
Smart contract risk in Argent wallet, Yearn, Lido, Curve, Aave, and/or Set Protocol
Front-end spoof attack on the argent.xyz website
Exploits in economic design
Governance attacks or admin key compromise
Systemic risk in DeFi composability
Pegged assets like stETH can potentially de-peg
Step 1: First, I need to download the Argent wallet and set it up on my iOS or Android phone. I won’t cover this in detail but you can go to the Argent website for more instructions, including this video guide and written guide.
Step 2: Once I’ve set up my Argent wallet, I’ll need to connect it to zkSync 1.0 (as of October 23, 2022). I can find the option to switch from the Ethereum Mainnet to zkSync in the top left.
Step 3: Lastly, I can find the Invest tab, click on ETH under Earn on tokens you hold, and choose from the 3 yield-earning options based on my farming preferences.
3.9% APY with the Yearn Curve stETH yVault
5.04% APY with stETH by Lido Finance
8.96% APY icETH by Index Coop
🎭NFT Roundup
Bored Apes Dealt Marketing Jackpot by Bicycle Playing Cards
Blur NFT Marketplace Goes Live And Airdrops ‘Care Packages’ To Active Traders
🔗Read the full article at thedefiant.io🔗
🦍Degen Tutorial
List NFTs To Maximize Your $BLUR Airdrop
Blur, an NFT marketplace and aggregator that raised over $14M from Paradigm and a slate of serious NFT collectors, is open to the public after being in private beta for the past few months.
Blur doesn’t currently charge trading fees.
The marketplace has airdropped ‘Care Packages’ to “everyone who’s stuck around in the bear market.” These packages contain allocations of $BLUR tokens that will be claimable in January 2023.
If you’ve traded NFTs on major marketplaces in the last six months, check your eligibility here.
Blur has also announced that a second airdrop will be forthcoming in November for users who actively use the marketplace.
As can be expected, the project is trying to attract active NFTs traders, so the airdrop has been designed to reward those who make Blur their marketplace of choice.
The second airdrop can be maximized by:
Listing more NFTs
Listing ‘blue chip’ and active collections
Listers who include royalties will get a larger airdrop (creator fees are optional on Blur)
Conducting at least 3 NFT sweeps (buying multiple NFTs in a single transaction)
Loyalty – Listing more on Blur compared to other platforms increases the odds of getting rarer Care Packages that will contain more tokens.
In this tutorial, we’re going to check our eligibility for Airdrop 1, claim our Care Packages, and list some NFTs in anticipation of Airdrop 2.
Let’s get started!
Step 1: Check your eligibility.
You’ll be asked to sign a transaction to verify ownership of your wallet, after which you’ll be able to see your unrevealed Care Packages (if eligible).
Step 2: List an NFT to reveal the Care Packages.
Listing a single NFT from the Portfolio page will allow you to reveal the packages.
Note that all four supported marketplaces are enabled by default, so make sure to list on Blur only to avoid 4 approval transactions.
Step 3: Open the Care Packages
Head back to the airdrop page after completing a listing. You’ll be presented with the option to obtain an extra package by tweeting about the airdrop.
Click on each unrevealed box to reveal them.
That’s it! You’ll be able to claim your allotted $BLUR tokens in January 2023.
In the meantime, prepare for Airdrop 2 by listing NFTs.
🪂 Airdrop Alpha
In each DeFi Alpha guide, we update a list of DeFi protocols that have yet to announce and/or launch a token.
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!
In a previous DeFi Alpha, we covered a series of on-chain quests that could make you eligible for the next round of $OP airdrops.
$OP is Live! Claim guide here.
Arch Finance – a protocol for comprehensive indices that provide access to differentiated sources of market risk.
Aztec – an open source L2 bringing scalability and privacy to Ethereum, with zkSNARK proofs, having launched a private DeFi yield aggregator zk.money.
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
StarkNet mainnet is live! Bridge and swap some tokens for a potential airdrop. Guide here.
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!
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.
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.