Yields: Up to 25% APR on Stablecoins, 7-10% on ETH and BTC
Tutorial: Earn NFTs By Completing Quests On Optimism
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.
🙌 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 – 24.59% 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 – 9.8% 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 – 7.11% 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 – 5.9% APR lending AVAX 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 – 7.25% 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 – 19.54% 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 – 13.5% APR staking pATOMs on pSTAKE on Ethereum
The yield earned is issued and claimable in pATOM.
To participate, one must first mint a 1:1 representation of ATOM as pATOM on Ethereum by using the pSTAKE dApp under Stake
Then, deposit/stake pATOMs to get stkATOMs and earn 13.5% APR
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 – 22.4% 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.
📱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. We were joined by Flashstake core contributor Zachary Dash.
👨🎓 Tutorial
Earn NFTs By Completing Quests On Optimism
Optimism is a Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum that we’ve covered extensively in DeFi Alpha. Readers who followed our guide from last year became eligible for the first round of OP airdrops.
This week, Optimism launched a series of 18 quests that reward users with NFTs for using various dapps on the network. Completing these tasks is likely to make one eligible for future airdrop rounds.
Let’s get started!
The quests are divided into 3 categories by level of complexity.
https://app.optimism.io/quests
You’ll need to bridge some ETH for gas fees if this is your first time using Optimism. Refuel from Bungee lets you move small amounts of gas tokens economically.
The first four quests are quite simple:
Bridge 100 USDC to Optimism using Stargate
Deposit 20 USDC into PoolTogether
Swap tokens worth $20 twice on Uniswap
Buy an NFT worth 0.01 ETH or more on the Quix Marketplace
For each quest, you’ll need to answer a short quiz (2 multiple-choice questions) along with completing the task.
The NFTs are claimed through Galxe, a project that facilitates community campaigns. Note that you will have to wait for some time after completing each task in order to claim your NFTs.
The delay varies for each quest, so I’d recommend completing all the quests first and going back a few days later to claim your NFTs.
I found these hobbits’ houses on Quix for just over the minimum purchase requirement of 0.0099 ETH.
The next set of 8 quests involves slightly more complex DeFi activities like providing liquidity and borrowing and lending against collateral.
Deposit $20 into a Velodrome liquidity pool
Provide stablecoin liquidity on the Synapse bridge
Borrow MAI on QiDAO
Swap and provide liquidity on Rubicon
Provide liquidity on Hop Protocol
Swap and provide liquidity on Clipper
Create a crypto index fund on BeethovenX
Lend and borrow on Granary
The minimum amounts range from $20 to $100 for these tasks.
Finally, there are 6 advanced quests.
Stake 100 SNX on Synthetix and claim weekly rewards at least twice
Trade $100 worth of options on Lyra
Open a futures position on Kwenta
Open a trade on Perpetual Protocol
Trade on margin using Pika Protocol
Deposit into the v2 Options Vaults on Polynomial
Make sure you follow the instructions on each quest page in order to unlock your NFTs.
🎭NFT Roundup
NFT Highlights of the Week
FIFA releases Genesis Drop
ApeCoin staking to launch on Oct. 31
Renga tops OpenSea volume charts
Cool Cats rally after appointing new CEO
ENS 999 and 10Kclub floor prices hit ATH
🔗Read the full article at thedefiant.io🔗
🪂 Airdrop Alpha
In each DeFi Alpha guide, we update a list of 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.
📰 Elsewhere on The Defiant
Tuesday Tutorial on The Defiant YouTube: This week, Robin providing liquidity on Uniswap V3. 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.