⍺ DeFi Alpha: 58% APR on Stablecoins using Solidex Finance
DeFi Alpha is a weekly newsletter published 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, where 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! DeFi liquidity has 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 Terra and Solana. Any given day, a new DeFi or NFT project is launching. 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.
We are sending this issue to all Defiant subscribers. If you want to keep receiving this newsletter going forward please subscribe here:
🙌 Together with:
Tracer Perpetual Pools V2 is Coming Soon! The simple way to mint, stake, or trade leveraged tokens for the DeFi economy - With no margin requirements and no liquidations. Learn More!
The Celo Foundation launched a $100M initiative called DeFi for the People, to make DeFi accessible to all. You can benefit from these rewards by depositing cUSD and other stablecoin pairs into Mobius today.
📈 Yield Alpha
Each week we will provide options to earn yield on ETH, WBTC, stablecoins, and other major tokens.
ETH - Conservative - Lend WETH in 88mph on Fantom for 12% APR
This yield is issued in WETH lending interest, and then mostly MPH rewards.
To participate, Deposit WETH (on Fantom) into the 88mph dApp under Earn.
ETH - Degen - If you think ETH will remain rangebound, StakeDAO’s Covered Call strategy is currently yielding 31% APY.
Yield is generated by selling weekly options and paid out in ETH.
No performance fees are levied. However, there is a 0.5% withdrawal fee.
To participate, deposit ETH into your chosen strategy.
Note that you can incur a loss in a given week if the written options expire in the money.
wBTC - Conservative - Lend wBTC in 88mph on Fantom for 11% APR
This yield is issued in wBTC lending interest, and then mostly MPH rewards.
To participate, Deposit wBTC (on Fantom) into the 88mph dApp under Earn.
wBTC - Degen - Provide wBTC/USDT liquidity on Netswap (Metis) for 50% APR.
A step-by-step guide is provided in this week’s Starter Tutorial.
Current rewards end on 3/24.
Warning: Yield farming entails the risk of Impermanent Loss.
Stablecoins - 58% APR providing liquidity to USDC/MIM or USDC/FRAX on Solidex.
Solidex is a yield optimizer built on top of Solidly, Andre Cronje’s new DEX project on Fantom.
This yield is issued in $SOLID and $SEX tokens.
A step-by-step guide is provided in this week’s Degen Tutorial.
🪂 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.
Cosmos Ecosystem : Staking $ATOM and $OSMO usually makes one eligible for airdrops from new apps that launch on Cosmos. Staking guide here in last week’s DeFi Alpha.
Arbitrum - one of the leading L2 solutions for Ethereum with live dApps such as Uniswap, SushiSwap, Hop, and more, we expect a token to eventually launch so by depositing assets or transacting, one might earn a future airdrop
DeFi Saver - a one-stop dashboard for creating, managing and tracking DeFi positions across Aave, Compound, Maker, Liquity, and Reflexer
Element Finance - stake/lend to earn fixed interest with fixed terms on Ethereum
Euler Finance - a non-custodial protocol on Ethereum that allows users to lend and borrow almost any crypto asset, just launched but has yet to launch a token.
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
Hop Protocol - become an LP to enable bridging instantly between Ethereum Mainnet, Polygon, Arbitrum, or Optimsm without waiting for long delays in withdrawals; DeFi Dad has a full-blown video tutorial on how to become a Hop LP and potentially earn a future HOP airdrop.
Optimism - one of the leading L2 solutions for Ethereum with live dApps such as Uniswap, Hop, Synthetix and more, we expect a token to eventually launch so by depositing assets or transacting, one might earn a future airdrop
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
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
Stader Labs - The SD token sale happened January 25th, and there’s still time to earn SD before the TGE by depositing LUNA into LunaX (a liquid staking equivalent of LUNA) and pairing LUNA<>LunaX as an LP here on TerraSwap.
Volmex - Volmex is a tokenized volatility protocol, similar to the VIX but ETHV
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
🧑💻 Defiant Starter Tutorial
50% APR Providing wBTC/USDT Liquidity on Netswap
Netswap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) on Metis, a Layer-2 scaling protocol for Ethereum that utilizes Optimistic Rollups.
Last week, we looked at Drachma DeFi, a new stableswap protocol on Metis.
Today, we’re going to put some Bitcoin to work.
On Feb 21, Metis announced a boosted rewards program for various wBTC pools in its ecosystem as an incentive to attract more Bitcoin into DeFi.
We’re interested in the wBTC/USDT pool on Netswap.
Let’s get started.
Step 1: Add the Metis Andromeda network to MetaMask. I used Chainlist, a handy tool for connecting to EVM-compatible chains.
Step 2: Head to the Metis Bridge and connect your MetaMask wallet to the Ethereum network. Enter the assets and amount you wish to transfer and confirm the transaction.
You can either bridge wBTC and USDT separately, or do the swap on Netswap.
Gas fees on Metis are paid in METIS tokens. First-time users who bridge over $2000 worth of ETH, USDC or USDT will be airdropped 0.05 METIS. It’s recommended that you buy some more so that you don’t run out of gas. You can do so on Netswap.
You are now ready to DeFi on Metis.
Step 3: Navigate to Netswap:
You’ll need equal amounts of wBTC and USDT to provide liquidity.
Step 4: Add liquidity.
You’ll be asked to approve spending your assets. Confirm the transactions to receive your Liquidity Provider (LP) tokens.
Step 5: Stake your LP tokens in the farm to earn $NETT tokens, which you can claim at any time.
Note that you will not earn any token rewards if you miss this step.
🦍 Defiant Degen Tutorial
58% APR Farming Stablecoins On Solidex Finance
Solidex Finance is a yield optimizer built on top of Solidly, the new AMM launched on Fantom by Yearn founder Andre Cronje. If you’re familiar with how Convex Finance works to boost yields on Curve Finance, it’s a very similar model.
SOLID is the native token of Solidly and is awarded to liquidity providers (LPs) on the AMM. Users can lock SOLD for veSOLID to earn trading fees and boost their SOLID rewards.
Solidex allows LPs to access boosted yields without having to lock SOLID tokens themselves. It does this similarly to Convex, by incentivizing users to convert their SOLID tokens into SOLIDsex and contribute to the voting power of the protocol.
SEX is Solidex’s native token and can be locked for 1-16 weeks to gain voting power over SOLID emissions (through the veSOLID locked by the Solidex protocol).
There are many incentivized pools on the platform, but for the purposes of this tutorial, we’ll be looking at the stablecoin pools.
Let’s dive in.
Step 1: Add the Fantom Opera network to MetaMask. Navigate to Chainlist and connect, or add it manually using these parameters.
Step 2: You’ll need some FTM tokens to pay for gas fees. Fortunately, you can get some for free by using this faucet.
Step 3: AnySwap is the preferred bridge for most assets and there’s currently no fee to move assets to Fantom, although you will be charged a 0.1% fee on the return journey. Ensure that your MetaMask wallet is connected to the Ethereum network, enter the asset you wish to transfer and confirm the transaction.
Deposits generally arrive within 10-15 minutes.
Step 4: Add liquidity at https://solidly.exchange/liquidity
Note that Solidly pools are not 50:50 balanced, so check the pool for the ratio of tokens needed before swapping.
Once you have your USDC and MIM or FRAX ready, add liquidity but do not stake your LP tokens.
Click on the ‘Advanced’ toggle and ensure that you click the button that says ‘Deposit LP’
Step 5: Stake your LP tokens in the Solidex farm to start earning SOLID and SEX tokens, which you can claim at any time.
https://solidexfinance.com/#/pools
Note that you will not earn any token rewards if you miss this step.
You also have the option to compound your rewards through the SOLIDsex/SOLID pool, which is currently yielding 6500% APR.
📰 Elsewhere on The Defiant
Tuesday Tutorial on The Defiant YouTube: This week, Robin shared some tips for surviving a bear market. Watch now 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 are 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.