⍺ DeFi Alpha: Earn Up To 240% APR on Stablecoins With ArthSwap
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:
📈 Yield Alpha
Each week we will provide options to earn yield on ETH, WBTC, stablecoins, and other major tokens.
ETH - Lend ETH on Rari Capital for 16% APR.
This yield is issued in FODL tokens along with some lending interest.
To participate, deposit ETH into Fuse Pool #127
WBTC - Earn 13.44% APY using Yearn’s WBTC vault on Fantom.
This vault generates yield by folding (supplying and borrowing simultaneously) WBTC on Scream. Earned SCREAM tokens are automatically sold for more WBTC.
To participate, deposit WBTC into the Yearn vault.
If you haven’t used Fantom before, here’s a guide to getting started.
Stablecoins - Conservative: Lend USDT on Rari Capital for 26% APR.
This yield is issued in FODL tokens along with some lending interest.
To participate, deposit USDT into Fuse Pool #127
Stablecoins - Degen: Provide USDT/USDC liquidity on ArthSwap for 240% APR.
🪂 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.
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
Stader Labs - by depositing LUNA into LunaX (a liquid staking equivalent of LUNA) and pairing LUNA<>LunaX as an LP here on TerraSwap, one can farm SD rewards, the Stader protocol token that’s yet to be generated but is launching any day now, following its upcoming CoinList auction
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.
DeFi Saver - a one-stop dashboard for creating, managing and tracking DeFi positions across Aave, Compound, Maker, Liquity, and Reflexer
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
Hop Protocol - become an LP to enable bridging instantly between Ethereum Mainnet, Polygon, Arbitrum, or Optimism 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.
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.
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
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
How to Automate $LOOKS Staking with Pickle Finance
NFT marketplace LooksRare launched a month ago and airdropped its $LOOKS token to active NFT traders. In contrast to OpenSea, all trading fees on the platform are paid out in wETH to $LOOKS stakers and the yield has stayed consistent in the high triple-digits.
Pickle Finance has launched an auto-staking vault that:
Harvests the $LOOKS and wETH rewards periodically
Sells the wETH for more $LOOKS
Adds the $LOOKS to your staked tokens
Pickle charges a 20% performance fee and vault users earn $PICKLE tokens on top of the underlying yield.
If you’re staking $LOOKS and searching for a fire-and-forget solution, head over to the Pickle farm page and locate pjar 0.98b.
You can deposit $LOOKS tokens directly or migrate your existing staked tokens.
Disclaimer: This is not a recommendation to buy $LOOKS.
Sponsored Post
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.
🦍 Defiant Degen Tutorial
Earn 240% APR on USDT/USDC By Providing Liquidity On ArthSwap
ArthSwap is a decentralized exchange on the Astar Network, an EVM-compatible blockchain that calls itself “the Polkadot-native dApp hub supporting Ethereum, WebAssembly, dApp Staking, and Layer2 solutions”
Its ARSW token hasn’t launched yet but is expected soon.
By providing liquidity, you can farm $ARSW but will only be able to claim your rewards once the token goes live.
We’re interested in the USDT/USDC pair that’s currently yielding 240% APR based on an estimated ARSW price of $0.175.
Step 1: Add the Astar network to MetaMask using the following parameters.
Step 2: Head to the Celer Network Bridge and connect your MetaMask wallet to the Ethereum network. You can bridge USDT and USDC separately, or send either and do the swap on ArthSwap. Currently, supported assets are wETH, wBTC, USDT and USDC.
Gas fees on the Astar Network are paid in ASTR and you’ll receive 0.005 ASTR when you bridge assets for the first time. If you need more, ArthSwap has published a guide to using the ASTR Faucet.
Step 3: Navigate to ArthSwap:
https://app.arthswap.org/#/farms
You’ll need equal amounts of USDC and USDT to provide liquidity, so you can swap on ArthSwap or bridge both assets separately as mentioned earlier.
Step 4: Once you have your USDT and USDC, add liquidity:
You’ll be asked to approve spending your assets. Confirm the transactions to receive your Liquidity Provider (LP) tokens.
That’s it! You’re now earning ARSW tokens, which you can claim once the token is launched.
📰 Elsewhere on The Defiant
Tuesday Tutorial on The Defiant YouTube: This week, Robin covered getting started with Money Legos using Furucombo and DefiSaver. 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 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.