When the market is sluggish, take this stablecoin appreciation strategy.

Original | Odaily Planet Daily

Author | Azuma

Cryptocurrency market suffered another heavy blow today. Although the decline of Bitcoin itself has narrowed to less than 1%, the altcoin sector has taken a nosedive collectively in the short term with representatives of different tracks such as SOL, PEPE, ORDI, ARB, and TIA all recording a drop of over 10% or even 20% along with BTC.

Although the current secondary market can be described as a ‘bloody battlefield’, for ordinary investors, besides direct trading, there is actually another relatively slow but stable operation mode - through various DeFi protocols, using stablecoins to achieve relatively low-risk and high-yield interest strategies.

In the following text, Odaily Star Daily will combine its own operational experience to recommend multiple stablecoin interest strategies online. Although these strategies are quite simple at the operational level, they generally can achieve a stable income of 10% or even 20%. Some strategies can also interact with some underlying networks or DeFi protocols that have not been issued, achieving “multiple benefits from one investment”.

It should be emphasized that no DeFi protocol can completely avoid smart contract risks, and some DeFi protocols may also face certain liquidity risks, composability risks, etc. due to their business models. Therefore, when choosing to execute a specific strategy, please be sure to understand the specific risks involved in advance and try to avoid putting all your eggs in one basket.

Ethereum mainnet

Recommended Strategy 1: Ethena sUSDe

• Operation method: first purchase USDe directly on the Ethena official website, and then exchange it into sUSDe through collateralization;
• Real-time yield: 17.5%;
• Composition of earnings (i.e., types of reward tokens that can be obtained): sUSDe appreciation (can be exchanged for more USDe);
• Other Potential Benefits: ENA Phase 2 Airdrop;

Note: Ethena’s sUSDe is currently the highest APY earning opportunity for stablecoin mining pools in the cryptocurrency market (worth billions of dollars), far surpassing tokenized national debt products such as MakerDAO’s sDAI. The real-time APY of sUSDe will fluctuate with the market leverage condition, but based on past fluctuation records, it has always remained stable at a high level. In addition, by holding sUSDe, you can also accumulate Ethena’s Phase 2 airdrop vouchers sats (with a relatively low accumulation efficiency but stable returns), and thereby participate in ENA’s next airdrop.

Recommended Strategy 2: Gearbox Loan Deposit

• Operation Method: Deposit various types of stablecoins through Earn on the Gearbox official website;
• Real-time yield: generally greater than 10% except USDT;
• Revenue composition: mainly stablecoins, supplemented by a small amount of GEAR incentives;

Note: Gearbox, as a leveraged lending protocol, actually supports a higher-yield leveraged gameplay (Farm), but this operation has a certain operational threshold for ordinary users, so it is more recommended to use a relatively simple deposit gameplay (Earn, which is essentially a deposit and lending). The reason for recommending this mining pool is that Gearbox excels in stablecoin-based income composition, so its actual income will be relatively stable, without the situation of substantial shrinkage of actual income due to the big dump of incentive tokens.

Solana

Recommended Strategy 1: Marginfi and Kamino Loan and Deposit

• Operation method: Deposit USDT or USDC into marginfi or Kamino for yield;
• Real-time yield: 12% - 16%;
• Earnings composition: stablecoin;
• Other potential benefits: marginfi Airdrop and Kamino Phase II Airdrop;

Note: marginfi and Kamino are the first and second lending protocols on Solana. Due to the active trading activities in the Solana ecosystem, the demand for lending on this ecosystem is generally higher than other ecosystems. Therefore, the lending yields on marginfi and Kamino are also generally higher than those of other ecosystems’ lending protocols. In addition, marginfi has not yet TGE, and Kamino’s phase 2 points activity is also ongoing, both of which have certain potential airdrop incentive expectations.

Starknet

Recommended Strategy 1: Ekubo LP

• Operation mode: Participate in market making on the Ekubo official website using USDT and USDC as trading pairs;
• Real-time yield: 26.69%;
• Revenue composition: STRK is the main part, with native liquidity mining revenue as a supplement;

Note: Thanks to the DeFi Spring incentive plan of Starknet, the yield of participating in various DeFi protocols on Starknet is quite considerable. Among them, Ekubo, as the DEX protocol with the largest liquidity and trading volume in the ecosystem, will be a good choice in terms of security and yield balance.

Recommended Strategy 2: zkLend and Nostra Liquidity Mining Deposit

• Operation method: Deposit USDT or USDC on zkLend and Nostra for interest;
• Real-time yield: about 20%;
• Income composition: STRK is the main source of income, with stablecoin native income as a supplement.

Note: The basic lending protocol, similar to marginfi and Kamino on Solana, but the income structure is mainly composed of STRK incentives (similar to Ekubo), users who are optimistic about STRK’s future performance can participate at their discretion.

Scroll

Recommended Strategy 1: DODO LP

• Operation method: Use DAI, USDT, USDC and other assets to form trading pairs on the DODO official website and participate in liquidity provision;
• Real-time yield: 12% - 15%;
• Revenue composition: DODO is the main source, with stable coin native revenue as a supplement;
• Other potential benefits: Scroll Airdrop incentives;

Note: With the successive issuance of various Layer 2 tokens, Scroll, which has not yet been issued, has also received more attention and liquidity. Judging from the various DeFi protocols on Scroll, as an old DEX, DODO is relatively trustworthy in terms of security, and benefits from DODO’s own liquidity incentive plan. Its stablecoin trading pairs also have a high APY performance, so it is recommended that users use it as a major trading ground for interacting with Scroll.

Aptos

Recommended Strategy 1: Echelon Loan Deposit

• Operation: Deposit various stablecoins on Echelon for interest.
• Real-time yield: 11% - 17%;
• Revenue composition: Stablecoin native revenue plus APT incentive revenue;
• Other potential benefits: Echelon Airdrop income;

Note: Echelon is the second-ranked lending protocol on Aptos in terms of TVL, second only to Aries Markets. However, perhaps due to being selected for the Aptos incentive program, the current overall APY of this platform is significantly higher than the latter. In addition, Echelon has already launched a rewards program, which also means that there is a certain potential airdrop expectation for participating in the protocol at present.

Sui

Recommended Strategy 1: Cetus LP

• Operation method: Participate in market making on Cetus by using USDT, USDC, and other assets to form trading pairs;
• Real-time yield: 16.28%;
• Revenue composition: SUI incentives are the main focus, with CETUS and stablecoin native revenue as secondary.

Note: The largest DEX protocol above Sui, the main source of income comes from the ecological incentives provided by Sui.

Emphasize again, pay attention to risks

The above is our current recommended stablecoin staking strategy.

Due to risk control and replication difficulty considerations, the above strategies only cover some relatively simple DeFi operations, involving only some basic operations such as staking, depositing, LP, etc. However, the potential returns that can be obtained are generally higher than passive financial management in exchanges. For users who do not know how to operate in the secondary market and do not want stablecoins to be idle, the above strategy can be considered as appropriate.

It should be emphasized again that the DeFi world is a dark forest that is always accompanied by risks. Before operating, please make sure to understand the risks in advance and DYOR.