How to Farm Sushi on SushiSwap

by Airat | Nov 15, 2022 | HOW TO

Do you want to farm SushiSwap? It is no news that decentralized finance (DeFi) is growing and quickly becoming an inclusive financial system. 

Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are taking the financial system by storm. More innovative products and methods, such as yield farming, are developed to help investors generate profitable investment returns. 

If you want to trade crypto on the decentralized exchange (DEX) system, there are various tokens you can begin with, making it increasingly difficult to know where to start. 

This guide will explain SushiSwap, its benefits, and how you can start farming SUSHI. 

Keywords

• SushiSwap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that runs on the Ethereum blockchain and allows users to buy, sell, lend, borrow, swap, and stake crypto assets. 

• Users can swap SUSHI for any token and earn interest on the SushiSwap platform. Liquidity providers will earn 0.25% from each transaction. 

• One of the benefits of SushiSwap is that it allows users to earn passive income from their investments. Also, the platform gives liquidity providers voting rights, leaving the governance to the community.

• Users can become liquidity providers, stake SUSHI with SushiBar, and lend and borrow crypto with Kashi on the platform.

What Is SushiSwap?

SushiSwap is a software that runs on the Ethereum blockchain and allows users can buy, sell, swap, and stake crypto tokens.

As a decentralized exchange (DEX) and an automated market maker (AAM) with no central authority that manages trade, it is community-driven with a governance structure that makes it fully decentralized. 

Trades on the platform are run via smart contracts and processes defined on the blockchain. As a clone of Uniswap, it has several unique attributes, such as liquidity mining and governance through its SUSHI token. 

SUSHI token serves two purposes: it gives stakeholders governance privileges unique to the platform and represents a share of the protocol’s payment users’ control. 

It supports a range of blockchains, such as Polygon and the Ethereum Mainnet. Governance privileges, one of the platform’s main features, are awarded to token holders. Also, SUSHI holders who stake their assets may get a reward on all transactions made across all liquidity pools. 

SushiSwap has four products operated via their liquidity pools, making it a fully-fledged DeFi platform. 

• A decentralized exchange where you can swap one crypto token for another. 
• Kashi is a decentralized lending market that allows users to lend or borrow tokens. 
• Yield instruments that allow users to provide liquidity to the exchange.
• SushiBar staking allows stakeholders to convert SUSHI tokens into xSushi and earn rewards. 

How Does SushiSwap Work?

The way SushiSwap works is simple. It has different assets, like the ETH and USDT pairs, that enable users to buy, sell or swap crypto. 

If you own a particular amount of Ethereum and don’t want it sitting around in your wallet, you can swap it for DAI or USDT and add both cryptos to the DAI-ETH or ETH-USDT liquidity pool on the platform. 

SushiSwap pays 0.25% of each trade to liquidity providers, which might not seem to be much with a small pool, but in a larger pool worth millions of dollars, liquidity providers can make a lot from transaction fees. 

Of course, the total amount you make from the transaction fee depends on your shares. If there is $200,000 worth of SushiSwap trading volume in the DAI-ETH pool and you have a 50% share, your fee will be $250 based on the 0.25% payout. 

Since the amount of SUSHI reward you get depends on the value of your assets in US dollars, your earnings are affected by the performance of the crypto market. If the market is doing well, so will your return on investment (ROI), but if it is not, it will decrease significantly. 

That is why it is highly recommended you watch the market closely and invest according to its performance. 

Many liquidity pools on the platform offer the option to farm SUSHI. The yield from this farming varies from the standard annual percentage yield (APY). The annual percentage yielding is the interest you earn based on the total amount you invested. 

For example, if you invested $2000 and the APY is 40% after one year, you will earn $800 in SUSHI tokens if the amount remains the same.  

What Can You Do On SushiSwap?

SushiSwap has grown into a fully decentralized platform, offering various features and tools for users to invest in since it was launched as a DEX. Aside from that, it offers the SushiSwap exchange, which enables users to swap any ERC-20 token. 

Kashi is a feature of SushiSwap that lets users borrow crypto for various purposes, while SushiBar is another that lets users stake their tokens. 

1. Become a liquidity provider 

One of the things you can do on SushiSwap is to become a liquidity provider (LP). As a liquidity provider, you will give tokens to liquidity pools so the AAM can execute trades and get rewarded by receiving a percentage of the trading fee. 

While staking assets in the liquidity pool might seem complex, the smart contract responsible for the pool will do most of the work for you. 

         2. You can stake SUSHI with SushiBar

SushiSwap has widened its menu and offers new DeFi products like SushiBar, which lets users receive staking rewards in the form of xSUSHI. You get rewarded for swapping fees, gaining access to the SushiSwap governance system, and keeping your voting right. 

          3. Lend and borrow cryptocurrency with Kashi

It offers a variable reward to lend crypto in exchange for the asset deposited. Kashi requires a certain amount of collateral to be deposited to borrow crypto and will charge you an annual percentage rate based on the variable rate. DeFi lending reward comes from a borrower, so it is important to know the risk involved. 

What Are the Benefits of SushiSwap?

The SushiSwap platform allows anyone to swap tokens and add liquidity to the pool whenever they want. To make it easier, it provides its users with many ways to earn a passive income with little risk. Users can stake SLP tokens, gain SUSHI, and later stake SUSHI for xSUSHI and earn more rewards. 

Passive Income

This is the first AMM to send rewards back to the community that maintains it. One of the benefits of SushiSwap is the fee you get back from users. If you are a liquidity provider on the platform, you will receive rewards for your investment. 

Governance

SushiSwap provides a governance mechanism that allows users to vote on all vital upgrades and changes made to the platform. Since a percentage of all newly issued SUSHI is set aside for the project’s future development, the community will vote to determine what project should be developed. 

Fees

SushiSwap fees are more affordable than exchanges like Coinbase. Users pay a 0.3% fee when they join the liquidity pool and are paid a 0.25% fee for each trade. 

Staking and Farming

DeFi users can access SushiSwap features such as staking and farming. New users prefer to stake instead of trade because it is less labor-intensive and provides more ROI. And the good thing about it is that the farming protocol doesn’t require you to be a liquidity provider to earn rewards. 

Buying SushiSwap (SUSHI)

You can buy SUSHI from an exchange platform. 

Kraken – this exchange platform was founded in 2022 and is a popular name in the industry. Kraken offers trading access to more than 190 countries, making it a recommended platform for buying SUSHI. 

Bitstamp – this is one of the oldest and most trusted exchanges you can buy SushiSwap. 

Uphold – if you are a UK or United States resident, Uphold is one of the top exchanges you can use to buy SushiSwap and other cryptocurrencies.  

Binance – this is another popular crypto trading platform you can use to purchase SUSHI. While users in the USA are prohibited from purchasing most tokens, people in most parts of the world can use this platform. 

KuCoin – this exchange offers crypto trading of over 300 tokens, including SUSHI. 

How Do I Farm SUSHI on SushiSwap?

Now that you have an idea of SushiSwap and its benefits, you want to know how to start farming SUSHI. The five steps below outline how users can begin farming cryptocurrency on the platform. 

1. Select a Liquidity Pool

Before choosing a liquidity pool, you must do all the necessary research by weighing the risk you are willing to take based on your current financial situation. You can establish liquidity pools with popular assets like DAI, USDT, or ETH. Also, Stablecoin pools are less risky because they are more invulnerable to crypto market volatility. 

2. Buy Cryptocurrency 

If you don’t have a cryptocurrency asset, you can buy some from popular platforms like Binance, Kraken, or Coinbase. The platform you choose will depend on your location and payment preference. After buying the needed crypto assets (you should at least purchase some Ethereum since you will be using it for transaction fees), you can send them to MetaMask. 

3. Install and Set Up MetaMask

MetaMask was developed to enable you to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. To start using it, you have to download and install the extension. Once the installation is complete, a new tab will open in your browser. 

To proceed, click the “get started” button and, after, the “create wallet” button. The next phase is to create your password. Ensure you type a secure password that you will remember because MetaMask doesn’t offer the “forget password” option. 

Then, to ensure you backed up your phrase, you must arrange your secret phrase in the right order. After, click the “confirm” button, and you are done. 

4. Invest in the Liquidity Pool

To invest in the liquidity pool, open app.sushi.com, find any LP you want to join on the Yield page, and click “add liquidity.” You can later enter the amount of DAI (or any other asset) you want to inject into the LP. Next, click the “approve” button and confirm the transaction on MetaMask. 

5. Stake Liquidity Tokens

When you stake your assets in the liquidity pool, you will receive SLP tokens representing your share. Staking your SLP tokens is how you farm SUSHI. 

If you join the DAI-ETH pool, you will own a certain amount of DAI-ETH SLP tokens that the system will use to return the correct amount of underlying assets when you withdraw your stake. 

After successfully investing in a SushiSwap pool, you can stake your SLP tokens and start farming SUSHI tokens. 

Conclusion

SushiSwap is a great way for stakeholders to invest in crypto tokens and earn rewards from interest. Despite being a clone of Uniswap, its added features, like community governance, give users control and make them decide the platform’s future. 

It has overtaken many DeFi projects and will continue to grow in popularity and traction. Besides, it allows users to stake tokens and earn rewards from other users. 

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Frequently Asked Questions 

What Is SushiSwap and How Does It Work?

SushiSwap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that allows you to buy, sell, lend, borrow and swap one cryptocurrency token for another. Also, users on the SushiSwap platform can become liquidity providers and earn from exchange fees. 

What Does Liquidity Farming Mean?

Liquidity farming, also known as yield farming, is a way to make more crypto with your cryptocurrency. It allows you to earn passive interest on your cryptocurrency holding at higher rates than traditional savings. Users can lend funds to others through smart contracts and earn interest in return. 

How Can I Earn from SushiSwap?

You can earn from the platform by buying and holding SUSHI and withdrawing your earnings when the price rises. Also, you can stake or lend SUSHI tokens and earn interest. 

Is SushiSwap Worth Buying? 

SushiSwap provides an excellent investment opportunity for users that want to trade in decentralized finance and AAMs. Also, it provides an attractive investment opportunity for DeFi investors to stake and lend SUSHI tokens and earn from their investment. 

Is SushiSwap a Good Crypto?

Yes, SushiSwap is a good investment opportunity for anyone that wants to trade crypto. Trading SUSHI tokens gives you the opportunity for growth because of their volatility, enabling you to earn when the price rises.

A Simple Guide to Curve Finance

by Airat | Nov 15, 2022 | HOW TO

Key Points

• Crypto enthusiasts, particularly those interested in passively earning from decentralized finance (DeFi), should know about Curve Finance.
• DeFi presents various ways of earning passively which include liquidity provision, staking, yield farming, lending and borrowing. One of the most popular protocols that showcase the majority of these attributes is Curve Finance.
• Curve Finance is an Automated Market Maker (AMM) protocol that offers an efficient way of exchanging tokens at low fees and minimum slippage by accommodating liquidity pools consisting of tokens that show similar features. This protocol incentivizes liquidity providers by not only integrating with external DeFi platforms but also issuing rewards in the form of CRV tokens and other interests.
• This guide explores the Curve Finance protocol, how it works, and what makes it an interesting choice for users.

What is Curve Finance?

Curve is an AMM platform that shows similar features to Uniswap and Balancer, but is quite different because it accommodates liquidity pools with tokens that have similar behavior. These tokens are either stablecoins or wrapped versions of other crypto assets such as WBTC or WETH.

By accommodating liquidity pools with similar tokens, Curve is able to use more efficient algorithms and has the lowest level of fees, slippage, and impermanent loss among decentralized exchanges (DEx) on the Ethereum network. Unlike Uniswap where tokens can be swapped provided there is liquidity, Curve focuses mainly on stable assets such as DAI, USDT, USDC, and TUSD.

The amount of liquidity Curve provides makes room for other DeFi applications to use the platform’s pool as part of their ecosystem. Applications such as Yearn Finance and Compound often use Curve as a farming solution.

The Curve Token

After Curve Finance launched its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in August 2020, its native token CRV was also launched to control the Curve DAO ecosystem. The token can be either bought or earned through yield farming.

Yield farming is a process where an investor deposits assets into a liquidity pool and earns tokens as a reward. For instance, if the DAI stablecoin is deposited into the Curve liquidity pool, there will be a chance to earn CRV tokens in addition to fees and interest. By farming the CRV token, investors can be incentivized to become a Curve liquidity provider, allowing them to gain ownership of a strong DeFi protocol.

Investors who own a minimum number of vote-locked CRV tokens can propose and make updates to the protocol such as changing fees, creating new liquidity protocols, adjusting yield farming rewards, etc.

By choosing stability and composability over volatility and speculation, Curve has grown to become one of the most popular DeFi platforms.

Curve’s Automated Market Maker (AMM) Model

Curve’s AMM allows digital assets to be traded “permissionlessly” and automatically through the use of its liquidity pool which is composed of stablecoins and wrapped tokens. Investors supply tokens to Curve’s liquidity pool, and the token prices in the pool are determined by a mathematical formula.

When the mathematical formula is altered, the liquidity can be optimized to fit several purposes. Investors who have access to the internet and own some ERC-20 tokens can supply tokens to Curve’s liquidity pool. The liquidity providers could earn some fees which are paid by traders who interact with the liquidity pool, as well as some CRV tokens that serve as incentives.

Curve’s Stablecoin Liquidity Pool

When Curve was launched, it had a target of creating an AMM exchange with low fees and yield generation for liquidity providers. To mitigate against volatility, Curve focuses on stablecoins, giving investors room to earn high-interest rates from lending protocols. Curve’s model, when compared with other AMM protocols, is quite conservative as it not only works against volatility but also prevents speculation.

With Curve’s AMM, liquidity pools constantly try to “buy low” and “sell high.” Consider this rebalancing with USDC (a dollar-pegged stablecoin) and DAI (an algorithmic stablecoin). If an investor sells DAI on Curve, a series of events outlined below will be triggered.

1. More DAI will be added to the pool.

2. An unbalance will be triggered as DAI becomes more dominant than USDC.

3. The pool moves to incentivize the balance by selling DAI at a slightly discounted price.

4. The pool rebalances the DAI and USDC ratio.

When DAI is sold at a discounted price, the pool attempts to restore itself to its original state. Trading assets on Curve occurs with minimum volatility because assets in the pool are similar to each other in price. A common feature of Curve is that the platform limits the pools and the types of assets in each pool to minimize impermanent loss. Impermanent loss is a phenomenon where liquidity providers encounter a loss in the value of their token in relation to the market value of the token due to volatility in the liquidity pool.

By embracing DeFi composability, Curve attracts liquidity providers. This gives investors the opportunity to use what they have invested on the platform to earn rewards elsewhere in the DeFi ecosystem. Curve does not always keep the value of different assets equal to each other. This ensures the platform keeps liquidity concentration near the ideal price for stablecoins (1:1) to have the liquidity where it is much needed. As such, Curve has a higher liquidity utilization than can be achieved with stablecoins.

What Products Does Curve Offer?

Just like other decentralized protocols, Curve Finance covers a range of services. These services comprise swap, liquidity provision, gauge system, staking, and vote-escrowed CRV (veCRV) tokens. Each of these products has some features which many crypto investors find interesting.

Curve Swap

Curve Finance offers swapping services that involve converting one stablecoin for another. Some of the features of this product include:

• Low fees and slippage as its liquidity pools have high total value locked (TVL) and trading pairs with nearly similar prices.

• Trading fees are around 0.04% and are usually determined by the Curve DAO.

Liquidity Provision

Curve Finance focuses on stablecoins and assets that have similar behavior (ETH and stETH). The protocol’s liquidity provision service allows investors to deposit crypto assets such as stablecoins and wrapped tokens in its liquidity pools in order to earn rewards (typically CRV tokens) and fees paid by traders. Curve’s liquidity pools are classified into two:

• Base: Also called Vanilla pools, represents the most popular pools on Curve liquidity pools and contains three of the largest stablecoins – USDT, USDC, and DAI.

• Meta: also known as single tokens are pooled with other base pools (i.e GUSD-3pool). GUSD-3pool allows traders to swap between GUSD and one of the 3pool stablecoins. This act prevents the liquidity providers from removing liquidity from 3pool and to a specific GUSD-stablecoin pool which would have less liquidity.

The Gauge System

This particular product works in a way that when users stake their liquidity providers (LP) tokens to receive liquidity mining rewards, the rewards are distributed according to the weight of each gauge. For instance, 30% of all CRV rewards are allocated to the 3pool (USDT, USDC, and DAI).

The gauge weights determine the share of CRV inflation a pool receives. Other features include: 

• VeCRV holders can channel their voting power to pools where they want to receive CRV rewards.

• The more gauge weight a liquidity pool has, the more CRV inflation it receives.

• Even though gauge weights are typically updated weekly, voters can change their voting weight only once every 10 days.

Staking on Curve

Curve’s staking feature mainly allows users to stake CRV tokens for veCRV which can be used for governance voting. The time frame for which CRV tokens are staked determines the amount of veCRV an investor receives. This means the longer a CRV token is staked, the more veCRV tokens users receive. The minimum staking time is one week, while the maximum staking time is four years.

Additionally, CRV ‘stakers’ can earn up to 50% of the platform trading fees. These fees are often used to buy 3pool LP tokens and redistributed to “stakers.” When investors lock their CRV, they will be able to boost their rewards for pools to which they provide liquidity. Depending on how long CRV tokens are locked, rewards can be boosted by as much as 2.5 times the regular incentives.

Voting tokens

The voter-escrowed CRV (veCRV) tokens are used for governance voting in the Curve Finance ecosystem. Some of the features of this product are outlined below.

• veCRV tokens are used for governance proposals.

• With any number of veCRV tokens, an investor automatically has voting rights.

• Investors that own over 2,500 veCRV tokens can move to create new proposals.

• As time progresses, the weight of veCRV decreases as the lock expiration date approaches.

Why Investors Choose Curve Finance

There are several reasons why crypto enthusiasts choose Curve Finance and they include:

• Low risk: Curve focuses on stablecoins and other assets that have similar features to minimize volatility and the risk of impermanent loss. In addition, the platform is a decentralized protocol that is less prone to security breaches.

• DeFi composability: These features allow investors to use the tokens they earn on Curve in various applications in the DeFi space

• Minimal slippage: Because Curve focuses on assets with similar features, there is absolutely little to no room for slippage to occur when trading.

• CRV staking: Investors who stake CRV have the opportunity to earn veCRV tokens which can be used for voting purposes. Those who choose to lock their tokens for longer periods can have their rewards boosted by 2.5 times.

• Liquidity removal: Because Curve uses an AMM protocol, investors can take out their liquidity at any time.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the future road map of Curve Finance?

Curve Finance has made a significant impact in developing AMM-decentralized exchange with numerous features. The Curve DAO helps in deciding future pool parameter changes and gauging weight to determine how much CRV is allotted for each pool.

Curve recently added cross-chain support on Fantom. There are also plans to integrate Curve on Polkadot. 

Where can investors buy Curve tokens?

While the CRV tokens are earned as rewards when investors provide liquidity, they are also popular and are traded on several crypto exchanges.

What is a DAO?

A DAO is a structured entity that is not controlled by a central authority. It can be considered as a group of people with similar interests whose rules and regulations are bound by a smart contract and no member is more powerful than another.

Tracking Impermanent Loss on Uniswap V3 – a Guide

by Airat | Nov 15, 2022 | HOW TO

Key Points

• The concept of impermanent loss, though new, is not strange to investors in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

• DeFi presents an opportunity to earn passively, with liquidity provision being one of the major ways. Liquidity provision involves depositing capital (liquidity) into a liquidity pool of a cryptocurrency protocol to earn interest.

• A similar problem liquidity providers encounter is impermanent loss which affects the underlying value of assets they deposit in the pool.

• With Uniswap being among the most popular Automated Market Maker (AMM) protocols, it is imperative that investors who provide assets into its multi-asset liquidity pool will face impermanent loss.

• The ability to track impermanent loss while on a quest to earn passively is important. This guide explores how to track impermanent loss on Uniswap V3.

What is Impermanent Loss?

Impermanent loss is a phenomenon where the price of an investor’s token changes compared to the price at the initial point of deposit into the liquidity pool. Impermanent losses are often associated with AMM-based exchanges. AMMs are decentralized exchanges that pool liquidity from users and set the prices of the assets in the pool using specific algorithms.

In simple terms, when investors deposit tokens into liquidity pools and encounter a loss at the time of withdrawal, the investors are said to suffer impermanent losses. This usually occurs due to the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies. There are instances where investors do not have to lose money for impermanent loss to occur. It could be that such investors’ gains may be way smaller than would have been achieved with the “buy and hold” strategy.

For instance, if a liquidity provider (LP) decides to add liquidity to a liquidity pool of 50:50  ETH/DAI, it means they would have to provide an equal value of both tokens to the pool.

If at the time of deposit, ETH is exchanging hands at $1500, and it suddenly goes up to $1700 on an external exchange, the difference between the price of the ETH in the pool and an external exchange gives room for arbitrage traders to make a profit. They simply buy the cheaper ETH from the liquidity pool and then sell it at a higher price on the external exchange.

The ratio of assets in a liquidity pool is often kept constant, all thanks to the AMM feature. This means as the ETH is being bought, the price will increase against the DAI, pushing the price of ETH in the investor’s trading pair to drop. While this is done to maintain equilibrium, the amount of DAI will rise till it reaches a new equilibrium where the value of ETH and DAI become equal.

It is worth mentioning that impermanent loss is not permanent. This is because volatility is not always about the sharp decrease in price, but also the increase in asset price. Consider the previous scenario where ETH was valued at $1,500 at the time of deposit. If the price steeply drops to $1,350, an impermanent loss is said to occur.

But to show that impermanent loss is not permanent, the price of ETH can suddenly bounce back to $1,500 and continue to soar.

What is Uniswap V3?

Uniswap remains one of the most popular AMM-based decentralized exchanges that showcase several interesting features. Version 3 of the protocol is not any different.

The Uniswap V3 introduces new features that facilitate capital efficiency and focus on more active market makers than passive ones. The protocol features concentrated liquidity which offers individual liquidity providers (LP) control over what price ranges their capital is allocated to. This way, individual positions can be combined in a single pool to give a combined curve that investors can trade against.

Uniswap V3 also features multiple fee tiers that allow liquidity providers to be adequately compensated for the varying degree of risks they take.

The Uniswap V3 protocol is more flexible and efficient than other AMM-based protocols in the DeFi ecosystem. Some features that make this possible are outlined below.

• Liquidity providers swap one asset for another by adding liquidity to a price range that is entirely above or below the market price, approximating a fee-earning limit order that executes a smooth curve.

• Liquidity providers can add liquidity with up to 4000x capital efficiency; earning potentially more returns compared to Uniswap V2.

• Liquidity providers can be exposed to more preferred assets and reduced levels of downside risks.

• Capital efficiency allows for the execution of low-slippage trades that exceed those of centralized exchanges and stablecoin-based AMMs.

• The oracles are faster and easier to integrate, providing time-weight average prices (TWAP) on demand for periods within nine days.

• Compared to V2, gas fees of Uniswap V3 swap on Ethereum mainnet are quite cheaper, prompting slightly cheaper transactions.

How the Uniswap V3 Concentrated Liquidity Works

In Uniswap V2, liquidity is distributed evenly along an x * y = k  price curve, with prices between 0 and infinity. Liquidity providers in V2 only earn fees on a small portion of their capital, preventing them from being adequately compensated for the impermanent losses they may encounter. With liquidity being spread across thin prices, traders in V2 are often subjected to a high degree of slippage. 

With Uniswap V3, liquidity providers can concentrate their capital within custom price ranges. This means they can provide more significant amounts of liquidity at desired prices. To concentrate liquidity, liquidity providers construct individual price curves that showcase their preferences.

Liquidity providers can merge any number of distinct concentrated positions within a single pool. For example, a liquidity provider in the YLD/USDT pool can allocate $150 to the price range of $1,000 – $2,000 and an additional $50 to the range of $1,500 -$1,700. This means liquidity providers change the shape of any automated market maker or active book. It also means users can trade against the combined liquidity of individual curves with no increase in gas cost per liquidity provider. The liquidity providers collect trading fees at a given price range and are split based on the amount of liquidity they contributed at that range.

Factors that Trigger Impermanent Loss on Uniswap V3

There are several factors that contribute to impermanent loss on Uniswap V3. They include:

• Extreme Volatility: Volatility simply refers to the degree at which the price of an asset increases or decreases. Crypto assets are extremely volatile as their prices rapidly change in the blink of an eye. These rapid price changes often trigger impermanent losses which are to the detriment of liquidity providers.

• Price divergence: Should the price of two assets in a liquidity pool diverge from each other, there will be an increased chance for impermanent loss to occur.

• Concentrated Liquidity: Uniswap V3 embraces concentrated liquidity – provision of liquidity in a fixed price range – which can increase the impact of impermanent loss in tight position ranges.

• Since liquidity is provided in fixed price ranges, high fees are generated and the impact of impermanent loss increases. 

How to Track Impermanent Loss on Uniswap V3

There are various mathematical explanations investors can use to calculate impermanent losses. Because these may be complex, there is a derivation formula that Uniswap V3 users can run with.

Considering a market with liquidity L and x and y amounts of assets labeled X and Y respectively; liquidity will be:

If the initial price P of asset X in terms of Y is y/x and then a price movement to P’ = Pk (and k . 0), it means that:

V_0 = Value of initial holding in terms of Y; V_1 = Value of holding if kept in the pool (where x,y moves with price); V_held = value of holding if kept outside the pool (where x,y is constant).

By using the derivation formula for x, y, assuming the price of Y in terms of Y is 1 and the price of X in terms of Y is P, it can be said that

The formula above works only on L and P. If the price changes, it can be used to calculate the price of future holdings in the same pool.

If we consider the value of a position that was held using the original quantities of x and y with new prices 1 and P’ = pk:

To calculate the impermanent loss, the percentage loss of V_1 in comparison to V_held is also calculated.

The crypto market changes rapidly, hence would take a lot of time for investors to keep up with these complex calculations for every price change.

To simplify the process of trading impermanent loss on Uniswap V3, a number of Data analytics platforms now have algorithms with a user dashboard that can be used to track impermanent loss. Some of them include: 

• APY.vision 
• Dexfolio

Merlin (mymerlin.io)

Merlin, VALK’s DeFi portfolio tracker is able to analyze all transactions related to DeFi protocols including liquidity provision on a DEX such as Uniswap V3. Key information related to PNL, total liquidity, fees earned and impermanent loss are all shown 

By viewing recent transactions on Merlin, we can view recent positions (distinguishable open positions are marked by the green circle while closed positions are marked by the gray circle). Merlin can filter out information by protocol and transaction (e.g., added liquidity, exchange, deposit, borrow and more). 

Let’s take a look at this wallet’s most recent transactions. This time stamped record (most recent first) shows all actions done on these protocols, i.e., the still-yielding deposit of ETH in a Compound pool, or the addition of liquidity to a UNI/WETH pool. This particular action has yielded in a PNL of $184.23 or 12.48% so far.

Let’s zoom in further on this particular action. We can see further details related to the LP’s position, total liquidity $6,000.31) from when the first action (deposit) was taken, as well as the Uniswap V3 NFT given to the LP as a representation of their position. Impermanent loss (currently at -$32.12) is also calculated. The transactional history is laid out clearly to show the inner parts of the LP position, and as can be shown, the position is still open and thus generating yield.

Regarding the fee structure, it is displayed in two parts: claimed (at $30.60) and unclaimed fees (also at $30.60). Merlin will soon have a function that allows the investor to claim fees directly from the interface, without having to enter the DEX in question. Additionally, Merlin can identify if the position is in range or not.

Finally, Merlin gives the investor an overview of the general UNI/WETH pool. The investor’s share as a percentage of the total liquidity is shown, as well as the level of slippage for these particular assets, and the APR and APY can be compared against other pools, not only on Uniswap V3 but also other global pools (for premium subscribers only). 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are the major features of Uniswap V3?

Two major features that make Uniswap V3 stand out are its flexibility and efficiency which helps liquidity providers to swap more crypto assets, add more liquidity, and earn more interest to compensate users for the risk of impermanent loss.

What is the simplest way of avoiding impermanent loss?

Impermanent losses are often triggered by unequal prices of assets and one of the simplest ways of avoiding them is providing capital to liquidity pools that are composed of only stablecoins and wrapped tokens such as USDC, USDT, GUSD, and DAI.

What kind of data is needed to calculate profit and loss in liquidity provision?

The data needed to calculate profit and loss in liquidity provision include the price of each token at the time of deposit, the amount of each token deposited, the date of deposit, reward for the liquidity pool, estimated price of each token at the point of withdrawal, date of withdrawal, and liquidity provider token yield farming strategies.

What is Cryptocurrency Staking and How Can You Take Part in It?

by Airat | Oct 6, 2022 | HOW TO

Key Points

• Staking is emerging as a popular approach for cryptocurrency investors to generate passive income, as specific blockchains are known for rewarding their investors with high interest rates.
• Cryptocurrency staking is a procedure whereby investors may commit a portion of their cryptocurrencies to support a blockchain as well as validate transactions on the network.
• Staking is currently offered by blockchain networks that employ the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism in their payment processing method.

Staking may sound like an incredibly complicated jargon for certain crypto investors and traders to swallow, as many are only familiar with staking being a method for one to earn monetary rewards by holding specific cryptocurrencies over an extended duration. Nonetheless, should you be someone looking to build an income stream through staking rewards, it will always be helpful to understand how this concept works and why the system has been designed in such a way.

Meanwhile, VALK’s Smart DeFi Portfolio Tracker, Merlin, has been designed to offer an in-depth overview of your crypto investments, which can be vital to help investors enhance their investment strategies.

What is Staking?

In the cryptocurrency scene, staking involves an individual locking up (i.e., staking) their crypto assets with the goal of obtaining even more assets as their reward.

To better illustrate this concept, you could technically equate staking as the crypto equivalent of depositing your funds into a high-yield savings account. In particular, when an individual places their money into such an account, the bank will lend the fund to others needing capital. Consequently, the individual will be eligible for a portion of the interest earned from lending, even though the percentage interest is extremely low. 

The critical objective of staking is ensuring that only legitimate transactions and data are introduced to a specific blockchain. With that, investors looking to validate new transactions could offer to have exact amounts of their cryptocurrencies staked in the system as a type of insurance. As a result, whenever a person stakes their digital assets, they are essentially locking up their cryptocurrencies to take part in maintaining the security and effective operation of the blockchain. Thus, in exchange for authenticating correct data and transactions via staking, the individual will earn monetary rewards determined by calculating their respective percentage yields. In the case of cryptocurrencies, these returns are usually far higher (circa 10% to 20%) than those offered by financial institutions. 

However, it is also crucial to take note that if the investor were to validate fraudulent or false data improperly, they would risk facing a penalty of losing some of their cryptocurrencies. In the worst-case scenario, their entire stake may be lost due to a punishment known as “slashing”, which is known to occur on the Polkadot and Ethereum blockchains (albeit a rare situation).

How Does Staking Work?

All in all, there are various consensus mechanisms that cryptocurrencies employ. On that note, the whole notion of staking is made possible by introducing the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, which was first introduced by Peercoin (CRYPTO: PPC) in 2012.

This is an approach adopted by various blockchains to choose investors deemed reliable for verifying new transactions and/or sets of data documented within the network. In particular, all network participants, termed “validators” or “stakers”, need to buy and lock away a specific number of tokens. Hence, should the blockchain become corrupted due to any forms of malicious activity (classic examples typically include validators going offline for prolonged periods), the price of the native token linked with it will fall, and the validators will risk losing their cryptocurrencies. With that, the proof-of-stake mechanism is widespread for its high efficiency and interest rates. These factors, in turn, attracted plenty of participants to the blockchain network.

The stake, in this case, thereby serves as the validators’ “skin in the game” so that they are sufficiently incentivised to act with the utmost integrity and in the best interest of the blockchain network. Put simply, the more significant the stake, the greater their chances of amassing bigger rewards in the form of the native cryptocurrency.

Besides, the stake does not necessarily need to be exclusively a person’s own coins. In the majority of cases, validators tend to operate staking pools in order to raise funds from several token holders. This essentially helps to lower the entry barrier so that more individuals will be eligible for staking. In addition, the validator can also choose to delegate their coins to the operators of the stake pool to perform all of the heavy work associated with validating data and transactions on the blockchain. On that note, validators must comply with each blockchain’s unique set of rules. For instance, the Terra network limited the number of validators to a maximum of 130. Furthermore, Ethereum’s proof-of-stake (formerly recognised as Ethereum 2.0) mandates every validator to stake a minimum of 32 ether, which is equivalent to over US$100,000 at press time.

Which Cryptocurrencies Can Investors Stake?

As previously stated, staking is only plausible when the validator uses cryptocurrencies associated with blockchains employing the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. On that note, some of the popular cryptocurrencies used for staking would include:

• Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) – The first-ever cryptocurrency possessing a blockchain that developers could programme to develop apps.
• Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) – A blockchain created to enable scalability as it provides quick transactions in exchange for inexpensive fees.
• Cardano (CRYPTO: ADA) – A cryptocurrency known for its eco-friendly objectives. It was designed via evidence-based protocols coupled with peer-reviewed research materials.
• Avalanche (CRYPTO: AVAX) – A cryptocurrency that uses mining, peer-to-peer transactions, and other technological features to power its scalability and speed of transaction.
• Polkadot (CRYPTO: DOT) – A protocol permitting various forms of blockchains to connect and collaborate with each other.

Why Would Someone Consider Staking?

Staking is a standard method to incentivise token holders to preserve their crypto assets. As opposed to selling their portion to make a realised profit, investors can instead stand a chance to claim staking rewards that typically achieve double- or even triple-digit figures in annual percentage yields (APY). Thus, the crypto community often view staking as a much more attractive investment vehicle in comparison to those offered by centralised financial institutions. Not to mention, staking is a passive investment strategy whereby token holders will not be required to do anything besides staking their digital assets in a staking pool, followed by reaping the monetary rewards. However, it is also entirely possible for one to manage their own staking pool, though this would require greater attention, expertise, and capital to ensure successful execution. 

Aside from the benefits mentioned above, other noteworthy advantages of cryptocurrency staking include the absence of equipment required by the investor to perform staking. The process is generally known to be more environmentally friendly than crypto mining.

How Can You Begin Staking Cryptocurrencies?

1. Purchase the relevant cryptocurrencies and store them in a blockchain wallet.

Prospective investors will first need to own cryptocurrencies that can be staked before they can start staking. Once they have already bought a few, they will have to transfer the coins from the app they have purchased to a blockchain wallet (a.k.a. crypto wallet) that permits staking. In general, wallets are deemed the optimal solution to store cryptocurrencies securely, and the quickest way for anyone to set up a wallet would be to download a free software version. Nevertheless, there are also hardware crypto wallets that crypto enthusiasts could consider purchasing.

Alternatively, staking opportunities are often provided on most large cryptocurrency exchange sites like Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken. As a result of this convenience, these sites are usually a popular go-to option among many investors. Other than that, if you seek to maximise your financial rewards, there are platforms specialising in searching for crypto exchanges offering the highest interest rates for the coins you own. These platforms, known as staking-as-a-service, would include sites such as Figment, BlockDaemon, EverStake, and MyContainer.

To assist investors who have committed digital assets to DeFi protocols and liquid staking services such as Lido, VALK has created a dashboard called Merlin. Merlin provides detailed analysis of an investor’s positions and calculates PNL related to selected protocols such as Lido, Compound, Uniswap V3, and Aave.

2. Take part in a staking pool.

Once everything has been set up, investors will need to conduct in-depth research into the staking pools available for their cryptocurrencies. Overall, there are several areas worth evaluating before making a decision:

Reliability

Every investor should remember that they will not be able to earn rewards if the staking pool servers are down. Hence, one needs to select a staking pool with a near-100% uptime as much as possible.

Size of the staking pool

Investors will usually need to balance out the risk-to-reward ratio associated with the staking pool size. To elaborate, smaller staking pools are generally less likely to be selected to perform transaction validations, but they may offer more significant rewards if they were to be chosen. Meanwhile, larger staking pools may have a cap on their reward size as they may be oversaturated with investors. With that, mid-sized pools would usually be the best option for the majority of crypto investors.

Staking fees

Investors can expect to pay a small portion of their staking rewards as a fee for participating in a specific staking pool. Reasonable amounts would have to depend on the cryptocurrency itself, but the regular fee percentage ranges between 2% and 5%.

Once the investor has determined a staking pool that they like, all they would need to do is to connect their cryptocurrency with it via their blockchain wallet. Once that is completed, they can begin earning monetary rewards.

The Risks Associated with Staking Crypto

As with investing in other assets, there is no doubt that investors will need to bear certain risks associated with cryptocurrency staking.

Firstly, cryptocurrency prices are notoriously volatile, so sudden declines in price may easily outweigh the profits or interests they could realise. On top of that, a counterparty risk associated with the staking pool validators is present. Investors are prone to miss out on large rewards if the validators fail to perform their job honestly. Moreover, staking pools are vulnerable to hacking, which may result in the total loss of funds amongst all affected investors. Not to mention, since crypto assets are currently still not protected by insurance, this implies that the probability for victims to be compensated for this loss is close to zero. Besides that, certain cryptocurrencies have a mandatory lock-up period in which investors will not be able to withdraw their assets. Also, investors need to bear in mind that there might be an unstaking period lasting at least one week.

Regardless, there are still various ways for one to minimise or mitigate such risks. To begin with, investors who are considering crypto staking are recommended to hold their digital assets over the long term in order to hedge themselves against unwelcome price swings. Alternatively, those who prefer lower-risk crypto investments might like to opt for cryptocurrency stocks in replacement for staking pools.

Concluding Remarks

In a nutshell, staking is an excellent option for investors looking to generate above-average yields on their long-term investments. However, it is highly advised for one to carefully consider the terms associated with the staking period to evaluate the duration of time required to get returns on investment back. In particular, investors ought to meticulously assess the terms and conditions associated with their staking pool of interest as well as understand the length of the staking period and the expected payback period. As a general rule of thumb, the higher the staking interest rates, the more likely it is too good to be true. With that, practising cautious optimism in cryptocurrency staking is key to maximising one’s probability of realising enormous profits.

On that note, VALK is developing a comprehensive ecosystem of decentralised tools to help crypto enthusiasts with their investment processes. For example, our Smart DeFi portfolio tracker, Merlin, can instantly calculate the effectiveness of one’s investment strategies by measuring the total yield and profit/loss gained from an investor’s portfolio in United States dollars (USD).

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is crypto staking?

Cryptocurrency staking is a way for crypto enthusiasts to earn financial rewards by making their digital assets work for them. The procedure involves investors locking up their cryptocurrencies with a blockchain network to support its validity through the authentication of the blockchain’s data and transactions. At the point of writing, staking is only available for cryptocurrencies utilising the “proof-of-stake” consensus mechanism to process payments.

2. What are the benefits of staking crypto?

Cryptocurrency staking is an innovative approach for investors to earn passive income, as certain cryptocurrency staking pools offer above-average interest rates (i.e., far exceeding those provided by centralised financial institutions). Meanwhile, it is a more environmentally friendly investment in comparison to cryptocurrency mining.

3. What are the downsides of staking crypto?

Cryptocurrency staking mandates all investors to lock up their crypto assets for a minimum period, so they cannot withdraw the funds for any reason. On top of that, cryptocurrency prices are infamous for their high volatility. Thus, if an investor’s staked crypto assets experienced a significant price decline, this may potentially outweigh any interests they earned from staking them.

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How to Invest in Decentralized Finance

by Airat | Oct 4, 2022 | HOW TO

Key Points

• There are many ways for anyone to make money from investing in DeFi. You could invest or trade digital assets like cryptocurrencies or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) through decentralised exchanges. Moreover, you could earn profits through crypto lending, staking, or liquidity mining.
• Multiple DeFi applications exist in today’s market, such as stablecoins, decentralised exchanges, prediction markets, and many more.
• In general, DeFi is a permissionless system because there are no centralised gatekeepers governing the entire system. Therefore, users will have full functional autonomy over their financial assets and might earn higher interest from their investments.
• There are three main steps to begin investing in DeFi – get a digital wallet, buy the appropriate cryptocurrencies for your investments, and research suitable smart contracts to take part in.

Decentralised finance, popularly known as “DeFi”, is an upcoming global alternative financial product disrupting the traditional, centralised, and large rigid financial system that most of the world has mainly been familiar with.

What is DeFi? 

DeFi provides any individual owning a smartphone and has access to the internet the opportunity to make their money work for them on their own terms via financial services such as borrowing, lending, investing, and trading.

This is accomplished by DeFi removing banks, exchanges, and insurance companies as intermediaries and placing individuals in the spotlight of the peer-to-peer (P2P)-oriented financial system.

How Does DeFi Work?

DeFi got its name as this class of financial assets was built on open-source blockchains. Blockchains are decentralised databases that record the details of every transaction. Their fascinating application in DeFi involves bypassing the need for the database to be managed or governed by a central authority. The critical feature enabling this is the introduction of code-based agreements called smart contracts (also termed “protocols”), which document every transaction detail and are built on the blockchain. That way, DeFi can effectively achieve distributed consensus without needing financial institutions to issue, monitor, and control currencies. Consequently, the creation of decentralised money resulted in DeFi revolutionising how the entire financial sector operates.

Currently, DeFi is mainly tied to a well-known blockchain called Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) alongside all cryptocurrencies built on it. Nonetheless, many other blockchains utilise DeFi too.

The applications of DeFi are widespread, considering its capability to provide multiple blockchain-centric solutions for financial services. For example, DeFi allows people to trade cryptocurrencies as well as borrow and/or lend crypto coins. Meanwhile, fintech companies employing DeFi may expand their offerings to include insurance services, loans and savings accounts, and securities trading.

Besides that, DeFi permits any two parties to directly transfer money to a secured manager without having to include a central authority in the picture. Thus, an increasing population of people can access financial services at a reduced expense and/or be offered more attractive interest rates than those presented by financial institutions.

How To Make Money From DeFi?

There are several ways for investors to generate profits in the DeFi asset class. First, just like how one would invest or trade company shares through a brokerage account, investors can invest or trade an extraordinary range of digital assets like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) via decentralised exchanges. Additionally, DeFi users will be able to earn an income through crypto lending, liquidity mining, and/or staking.

To dive deeper, investors can deposit their cryptocurrencies in an interest-bearing account within a crypto lending platform (e.g., a DeFi app or a crypto exchange) or choose to lend out their crypto directly. Depending on the crypto lending account, varying interest rates may be awarded, whilst others may pay a pre-set interest rate depending on the lock-up period specified. Conversely, liquidity mining is the procedure of contributing cryptocurrency assets to a liquidity pool with the aim of smoothing trades and transactions detailed within a DeFi smart contract. Participants of the liquidity mining project will be rewarded a portion of the platform’s fees or new tokens, thereby earning interest for their contributions to the liquidity pool.

Staking is a method for investors to realise interests in certain crypto investments. The process involves locking up coins followed by pledging them to a specific crypto smart contract. Similar to the interest one would earn through a conventional savings account, the interests made via staking follow a similar principle. However, the rates awarded via staking are usually significantly higher than those offered by banks. Besides that, cryptos employing a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism like Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), and Polkadot (DOT) depend on these staked coins to authenticate transactions. Entities that stake coins may be able to become validators of transactions, and they, in turn, are rewarded with cryptocurrencies whenever they are selected to verify a series of transactions.

Popular DeFi Applications Everyone Ought To Know

There is a wide selection of DeFi applications available to consumers in today’s market. Nevertheless, some DeFi applications that everyone should familiarise themselves with include:

Stablecoins

Cryptocurrencies with stable values, called stablecoins, was one of the first-ever applications of DeFi. Due to its relatively lower volatility than other cryptocurrencies, stablecoins are often deemed suitable for making regular purchases.

One of the notable examples would be DAI (CRYPTO: DAI), a stablecoin issued by an open-source project on the Ethereum blockchain called MakerDAO. DAI is a coin pegged to the United States dollar and collateralised by the native Ethereum token, known as Ether. This essentially ensures DAI’s intrinsic value will remain undisturbed even if Ether’s value were to fluctuate.

Additionally, USDC (CRYPTO: USDC) is another stablecoin. However, as opposed to DAI, its collateral is centralised because the intrinsic value of these stablecoins is backed by a reserved fund of United States dollars kept within an audited bank account.

Decentralised exchanges

Even though cryptocurrency has a decentralised nature, various crypto exchanges like Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) serve as centralised platforms that link buyers with sellers.

Decentralised exchanges (DEXs) utilise smart contracts to replace the works to be done by centralised exchanges. As these smart contracts offer crypto pricing for both parties at or near the typical market prices, using a DEX permits both parties to have complete control of their own cryptocurrency holdings. Specific individuals may prefer this option instead of depositing their cryptocurrencies in a wallet held by a centralised exchange because such exchanges are often vulnerable to third-party hacking. With that, DEX users who provide liquidity through their crypto supplies may, in particular markets, earn income as a result of being rewarded a percentage of the transaction fees.

Prediction markets

Prediction markets provide individuals with a platform to bet on specific events’ outcomes. However, like stock markets, prediction markets are usually way harder for central authorities to interfere with than standard sportsbooks.

On that note, DeFi prediction markets may present higher chances of winning as investors will be able to modify certain bet structures. Not to mention, the fees associated with the betting process are typically also lower, with market participants having the freedom to make unlimited bets on anything.

Borrowing and lending services

Borrowing and lending services are probably the most traditional function that is enabled by DeFi technology. To further elaborate, individuals owning large amounts of cryptocurrencies but wanting liquidity in other forms of currencies may borrow money by putting their cryptocurrencies up as collateral. On the other hand, individuals can also earn interest by lending their cryptocurrency deposits to borrowers, thus profiting from the value of their digital assets whilst mitigating taxable events.  

In the majority of cases, the decentralised apps (dapps) facilitating these services are designed in such a way to ensure interest rates are automatically adjusted depending on the dynamic supply and demand case of cryptocurrencies.

Why Does DeFi Matter?

There are numerous reasons why people are turning to DeFi to safeguard their financial future:

Improved accessibility

With a growing number of underbanked people, DeFi offers an alternative solution to address their financial needs. Thus, the greater level of accessibility is emblematic of DeFi’s globalised nature, as transactions could occur regardless of geographical location and socioeconomic background.

Higher interest rates coupled with lower transaction fees

As DeFi bypasses the need for a financial intermediary, transaction fees are significantly reduced as any two parties can negotiate interest rates and perform the relevant transactions directly.

Greater transparency and security

Smart contracts and the complete records of all successful transactions are accessible by the general public on a blockchain. As blockchains are immutable, DeFi platform users would thereby enjoy increased transparency. What’s more, smart contracts are conferred by blockchain technology in a way that hides either party’s real-world identity. Therefore, platform participants need not worry about their privacy being at risk.

Increased functional autonomy

The 2008 financial recession revealed many of the inherent risks that centralised systems possess, as most banks and governments are significantly interconnected. On that note, the decentralised nature of DeFi smart contracts offers a unique approach to mitigating these risks because they are independent of any centralised financial institution.

Complete control over own assets

Overall, DeFi is a permissionless system, given that no gatekeepers governing the creation and participation of DeFi services actually exist. Thus, users will have complete control over their financial assets.

Not to mention, VALK is creating an all-inclusive ecosystem of decentralised tools to help you invest in DeFi. For instance, our Smart DeFi portfolio tracker, Merlin, can automatically determine the effectiveness of your investing strategies by automatically calculating the total yield and profit/loss generated from your portfolio in United States dollars (USD).

Is DeFi Secured for Investments?

Although the novelty of DeFi has generated much excitement, it is also crucial to acknowledge that unexpected adverse outcomes are a possibility. Much of this, ironically, stems from its decentralised nature. For instance, given that all deposits within conventional centralised financial institutions are backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a consumer will be able to file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) if any unauthorised transactions take place. On the other hand, victims of fraudulent transactions will never be able to report fraudulent transactions, let alone recover lost money, because DeFi platforms do not offer any options to do so.

Despite the flaws in the system, it remains comforting to know that there have been innovations to address these problems. Decentralised insurance is a reasonably recent application in which individuals may pool their crypto assets as collateral for those seeking to hedge their risks against potential losses. In turn, the contributors to these crypto pools will charge premiums to the insured parties as compensation.

How Do I Invest in DeFi?

If you are impressed by the various investment opportunities that DeFi offers, a tricky question often follows suit – how could we transform those opportunities into realised gains?

1. Get your wallet ready

First, you must prepare your digital wallet, which you will use to store all of your cryptocurrencies. Fortunately, there are many variants of crypto wallets for you to pick from. Still, if you happen to be curious, MetaMask is the standard go-to option by many because its users will be able to access an exchange for trading and investing purposes.

2. Buy crypto coins

Similar to how you will need cash for stock investments, crypto coins are necessary if you want to participate in DeFi smart contracts. At the point of writing, the majority of smart contracts are built on Ethereum, so beginning your DeFi investment journey with Ether coins or ERC-20 tokens would be a recommended action.

3. Begin researching smart contracts

Upon equipping yourself with sufficient crypto coins, the next step involves conducting in-depth research on the different smart contracts and ecosystems you could choose to participate in. Bear in mind that the general process for researching protocols begins with visiting the smart contract’s website and/or mobile app, connecting your crypto wallet with it, and following their guidelines to start lending, trading, or staking your coins for a reward.

To help you get access to every opportunity of DeFi, VALK has developed a single dashboard known as Merlin, which essentially allows you to perform analytics and report on your current and historical positions across your DeFi portfolio.

4. Track your portfolio

Now that you have officially invested in DeFi, the game does not end there. In fact, this is only the beginning as monitoring your portfolio is equally crucial as selecting the right DeFi assets to invest in.

To simplify the entire process, VALK’s Smart DeFi Portfolio Tracker, Merlin, provides the most comprehensive overview of your DeFi positions to help you finetune your investment strategy.

Final Thoughts

Overall, DeFi is well-positioned to disrupt the finance industry as they have the power to make financial transactions faster, cheaper, more transparent, and most importantly, more accessible. 

DeFi removes the need to place trust in human-ran intermediaries while promoting open-source collaboration. Hence, it may not be surprising when other industries start pivoting towards a decentralised future as well.

FAQs

1. Why invest in DeFi?

The DeFi space offers a unique class of digital assets that individuals could consider investing in to generate profits, whereby DeFi users could earn an income through lending, staking, or liquidity mining.

2. Where to invest in DeFi?

There are many decentralised finance applications (dapps) for you to check out as part of investing in DeFi. Popular applications include Aave, Uniswap, Compound, Lido, Curve, and Convex.

3. How to invest in DeFi crypto?

The three key steps involved to get started with investing in DeFi crypto begins with getting a crypto wallet. This is followed by purchasing the appropriate cryptocurrencies to be used as digital money for DeFi investments. Finally, conducting in-depth research into suitable smart contracts and performing the necessary steps to participate in such protocols would be the last steps to complete the entire DeFi crypto investment process.

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