Weekly Staking and Yield Farming Review
This week we are back to reviewing a few projects that came across our desk. Three platforms many of you have probably never heard of and one or two you are unlikely to ever hear of again. But from our review, we were happy to end up with one platform that is worthy of your closer consideration which is always a good result.
Before we get stuck into our platform reviews, we have provided you below with our updated weekly table of APRs from leading platforms.
This is a great resource for identifying user-friendly established staking platforms that are suitable for a range of risk tolerances.
Reviews
Yieldly (YLYDY)
Billed as the world’s first and only DeFi suite on Algorand.
Yieldly’s purpose-built smart contracts enable developers of ASA tokens (“Algorand Standard Assets” comparable to ERC20 on Ethereum) to easily create staking and rewards systems on top of Algorand. Yieldly has also built the first no-loss lottery designed to harness Algorand’s rewards system, aggregate rewards, and distribute them to users. Akin to PankcakeSwap and PoolTogether on their respective ecosystems, Yieldly’s no-loss lottery will unlock liquidity on Algorand.
Our Opinion
Yieldly has an attractive user interface however it requires users to create their own Yieldly wallet before being able to connect their digital wallet. This is an additional step compared to most other platforms. These two steps have to be completed before a user is able to view the available APRs. We always find this irritating. It is like being expected to go into a clothing store when you can’t see what is in the window.
The question is, is this additional step worth it? As far as staking is concerned, there is a limited choice. You are able to stake YLYDY and earn a 28% APR paid in a combination of YLYDY and ALGO. Algorand is an emerging blockchain that is set to be a top contender in the blockchain space however it is too early to say the same about Yieldly. With a fully diluted market value of $160 million, $90 million of TVL, and moderate liquidity, this staking option is too risky, in our opinion, with insufficient reward to compensate.
Yieldly, however, seems to be making a mark in its no-loss lottery, where 70% of its TVL currently sits. If you stake YLYDY, you can earn up to 7.9%, however, whilst no loss lotteries sound good on paper, you are still betting on the value of Yieldly as an investment.
PL^Gnet (PLUG)
PL^Gnet enables creation of synthetic assets from multiple chains, which can leverage DeFi in one network, using a simple UX from your existing trusted provider.
Its goal is to introduce a new solution to enable deeper liquidity pools for assets from different chains. Their aim is to provide a safer environment for new users to access DeFi products (such as borrowing and lending platforms and derivatives exchanges) without taking on the risks of self-custody
Our Opinion
PLUG is a project with a fully diluted market cap of $40 million, which is somewhat disproportionate to its TVL of only $5 million. It currently offers only three staking pools. Staking only PLUG earns you a 45% APR which in our opinion doesn’t reflect the risk of PLUG as an investment and its low liquidity. By staking PLUG and ETH that will earn you an APR of 91.77%. Again, if you are a fan of PLUG, then maybe this is a good investment, but as a cold-hearted investor, you will probably steer clear of PLUG as both an investment and as a platform.
ACryptoS (ACS)
ACryptoS is a decentralized finance (DeFi) product that runs on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and utilizes complex crypto strategies. The two primary ACryptoS products are yield optimizers, also called the ACryptoS Vaults, and a stablecoin decentralized exchange, ACryptoS StableSwap.
The yield optimizers help users maximize profits through vaults that use advanced yield farming techniques. These techniques are automated to help farmers grow their assets in a more efficient and fast manner.
ACryptoS Vaults are investment tools that execute strategies via smart contracts. The vaults make use of assets deposited by the users to perform tasks such as providing liquidity and collateralization, generating yields, and compounding interests. Although the vault runs on the BSC, it is a fork of the Ethereum-based yearn.finance (YFI).
ACryptoS Vaults employ some features of the farming mechanism of SushiSwap. Some of the most popular vaults offered by ACryptoS are ACS/ACSI and Venus token vaults. Users who provide ACS and ACSI to the vaults can earn higher yields through a programmed yield farming mechanism.
ACryptoS is built to encourage long-term staking. Stakers who hold the ACS and ACSI tokens for prolonged periods of time are rewarded. When users make deposits to the vault, they can earn compound interest in an automated manner. The vaults employ programmed strategies that help users grow their assets, save time, manage gas usage and perform other automated tasks.
Our Opinion
We like this platform. It is quick to access all the available APYs, which you can see at a glance, and as an investment in its own right, ACS stacks up. When staking, it isn’t like depositing your money into a bank. When deciding which bank to use, you only have a passing interest in its investment potential unless you are banking outside the mainstream banks and chasing yields, of course. In yield farming, it is different. You must consider the platform’s investment potential because that is how rewards are being paid. The general policy is a crap investment, crap platform.
In the case of ACS, it has a fully diluted market cap of $24 million with $160 million of TVL, which in our opinion, appears very good value. The downside is its low liquidity, however, it’s 151% APY for staking ACS compensates for that. We would avoid the other staking options and look to stake ACS if you believe in their potential as we do.
