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Newsletter/DeFi Alpha

DeFi Alpha

DeFi Alpha: Track Your DeFi Portfolio Using A Customizable Dashboard By Octav

Claim $PRIME Tokens If You Hold Parallel Cards

  • Featured Yields: Up to 20% APY on Stablecoins, 41% APY on ETH

DeFi Alpha is a weekly newsletter published for our premium subscribers 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. It is meant to be highly actionable and shareable.

Any information covered in DeFi Alpha should not form the basis for making investment decisions nor be construed as a recommendation or advice to engage in investment transactions. Any mention of a token or protocol should not be considered a recommendation or endorsement.

Latest Developments

Before we get started, here are the top headline-grabbing events from this week that every savvy DeFi investor ought to keep on their radar.

Sponsored Post
Alpha Newsletter 730x365 1

Cartesi enables developers to create an entirely new wave of DApps not previously possible on Ethereum or Layer 2s. It also allows developers to focus on what they’re building instead of where they’re building, or what inconvenient limitations they may otherwise need to contend with.

Why developers are building with Cartesi:

  • DApps are deployed on their own customizable application-specific rollup chains;
  • DApps don’t compete with each other in Cartesi’s ecosystem for scarce blockspace;
  • Cartesi provides Ethereum or L2’s with orders of magnitude more computational capacity;
  • Developers can code decentralized logic with their favorite libraries, compilers and other time-tested open source components;
  • DApps preserve the strong security guarantees and censorship resistance of the underlying blockchain;
  • Cartesi Rollups opens up the design space for more expressive and computationally intensive blockchain applications;
  • Cartesi Rollups can be deployed as a Layer 2 (on top of Ethereum), as a Layer 3 (on top of Optimism, Arbitrum, zkEVM chains, etc.), or as sovereign rollups;
  • Reusing existing tooling, having full programmability is a great way to innovate faster without reinventing the wheel!

Follow @cartesiproject on Twitter, join our Discord, or learn more over on our website, cartesi.io

Yield Alpha

Each week we will provide options to earn yield on ETH, WBTC, stablecoins, and other major tokens.

  • ETH: 41% APY with pETH/ETH Curve LP staked in Convex via Concentrator
    • This yield is accrued in aCRV + trading fees compounded in the LP.
    • To participate, one must Deposit into the pETH/ETH Curve LP here (not stake).
    • Then, one must stake the Curve LP under the ETH-pETH vault under aCRV Vaults on Concentrator.
  • BTC: 4.45% APR with the Curve multiBTC​+sbtc2Crv LP staked in Convex
    • This yield is accrued in CRV, CVX, and trading fees.
    • To participate, one must first deposit into this Curve pool and then stake the LP here in Convex.
  • MATIC: 14.3% APY with 50/50 MaticX-WMATIC LP on MeshSwap
    • The yield is backed by validator rewards using the MaticX LSD (5.76% APY) + MeshSwap trading fees + MESH rewards + SD rewards.
    • To participate on Polygon, one may use the Stader MaticX dApp to mint MaticX.
    • Then, deposit into the MaticX-WMATIC pool on MeshSwap and stake the LP.
  • ATOM: 23% APR staking ATOM with Keplr Wallet on Cosmos Hub
    • The yield earned is issued in ATOM.
    • To participate, one must set up a Keplr Wallet, go to the Cosmos Hub validators on Keplr Dashboard, rank by APR, choose a validator, and click Delegate.
    • Then, I specify how many ATOMs and follow the prompts to Delegate.
  • BNB: 21% APY with 50/50 BNB/BNBx Ellipsis LP in a Beefy Finance vault
    • This yield is issued in SD, BNB staking yield (thanks to BNBx), and trading fees.
    • On BSC, one can deposit BNB for BNBx here on Stader.
    • Then, one can deposit BNB and/or BNBx here on Ellipsis and stake the BNB/BNBx Ellipsis LP here on Beefy Finance.
  • AVAX: 7.02% APY staking AVAX with ankrAVAX by Ankr
    • This yield is issued in AVAX.
    • To participate, one must deposit AVAX for ankrAVAX here on Ankr.
  • SOL: 6.7% APY staking SOL with stSOL by Lido
    • This is backed by SOL staking yield.
    • To participate, one must deposit SOL here or buy it on a Solana DEX.
  • FTM: 4.7% APY staking sFTMx liquid staking derivative by Stader
    • The yield is issued in FTM rewards, as sFTMX is earning FTM via validator rewards to support Fantom’s PoS network.
    • To participate, one must deposit FTM for sFTMX here on Stader.
  • Stablecoins: 20% APR with the USD+/DOLA LP staked in Velodrome on Optimism
    • This yield is accrued in VELO.
    • To participate, one must deposit and stake in this USD+ + DOLA LP.

Please be aware we do not always report the highest yield rates because some high yields may be less sustainable due to high inflation token rewards or fewer LPs participating.

Tutorial

Track Your DeFi Portfolio Using A Customizable Dashboard by Octav

It’s no secret I had the opportunity to work on the Zapper core team years ago. Since then, I’ve remained a super-user of both Zapper and the DeFi OG tracker Zerion.

However, I remain incredibly bullish on competition driving us forward in DeFi, including popular alternatives for DeFi portfolio tracking like DeBank and Nansen Portfolio.

One of the drawbacks to each of these portfolio trackers is you are i) limited to whatever assets and protocols the tracker supports and ii) limited to the way they interpret that on-chain data.

A prime example of challenges experienced by DeFi users is the presence of an infinite number of spam tokens being sent on Ethereum and other chains. The goal is to send users fake tokens that might prompt them to visit a website and provide infinite spending approvals to drain their wallets of legitimate tokens.

For those of us living in the US and other countries which require taxes paid on crypto gains, we are forced to export reports of our crypto portfolios and then use alternative tools to meticulously edit the on-chain transactions.

It’s extremely difficult and painful because there’s simply no option to customize the data continually on our DeFi portfolio trackers so we can avoid spending more time editing old transactions in a separate third-party crypto tax software such as TokenTax.

Until now! Launched in January, Octav is a free, anonymous and editable data analytics platform for deciphering your DeFi investment activity, including cost-basis, profit and loss (P&L) and (with a subscription paid in USDC or DAI) exportable reports.

Here’s a list of my favorite features in the Octav dashboard:

  • Portfolio KPIs such as total cost basis, total profit and loss (P&L), open and closed P&L, total fees, debt, and cash balance.
  • 7 EVM networks, including Ethereum, BSC, Avalanche, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism and Fantom.
  • You can track positions across 1500 protocols + 30k tokens to get more detail.
  • A comprehensive transaction history of profit that you can uniquely edit if needed.
  • Each transaction can be edited based on your input to keep the accuracy of your portfolio up to date, which includes support for 20 different types of transactions (see below)

Today, I’ll show how I can quickly set up my DeFi portfolio in Octav and start tracking a more customizable, accurate view of my portfolio!

Before we get started, please be aware of these risks.

  • Smart contract risk in any future farming opportunities I might access via Octav
  • Front-end spoof attack on the Octav app (if I give spending permissions in the future)
  • Centralization – currently, Octav is a startup but there are hints a token might be in its future

Step 1: First, I can go to the Octav app here and watch the very helpful 2-min overview video.

Step 2: Next, I go to Connect Wallet and opt to connect my Ethereum wallet (or any other supported chain). Under Dashboard, I can start to view all my assets + DeFi positions by protocol in Octav. I might choose to connect multiple wallets, search them, bundle them for joint portfolio views, or even label my wallets under Addresses. 

What really stood out for me is some of the newer KPIs, such as Open P&L, Closed P&L, and Total Cost Basis–which are rather difficult data points to calculate on-chain.  

Step 3: Under Transactions, I can begin the process of reviewing my transactions. Similar to other trackers, I can filter and search easily, but what’s unique to Octav is the ability to label transactions as Spam, Deposits, Withdrawals, and other Transaction Types in case Octav has misinterpreted my on-chain data. This is very powerful and sure to be a hit with institutions and other full-time crypto investors like me.

Another great example of customizability is being able to correct or enter which protocol a transaction is associated with. Below I interacted with Concentrator vaults and was able to fill in the Unknown with the appropriate protocol info.

Airdrop Alpha

In each DeFi Alpha guide, we update a list of DeFi protocols that have yet to announce and/or launch a token.

$PRIME Claim

If you hold Parallel cards, you can claim your PRIME tokens here.

Blur Airdrop

$BLUR is Live!

If you followed our step-by-step tutorial, you can claim your tokens here.

Treasure Tags

You can now mint your reserved Treasure Tags.

  • Arch Finance – a protocol for comprehensive indices that provide access to differentiated sources of market risk.
  • Arbitrum – one of the leading L2s for Ethereum
  • Arrakis Finance – a trustless algorithmic market-maker, for auto-managing Uniswap V3 LPs on Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism
  • Aztec – an open source L2 bringing scalability and privacy to Ethereum, with zkSNARK proofs, having launched a private DeFi yield aggregator zk.money.
  • Base – A new Ethereum L2, incubated by Coinbase and built on the open-source OP Stack, that could potentially have a governance token in the future
  • DeFi Saver –  a one-stop dashboard for creating, managing and tracking DeFi positions across Aave, Compound, Maker, Liquity, and Reflexer
  • DeFrag – instant loans for Treasure gaming NFTs on Arbitrum
  • Farcaster – a “sufficiently” decentralized social network where users will have the freedom to move their social identity between applications
  • Jupiter – The leading DEX aggregator by trading volume on Solana
  • Lens Protocol – A decentralized composable social graph, underpinning an emerging landscape of Web3 social media dApps including Lenster, Lenstube, and Orb
  • LI.FI – A cross-chain bridge and DEX aggregator protocol
  • Liquality – A cross-chain, non-custodial browser extension wallet, similar to MetaMask but with more integrations for swapping cross-chain.
  • Magic Eden – The leading NFT marketplace by trading volume on Solana
  • Nested – a crypto social trading platform built on Ethereum and other chains
  • 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
  • Polynomial – A newer DeFi derivatives vault creator, built on Optimism
  • Sense Protocol – A decentralized fixed-income protocol on Ethereum, allowing users to manage risk through fixed rates and future yield trading on existing yield bearing-assets
  • 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
  • Socket (formerly Movr) – their bridge aggregator Bungee moves assets between chains, finding the cheapest, fastest route
  • StarkNet mainnet is live! Bridge and swap some tokens for a potential airdrop. Guide here.
  • SudoSwap has released details about its SUDO token and airdrop. If you followed our guide from August 12 and created some trading pools, you should be eligible!
  • Volmex – Volmex is a tokenized volatility protocol, similar to the VIX but ETHV
  • Wormhole – a cross-chain messaging protocol known for bridging between Solana, Terra, Polygon, BSC, Avalanche, Fantom, and Oasis
  • 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 – The same can be said 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.
  • ZigZag – a DEX on zkSync. The airdrop has been distributed. Check your zkSync wallet.
  • zkSync is a Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum that uses zero-knowledge proofs to enable scalable low-cost payments. Bridge some assets and do some swaps for a potential airdrop. Guide here.

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 is 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.

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