CFTC Sees ‘Significant Risks’ From Digital Assets 

Rocket Pool Launches rETH On zkSync Era

 Up to 40% APY on Stablecoins, 6-51% APY on ETH and BTC

DeFi Alpha is a weekly newsletter published for our premium subscribers every Friday, contributed by Defiant Advisor and DeFi investor at 

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.

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.

Blur Blows Away OpenSea and Wins 82% of NFT Trading Volume

Transactions on Arbitrum Leapfrog Ethereum

Coinbase Jumps Into Ethereum Scaling Race With New Rollup

Tokenization Picks Up Steam With On-Chain Tesla and Apple Shares

Stacks’ Token Doubles as Building-on-BTC Activity Surges

 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!

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

: 51% APY with pETH/ETH Curve LP staked in Convex via Concentrator 

This yield is accrued in aCRV + trading fees compounded in the LP.

Then, one must stake the Curve LP under the 

: 6.42% APR with the Curve HBTC​+WBTC LP staked in Convex

This yield is accrued in CRV, CVX, and trading fees.

To participate, one must first deposit into this 

: 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 

: 23% APR staking ATOM with Keplr Wallet on Cosmos Hub 

rank by APR, choose a validator, and click 

Then, I specify how many ATOMs and follow the prompts to 

: 19.87% 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 Ellipsis and stake the BNB/BNBx Ellipsis LP 

: 7.05% APY staking AVAX with ankrAVAX by Ankr

To participate, one must deposit AVAX for ankrAVAX 

: 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 

: 40% APR with the jEUR/agEUR LP staked in Velodrome on Optimism

To participate, one must deposit and stake in 

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.

Earn 30% Annualized with Leveraged ETH Vaults by Notional Finance

Given the surging interest in ETH liquid staking derivatives (LSDs), Notional recently launched Leveraged Vaults based on the Balancer wstETH/WETH LP staked in Aura Finance.

These vaults allow users to borrow ETH from Notional, deposit the ETH into the Balancer wstETH/ETH pool, stake the LP tokens on Aura, and then harvest the incentive rewards. Think of it like leveraged yield farming where one can borrow ETH at a predictable fixed interest rate from Notional.

Currently, there are five rewards/fees driving the yield for Notional Leveraged Vaults:

Leveraged Vaults allow for up to 12X leverage and require a minimum debt of 100 ETH (meaning users might deposit as little as 8.33 ETH at 12X leverage).

With Notional, users can choose from the maturity dates available (currently either May 23, 2023 or June 21, 2023). This means users can only use a leveraged vault through the maturity date, which might also be considered an advantage since settlements at maturity involve debt being automatically closed out against the proceeds of the strategy.

With Notional Leveraged Vaults, liquidation is a risk, and subject to some exchange rate risk as the stETH to ETH exchange rate can vary. If the price of stETH depreciates against ETH, the value of the BPTs one holds in this strategy will decrease, thereby increasing the vault’s leverage ratio, and putting users at risk of liquidation.

Today, I’ll show how I can open a leveraged wstETH/ETH vault with Notional Finance and net a ~7.5% expected yield in just 3 months by depositing a minimum of 10 ETH with 11X leverage. Keep in mind this is an expected yield (total return) of 7.5% between now and May 23, 2023, which is approximately a 30% annualized return!

Featured Yields: Up to 40% APY on Stablecoins, 6-51% APY on ETH and BTC

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 yyctrad...

DeFi Alpha: Earn 30% Annualized with Leveraged ETH Vaults by Notional Finance