Cryptocurrency staking has gone from being a tool solely used to help bolster the security of Proof-of-Stake (POS) blockchains to a lucrative new revenue stream for savvy investors.
Thanks to the advent of a plethora of yield farms, long-term cryptocurrency holders and speculators can now put their inactive holdings to work to earn a yield on their balance.
In the last year, we have seen the advent of a range of yield farming giants — such as Compound, Yearn Finance, PancakeSwap, etc., but these have largely seen a gradual decline in yields as their userbases ballooned.
Fortunately, a range of novel farming platforms has appeared — each of which boasts impressive features and yields that make them well-suited to seasoned investors. Here, we take a look at three of the promising options for Q4 2021.
YeFi
YeFi is a modern blockchain-powered platform designed to provide an easy-to-access source of passive income for long-term cryptocurrency holders.
The platform consists of a DApp, which can stake a wide variety of cross-chain cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH, USDT, FIL, YTA, and YEFI.
Unlike many yield farms, YeFi is built on Binance Smart Chain. This means it can be easily accessed through regular Web3 wallets like MetaMask and Trust Wallet. As a result, it benefits from extremely low fees — ensuring users can stake and withdraw their rewards without breaking the bank.
By staking on the platform, users earn a generous yield in the form of YEFI tokens and are free to withdraw their profits.
But more than this, YeFi also allows users to multiply their rewards by staking coins associated with decentralized storage networks (DNS) — like Filecoin (FIL). This unlocks a 1.5x bonus on top of the standard reward, while users can opt to double the regular reward by staking the platform’s native token YEFI.
The DApp is currently up and running, and the YeFi team intends to expand the range of supported assets based on demand and utility.
With this, YEFI becomes one of the few platforms to support some of the most popular cross-chain assets without long lockup periods. It also includes a powerful referral feature, allowing users to top up their returns by referring new users to the platform.
AdaPad
If there’s one thing that can be said about 2021, it’s that Ethereum alternatives have stolen the spotlight.
Ranging from Binance Smart Chain to Polkadot, Solana, Avalanche, and more, practically every major smart contract platform has seen what can only be described as meteoric growth this year.
But out of these platforms, Cardano has stood out as one of the most promising solutions — due to the launch of its smart contract functionality with the long-awaited Alonzo upgrade.
Now, AdaPad is looking to help kickstart the Cardano ecosystem of products by providing a launchpad that provides early access to sought-after projects building in the Cardano ecosystem.
Like most launchpads, AdaPad uses a tier-based system to assign allocations to project IDOs — with users staking more tokens to unlock better access to projects.
But more than this, it also includes novel yield farming functionality that sees users that stake their ADAPAD tokens earn a yield in the form of ADA. This yield is derived from a mandatory 10% tax applied to every ADAPAD sell transaction — with 7.5% allocated to the ADA staking reward pool and 2.5% burned.
This ensures that the ADAPAD supply will deflate over time while giving users a yield on their staked ADAPAD while waiting to participate in IDOs.
Saber
Widely considered to be one of the most promising competitors to Ethereum, Solana has seen an explosion in the growth of its DApp ecosystem in recent months.
The platform now calls itself home to a blossoming DeFi and NFT landscape expanding by the day.
Saber counts among one of the more recent platforms building on Solana — but it’s growing rapidly after seeing its TVL swell from $15 million to over $4 billion in under 2 months.
The platform is primarily a cross-chain liquidity network, allowing users to seamlessly exchange a range of Solana-based wrapped assets — particularly assets that share similar values, such as USDT and USDC.
Besides its exchange functionality, Saber also includes a prominent yield farm solution, which allows users to stake their Saber liquidity provider (SLP) tokens to earn a yield in the form of SABER (SBR) tokens.
Saber is also unique because it allows users to contribute liquidity to a single side of a liquidity pool, allowing users with a single asset to participate in its yield farm easily. Rewards are paid out in SBR tokens, which have been on an uptrend since inception.
As the largest Solana DApp by TVL, Saber is quickly becoming the primary yield farming and exchange solution on the Solana platform.
This article has been provided for educational purposes only and in partnership with the mentioned companies. Please do your own research.