Blockchain
yEarn Protocol’s yETH Vault Is a Giant in the Making for Ethereum DeFi
Centered around the values of fairness, transparency, utility, and rapid development, yEarn, an automated aggregator protocol, has become one of Ethereum’s hottest attractions and most promising pillars in 2020. Currently the fifth-largest protocol in DeFi, yEarn provides easy access automated yield strategies. Among the project’s signature cryptonative products are its Vaults, in which users can […]
The post yEarn Protocol’s yETH Vault Is a Giant in the Making for Ethereum DeFi appeared first on Blockonomi.


Centered around the values of fairness, transparency, utility, and rapid development, yEarn, an automated aggregator protocol, has become one of Ethereum’s hottest attractions and most promising pillars in 2020.
Currently the fifth-largest protocol in DeFi, yEarn provides easy access automated yield strategies. Among the project’s signature cryptonative products are its Vaults, in which users can deposit an asset and, via various specially-designed DeFi maneuvers, maximize the yield of that asset.
That said, heads turned in the Ethereum ecosystem last week when yEarn launch its highly-anticipated yETH Vault, the first blockbuster ETH-centric yield farming service in DeFi.
How the yETH Vault Works
yEarn’s yETH Vault is certainly a feat of smart contract engineering, but it’s easy to grasp how the system generally goes ’round. A yETH position works like this (and mind you, this is all accomplished through a few easy clicks on yearn.finance):
- A desired amount of ETH is sent into a yWETH vault
- The ETH is deposited into lending protocol MakerDAO
- This collateral is used to back an automated Dai loan via Maker
- The Dai is deposited into Curve to participate in the protocol’s CRV farming campaign
- CRV profits are sold for ETH
The idea here, then, is that users can now easily put their ETH to use to steadily yield farm more ETH. If you’d like a visual sense of how this process works, community member DeFinn recently published an excellent primer graphic.
You’ve voted, I listened. Here it is the “Understanding @iearnfinance ‘s brand new yETH Delegated Vault”.
Special thanks to @tracheopteryx for valuable feedback to make this even more understandable pic.twitter.com/CAsh135rrM
— DeFinn (@DeFinnTheFarmer) September 2, 2020
Understanding the Risks
The yETH Vault employs a debt-based yield farming model, i.e. it’s underpinned by ETH-backed Dai loans, so the product is inherently risky. It has various layers of risk, too.
– Bad code in yVault
– Bad code in MakerDAO
– Bad code in Curve
– Massive ETH price crash
– Massive Curve-supported stablecoin price crash— StevenSwap (@Dogetoshi) September 2, 2020
As The Block‘s lead researcher Steven Zheng noted on Twitter this week, the yETH Vault was vulnerable to potential code flaws across three projects and volatility in the cryptoeconomy.
Yet it’s precisely because of the risks involved that many investors abstain from participating, which is why the yETH Vault can fetch APY returns that can be well above +60%.
Doing Well So Far
The yETH Vault hasn’t even been deployed for one week yet, but the service has already attracted in an explosive influx of interest and ETH.
Indeed, within 48 hours of launching,nearly 400,000 ETH — or ~0.35% of the total ETH supply — flowed into the new system as users flocked to take advantage of the unprecedented ETH farming opportunity.
The new @iearnfinance yETH vault absorbed 378k ETH since launching 2 days ago
It also just successfully managed risk during a 25% crash
3 Rebalances were called in the past hour leading to 2.7M DAI paid back to its CDP
Cool validation for the product pic.twitter.com/x32At0P8tq
— Andrew Kang (@Rewkang) September 4, 2020
Moreover, in that same span the yETH Vault came to mint +70 million Dai, or over 10% of all Dai currently in existence. In the process, the vault also became the largest open position in the MakerDAO ecosystem and helped push the Dai price down toward $1, after the stablecoin has been trading above that mark in recent weeks.
The yETH vault by @iearnfinance is now the LARGEST vault in @MakerDAO
215k ETH – $95m
46.7m Dai🔱 ETH.MKR.YFI pic.twitter.com/6tY8rO1R4I
— mariano.eth (@nanexcool) September 3, 2020
The yETH Vault launch was so popular, in fact, that deposits to the system were temporarily paused to discourage overly hasty growth.
https://t.co/hHZTAKGK2d update;
Deposits to yETH have been paused. ~70m DAI minted. Withdrawals unaffected. We will allow deposits again in the future. For now this is a high enough cap to balance between best profits and best risk adjustment. pic.twitter.com/te0Z2g6z7G
— yearn.finance (@iearnfinance) September 3, 2020
A New Major Force on ETH
The rise of the yETH Vault can apply considerable pressure to the ETH price going forward.
That is to say, the service is going to be consistently buying ETH off the open market, and this buy pressure — which will undoubtedly grow as yEarn and DeFi grow — is unprecedented. Over time it’s possible then that the yETH Vault becomes a major fundamental value driver for ETH.
Oh my..
Yeth vault will bring sell side liquidity crisis for eth just like what happened in 2017 with ICOs
few understand.. pic.twitter.com/QSoFjnn095
— Mad Yorkie (@noBS111) August 29, 2020
Additionally, it’s possible to think of yETH’s positive pressure on the ETH price as a precursor to how the rollout of Ethereum 2.0 starting in late 2020 or early 2021 can similarly lead to a feedback loop of ETH buy pressure.
For example, on September 3rd investor, strategist, and professor Adam Cochran wrote a Twitter thread explaining how this exact kind of feedback is likely coming courtesy of ETH2.0.
1/25
In April I wrote a thread on the economic theory on how ETH2.0 will drive prices.
Some maximalists & arm-chair economists complained that wasn’t clear correlation.
Thanks to the work from $YFI‘s yETH vaults, we now have a snapshot of behavior of what we can expect: pic.twitter.com/TmZzWNEa66
— Adam Cochran (@AdamScochran) September 3, 2020
“If this risky loaning, debt based vault, that is in beta and being tested in production, can convince $150M worth of investments in a few days, imagine the inflow that early ETH2.0 will have,” Cochran said.
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Blockchain
Ledger Live Adds Self-Custody Staking for Polkadot (DOT)


The popular hardware wallet provider, Ledger, will add Polkadot to its wide variety of supported tokens as of March 4th. Additionally, Ledger will also enable users to stake DOT coins directly on the platform, thus increasing the total number of staking options to five.
Ledger Adds Polkadot and DOT Staking
Founded in 2014, Ledger is a digital asset wallet provider describing itself as the “global leader in security and infrastructure solutions for safeguarding critical” cryptocurrencies. In a press release shared with CryptoPotato, the company announced plans to add another blockchain project with its own cryptocurrency to the Ledger ecosystem – Polkadot (DOT).
The statement reads that the wallet provider will support Polkadot in its software application and will add it to Ledger Live – the mobile application working in parallel to the Ledger hardware wallet. Apart from storing crypto assets, Ledger Live also enables users to follow and manage the holdings even if the wallet is nowhere nearby.
Polkadot’s native digital asset – DOT – will become just the fifth coin that Ledger Live users can deploy for staking. According to the announcement, the mobile application “offers the most secure way to manage and stake DOT tokens as the private keys are stored on a dedicated hardware device that is not connected to the Internet.”
The installing process will be simplified as users need to install a designated Polkadot app on their respective devices, create a DOT account on Ledger Live, add the token to the bounded balance, nominate a validator, and confirm the information.
“Polkadot is one of the most promising projects in the entire crypto ecosystem, and we are happy to provide our users with additional options to earn rewards and participate in the expanding Polkadot ecosystem.” – commented Head of Coin Integration at Ledger – Fabrice Dautriat.
Ledger spokesperson told CryptoPotato that the integration will be fully live starting from March 4th, 2021.
DOT Price and Staking Stats
DOT has been among the best price performers as of late. The asset entered the new year at about $8 but has taken full advantage of the bullish developments in the following months and even breached $40 for a new all-time high.
Despite retracing slightly during last week’s market crash, DOT is still 350% up YTD as it currently hovers above $36.
Additionally, the token is the second-most utilized coin for staking, per data from stakingrewards.com. With over $24 billion worth locked for staking, DOT trails only to Cardano (ADA) by $4 billion. About 64% of all DOT in circulation has been staked as of writing these lines.
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Source: https://cryptopotato.com/ledger-live-adds-self-custody-staking-for-polkadot-dot/
Blockchain
Change of Heart: Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary Joins the Bitcoin Club With a 3% Allocation


The growing in popularity “I changed my mind on bitcoin” club has another prominent representative. The Canadian businessman and star of Shark Tank, Kevin O’Leary, went from calling BTC garbage to allocating 3% of his portfolio in the asset.
O’Leary Has Bought Bitcoin
Born in Montreal, Canada, O’Leary is a popular businessman, author and is perhaps best known for his role in the reality TV show – Shark Tank. Also referred to as Mr. Wonderful, O’Leary recently announced his entrance into the bitcoin ecosystem.
Is #bitcoin a currency? Property? An asset? Maybe all of the above, I’m going with a 3% portfolio allocation and am looking at investing in miners that can create coin under a mandate of 0 carbon so sustainably! https://t.co/qgAXZVZXzh
— Kevin O’Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) March 1, 2021
Apart from allocating 3% of his portfolio in the primary cryptocurrency, the businessman also pledged to invest in BTC miners using clean energy to avoid “blood coins.”
Furthermore, O’Leary said that all companies he had invested in are currently examining the possibility of putting bitcoin on their balance sheets. He attributed this to “changes in the regulatory environment,” but he failed to provide details regarding their precise nature.
Another Change of Heart Moment
Prior to his 3% BTC allocation, O’Leary rarely had anything positive to say about the cryptocurrency. Just the opposite, he was openly bashing it.
Back in 2019 he O’Leary was predominantly negative on this “digital game” called bitcoin, which was “worthless” to him. He went even further by naming it a “useless currency” and “garbage because you can’t get in and out of it in large amounts.”
“Let’s say you want to buy a piece of real estate for $10 million in Switzerland. They want a guarantee that the value comes back to the US currency. You have to somehow hedge the risk of bitcoin. That means it’s not a real currency. That means the receiver is not willing to take the risk of the volatility it has. It’s worthless.”
Fast-forward to February 2021, he was still neglectful of BTC’s potential. O’Leary said he’s not against it and actually respected the asset but dismissed any chances of putting a lot of capital in it.
“No, I don’t want to own something that goes up and down 30% in a day or a week.” – O’Leary noted and added that bitcoin is “not backed by anything. It’s just backed by your faith.”
However, it seems now that this “worthless, not backed by anything digital game” has earned at least 3% of his investment portfolio.
With this change of heart, O’Leary has joined a prominent club with several similar examples. Names such as MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, CNBC’s Jim Cramer, and the former Fed Governor – Kevin Warsh.
Featured Image Courtesy of INC
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Blockchain
FreeBitco.in purchases 3.75 billion FUN Tokens in a multi-million dollar deal


Through a series of ventures, FreeBitco.in seeks to promote the mass adoption and utilization of FUN Token in the iGaming and Gaming spaces.
FreeBitco.in, one of the biggest Bitcoin iGaming websites in the world, has acquired the majority of FunFair’s remaining cold storage of FUN tokens, the native cryptocurrency of the FunFair gaming ecosystem. The cold storage holds 4.45 billion FUN Tokens and FreeBitco.in has acquired 3.75 billion tokens.
Through this acquisition, FreeBitco.in plans to invest in the token’s long-term development.
“Since 2013, FreeBitco.in’s goal has always been to provide online gaming enthusiasts with a frictionless, transparent, and truly fair experience,” said a statement by FreeBitco.in. “There’s no better fit than the FUN token to help us significantly enhance our efforts.”
The FUN Token
Since 2017, FunFair Technologies has been striving to deliver a guaranteed fair, decentralized gaming experience to the mass market through blockchain technology utilizing the FUN token.
FunFair team said in a statement:
Despite several industry firsts and significant milestones in proving that use case, it has recently become apparent that FreeBitco.in has developed a different and superior use case for the FUN token.
This announcement refers to FreeBitco.in’s Premium Membership Program; a feature that incentivizes FreeBitco.in users to buy and hold FUN tokens for significant benefits. This activity has driven considerable volume into the token economy without the burden of significant on-chain transactions. According to the statement:
There’s no doubt that FreeBitco.in’s customers are currently generating the bulk of FUN token commercial activity rather than FunFair’s customers.
With this in mind and for the token economy to maintain its recent success, FunFair has agreed to sell the majority of their FUN token holdings to FreeBitco.in.
FUN is an ERC20 token listed on major exchanges Binance, BitFinex, HitBTC, Changelly, and OKEx, as well as decentralized exchanges like Uniswap.
FreeBitco.in’s Vision for FUN
FreeBitco.in aspires to grow the FUN token as an independent entity through a series of upcoming projects.
Our sole objective, as of now, is to work to increase FUN’s utility and value,” the FreeBitco.in. team said. “We’re thoroughly committed to its long-term growth.
Accordingly, FreeBitco.in is preparing to undertake the following initiatives:
- Strategic Burning of Tokens: FreeBitco.in plans to invest a substantial portion of its bottom line into strategically acquiring and burning FUN tokens to elevate their value over time.
- Improving Liquidity: FreeBitco.in is working on increasing FUN’s liquidity across all markets, thus making it easily accessible and tradeable. This is evidenced by a cumulative influx of $3 million in the FUN/ETH and FUN/USDC trading pairs on Uniswap recently, and other exchanges are set to follow.
- New Blockchain: Based on the Ethereum blockchain, FUN prided itself on being fast, open, and secure. However, the growth of DeFi on Ethereum has been pushing gas prices up for many months, making the adoption of FUN too expensive for users. FreeBitco.in is actively exploring opportunities to port the FUN Token to a new blockchain that is faster and cheaper.
- Dedicated Wallet: FreeBitco.in is working on creating a dedicated wallet for FUN users that can operate seamlessly between different iGaming platforms. The wallet would also help users convert their FUN tokens into multiple crypto and fiat currencies.
- Proactive Development: FreeBitco.in is assembling a development team to build innovative, consumer-facing apps based around the FUN token, thus creating more use cases, strengthening utility, and promoting adoption.
- Creating Effective Partnerships: FreeBitco.in seeks to build productive partnerships and affiliations with other iGaming entities to promote FUN’s identity as a transactional currency in online gambling.
Note: This is not a partnership between the two organizations, namely FreeBitco.in and FunFair Technologies. The aforementioned acquisition and venture is at the sole discretion of FreeBitco.in.
About FreeBitco.in
Founded in 2013, FreeBitco.in is one of the largest crypto-gaming websites and the seventh-largest online casino in the world (Source: SimilarWeb). FreeBitco.in was created to promote Bitcoin’s utility and facilitate its adoption. However, it has grown by leaps and bounds since then.
Powered by a fully automated, proprietary tech-stack, FreeBitco.in features a simple but powerful HI-LO Dice Game supplemented by contests, rewards, jackpots, and a popular Lamborghini giveaway.
With 41 million users, 52 million monthly visits, and a $600 million-per-annum wagering volume, its influence on the Bitcoin community is significant.
Useful Links
Official FUN Token Website: https://funtoken.io
Official FreeBitco.in Website: https://freebitco.in
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FUNtoken_io
Telegram Channel: https://t.me/officialFUNToken_channel
Telegram Chat: https://t.me/officialFUNToken
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/FUN_token
Discord: https://discord.gg/e7vfgKbEKU
Disclaimer: This article is a paid post and must not be considered as news/advice.
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