3 Beaten Up Altcoins Paying Up To a 49% Annual Yield

If you have been mostly positioned in Bitoin over the past six months, you should feel pretty good. The price is only 21% off its all-time high (pretty mild for a correction), and the stars are aligning nicely—incoming rate cuts, exchange reserves of BTC are at multi-year lows, and we are trading in the high $50s region while the fear and greed index is showing levels of fear (a good contrarian indicator).

On the other hand, if you have been heavily positioned in alts, you probably aren’t feeling as optimistic today. Blue-chip altcoins (ETH, SOL, TON, ADA, etc.) have been trading 35–55% below their March peaks, and riskier altcoins have been trading 60% or more in red since March. And, if you were unlucky enough to buy some of the newer coins (ALT, ENA, ZKL, etc.), you probably feel like this.

Nonetheless, you are likely still holding some of these coins, hoping for a rebound when the market takes off again. If you feel like Wojak, I’m right there in several positions.

Gunshy to double-down on most of my shitcoins, I’ve identified a few that have good bounce-back probability and can earn a nice reward in the meantime. Sometimes, earning a bit of yield is comforting when your portfolio is taking a dump. And, if these coins bounce back, now you’ve had a chance to grow your bags and be doubly rewarded for holding.

It’s hard to advocate massively allocating funds to altcoins, but sometimes, the toughest buys are the most profitable. So, if you are a degen and still have some funds left, here are a few opportunities to consider.

Coin #1: Brett

Current Market Cap: $790M 
Currently trades for $0.079 (59% below All-time-high)
Lending Yield: 23.8%

Bullish Thesis: Pump.fun has effectively removed all the fun from memecoins. Extracting millions in degen liquidity has negatively impacted the crypto native community. It’s reminiscent of how Blur drained much of the market cap in NFTs.

But, just because the low-cap memecoin market has worse odds than your state lottery, blue-chip memecoins can still offer robust gains. Brett has the highest market cap of any memecoin in the Base ecosystem. I expect it to do well when the market heats up, and it’s going to be easily accessible to millions of Coinbase retail customers who are looking to go on-chain.

Today, you can lend Brett on https://legacy.seamlessprotocol.com/ and earn a juicy reward. The loaned Brett can not be used as collateral, and whenever you lend in decentralized finance, remember that you are always taking on extra risk.

Coin #2: Aero

Current Market Cap: $350M
Currently trades for $0.57 (75% below All-time-high)
Lending Yield: 49%

Bullish Thesis: Like Brett, Aero is one of the highest-valued coins in the Base ecosystem. I’m not usually a fan of tokens flooding the market as rewards, but a 49% yield is nothing to sneeze at. And, just like Brett, if Base successfully scales up as it has been, Aero should definitely see more buyers who don’t completely understand the tokenomics.

Base doesn’t have a native token, so owning the top decentralized exchange (Aero) and the top memecoin (Brett) seem like great proxy plays. A potential Base ecosystem pump should favor both of these altcoins.

Today, you can lend Aero on https://app.extrafi.io/lend. It’s important to recognize that Extra loans out their tokens to a point where sometimes you cannot withdraw. For example, 90% of the Aero supplied is being loaned out. If it hits 100%, you cannot withdraw your tokens. If you are lending a large amount or tend to overtrade, keep an eye on utilization.

Coin #3: Arb

Current Market Cap: $1.8B 
Currently trades for $0.52 (78% below All-time-high)
Lending Yield: 13%

Bullish Thesis: Ethereum is committed to Layer 2s, and I doubt this will change in the foreseeable future. Now that they have the infrastructure, it’s simply a matter of gaining adoption, and Arbitrum seems to be the leading L2 for DeFi adoption.

With over $2.5B in total value locked and 698 protocols, Arbitrum is one of the leaders in the L2 race. The team seems strategic, and Arbitrum has the benefit of being one of the first L2s to market. If Ethereum pumps, it should positively impact its Layer 2’s, and I expect and hope that Arb will see a higher price.

Today, you can lend Arb on https://app.harvest.finance/ via Lodestar. The 13.6% yield isn’t too massive, but I believe the risk/reward in the Arb token makes it much more attractive than many altcoins.

Key Takeaways

If you hold these altcoins in your portfolio, you may want to consider these lending opportunities. None of them require lockup periods or conversion of your tokens into veTokens or esTokens that will ensure you are a bagholder.

If you don’t hold these tokens and want to take on extra risk, they can perform well in an alt season. The safest play in our market is Bitcoin, as it always has been, so if you are risk averse, you may want to accumulate larger assets such as BTC, ETH, or SOL.

Buying any crypto in the market takes guts. These tokens have all been down 59% or more in the past six months, which will not excite anyone when they look at the chart. However, these opportunities may be highly profitable for those with conviction and the willingness to assume more risk.

I own all the crypto assets mentioned in this article—BTC, ETH, SOL, AERO, BRETT, and ARB. This information should not be taken as investment advice. I am no more qualified to give financial advice than to debate a presidential candidate. Digital assets like crypto and NFTs involve risk, so you should always perform due diligence before investing. Lending platforms also add more risk; users should research and understand the risks before using them.

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