420% Yield and Other High APY Opportunities on zkSync

Few things in life are nicer than making money while you sleep. Unfortunately, the stock market doesn’t offer this luxury. And banks, with their 5% CD rates, still don’t outperform inflation. Part of crypto’s allure is that your money is accessible and can work 24 hours a day. And the crypto markets are continually trading since it’s a global marketplace.

Finding yield isn’t easy in a bear market. Typically, it requires farming risky assets, using leverage, or having a shit-ton of money. However, when the altcoin markets drop, having an income incentivizing you to hang onto your bags is nice. And, if you invest in projects with staying power, it may become extremely profitable when altcoins re-awaken.

zkSync is the newest Ethereum extension that I am focusing on right now. Why? Check out this graph from the past couple of weeks since the era mainnet went online, and you can see why.

TVL growth indicates money is flowing into zkSync. Additionally, there are potential airdrop opportunities of a zkSync token and other platforms rewarding early adopters.

Finally, zkSync has some juicy farming opportunities I want to take advantage of. Remember that this is a story in progress based only on the platforms I have researched.

Setting yourself up on zkSync

zkSync is not compatible with rabby wallet yet. This is a bummer because I’ve grown extremely attached to rabby wallet since I began using it last month. So, it’s back to Metamask to interact with zkSync dApps.

Here are instructions from the zkSync docs on how to add the zkSync network to your wallet.

ETH is used for gas on zkSync, and it’s extremely fast and cheap to bridge ETH to zkSync using the native bridge: https://bridge.zksync.io/. Alternatively, I have also used multichain and orbiter to bridge from different networks. Once you have ETH on zkSync, you can utilize the ecosystem and earn yield.

The safer opportunity

Syncswap.xyz is the frontrunner for being the top dex on zkSync…at least until Uniswap shows its face. There aren’t too many pools or swapping pairs on zkSync today, but I expect the number to grow as adoption gains steam.

Here’s a snapshot of the pools today.

As you can see, most liquidity providers utilize the ETH/USDC pool, which pays 28.57% APR. The USDC/BUSD pool also stands out, but the APR will drop as more people deposit.

The OT pool is for Onchain.trade, a derivatives protocol waiting on Chainlink’s pricing oracle to begin derivatives trading. I’m closely monitoring Onchain.trade, but its price action has been too volatile for me to consider providing liquidity.

Another reason I am supplying liquidity on Syncswap is that they have announced they will be releasing a token, $SYNC, and everyone is hoping for an airdrop. So after doing a swap on Syncswap, you may want to get the GALXE Pioneer NFT by visiting: https://galxe.com/SyncSwap/campaign/GCd81U1awt and meeting the three other qualifications. It takes less than 5 minutes.

The higher risk/reward opportunity

If you read my recent piece, Major Token Presale on zkSync Tomorrow!, and got some $VC tokens during the presale on Velocore.xyz, congratulations! Although the public presale was over 13x oversubscribed, the overflow model worked extremely well. The token launch went smoothly, and early holders and buyers have seen the price increase.

Does this mean the price of $VC will continue increasing? I’m not certain, but I am optimistic. There aren’t too many places to invest on zkSync, and Velocore seems much better than some competing options I am not so interested in. Also, I like that the Velocore team immediately refunded the oversubscribed ETH and had a working product at launch.

Velocore is a Solidly fork, copying Velodrome’s code. The team states they have partnered with Multichain and are working on more partnerships. The tokenomics are fair, and the dev funds are locked in 4-year veVC NFTs. So effectively, the team is compensated if the platform generates yield like intended.

Velocore has seen its TVL rise to nearly $10 million, ranking it number 3 in the zkSync ecosystem, according to Defillama. However, the liquidity pool I am most interested in on Velocore is the WETH/VC pool paying 420% APR. The rewards are paid in $VC tokens.

Key Takeaways

As new opportunities will continue, I’m trying not to be too aggressive and risky on zkSync. I don’t need to invest in every protocol, and I’m certain I will miss out on some opportunities.

Simultaneously, I want to take advantage of the best projects with the best platforms and teams. So I’d encourage you to stay abreast of what is happening by subscribing to my free newsletter, following zkSync’s Twitter, and checking out Discords/Telegrams on any new projects you find.

I have not been paid or sponsored to write this article. However, I am invested in and providing liquidity on the WETH/VC pair on Velocore and the ETH/USDC pair on Syncswap.

_{This information should not be taken as investment advice. Digital assets like crypto and NFTs involve risk, so you should always perform due diligence before investing.}

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