👩‍🌾 Exploring Yearn Finance’s Curve Rocket Pool Vault

🦀 DeFi TVL remains steady — On April. 26th, 2022, the total value locked (TVL) in Ethereum DeFi projects was $76.41B according to DeFi Pulse, almost 0.5% lower than the value we saw a week ago.

😳 Driving crypto and DeFi regulatory updates-

💸 This week’s best-performing Ethereum DeFi tokens — 

• 📈 Curve DAO Token (CRV) +24.6%

• 📈 Synthetix Network Token (SNX) +18.3%

• 📈 Lido DAO (LDO) +12.9%

👛 The $DPI pulse —  The DeFi Pulse Index ($DPI) is presently trading at $175.91, an increase of 0.03% since Tuesday, April 19th. 

  👀Latest News you shouldn’t miss:

• The Zapper iOS Mobile app is here;

• Dune Analytics’ flashbots data is live;

• OpenSea buys Gem;

• ETHAmsterdam finalists;

• MakerDAO’s upcoming integration with StarkNet;

• dYdX’s push to total decentralization by the end of the year;

• Bybit launches options trading.

• Institutional investment flows out of ETH and into competing L1 altcoins
  TLDR: Investors piled up on $3.5 million worth of Avalanche (AVAX), Solana (SOL), Terra (LUNA), and Algorand (ALGO) funds last week (ending April 22), according to CoinShares’ latest Digital Asset Fund Flows report, while capital outflows from Ether products reached $16.9 million;

• The loss of privacy: Why we must fight for a decentralized future
  TLDR: According to David Chaum, as early blockchain users, we must deliver decentralization to the masses and combat the IT behemoths that are its natural foes (The Godfather of Privacy);

•  Crypto industry reacts to Elon Musk buying Twitter for $44B
  TLDR: Many internet users, both in and out of the crypto industry, discussed free speech in the hours and days leading up to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s purchase of social media giant Twitter;

• Fidelity to allow retirement savers to include Bitcoin in 401(k) accounts
  TLDR: Later this year, the 23,000 companies that use Fidelity to manage their retirement plans will be able to add Bitcoin to their retirement portfolio;

• Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs stolen in Instagram phishing attack
  TLDR: The Instagram account of the Bored Ape Yacht Club was hacked, and 91 NFTs worth more than $2.8 million were allegedly stolen. 

🚜 Exploring Yearn Finance’s Curve Rocket Pool Vault

The Curve rETH-wstETH pool yVault on Yearn Finance is an opportunity to earn a yield on your staked Ethereum. Yearn Finance is a set of decentralized products built to help user’s optimize yields by Andre Cronje. A Yearn vault is a pool of funds with an associated strategy that aims to maximize returns. Users may deposit a vault’s token in order to receive a yToken which represents their share of the vault. Once a user goes to redeem their yToken, they will receive back their original deposit and any yield earned by their funds.

The vault examined today involves two decentralized ETH 2.0 liquid staking platforms, Lido and RocketPool. Staking on Ethereum can be troublesome as it requires technical know-how and a minimum of 32 ETH.  However, pooleed staking solutions such as Lido and RocketPool allow users who do not possess 32 ETH or the technical know-how to partake in ETH 2.0 staking. 

When you stake ETH with Lido and RocketPool, you receive stETH and rETH respectively. You can then wrap your stETH to wstETH on the Lido website. Users can then submit equal amounts of rETH and wstETH to the Curve Finance pool. 

Once a user has their liquidity provider tokens, they can then stake them within the Yearn Finance vault.

✅Advantages of the farm: 

• The pool has a high amount of Total Value Locked (TVL), so one can assume the yield will not drastically decrease from new pool entrants diluting farmers;

• The farm should not experience impermanent loss; 

• Lido, RocketPool, Curve, Convex and Yearn have all undergone multiple audits;

• Ethereum is one of the major cryptocurrencies hence offering some degree of stability;

• The vault is auto-compounding and requires minimal maintenance.

❗ Risks to keep an eye on:

• Users are exposed to multiple protocols and thus additional risk;

• The pool is composed of two Ethereum staking representations. This means a user still has market exposure via Ethereum;

• Since the farm is composed of a major cryptocurrency, the yield is lower than what you could find in a riskier opportunity.

Interested in trying this opportunity? You could:

The aforementioned protocols have undergone audits, but there are no ultimate guarantees in DeFi. So, always do your own research, and never invest more money into any project than you can afford to lose.

How DAOs could disrupt VCs?

Decentralized automated organizations (DAOs) are forming to invest in Web3 startup firms and initiatives, potentially undermining the venture capital funding mechanism that has sponsored new technologies for decades. Web3-focused DAOs are gaining traction as a new venue for sourcing transactions, meeting founders, and finally writing checks — all of which are traditionally performed by seasoned venture capitalists who pride themselves on their industry expertise.

The VC model has long been reserved for accredited investors and others with the financial means to write extensive checks. Web3 intends to democratize startup funding by allowing those who have never had access to it to participate. However, entrepreneurs should find investors who share their vision and will help them achieve their goals. As a result, DAOs appear to be swiftly progressing as the lead runner as Web3 develops. -Guneet Kaur

All info in this newsletter is purely educational and should only be used as research. DeFi Pulse is not offering investment advice, endorsement of any project or approach, or promising any outcome. This post is prepared using public information (which does not account for specific goals or financial situations) and links provided to third-party sites are for informational purposes. Such sites are not under the control of DeFi Pulse, so DeFi Pulse or the author are not responsible for the accuracy of the content on such third-party sites. Be careful and keep up the honest work!