Depositing stablecoins to DeFi vaults can be a profitable way to earn passive yield while avoiding market volatility. Six platforms offering high returns right now are Summer, Gearbox, Harmonix, Aave, Kamino, and Falcon Finance. Within these protocols, besides solid APYs across a range of chains, there are protocol-native rewards, while Falcon features fixed-term locks to access boosted yields, and you can find multiple ways to stay active and earn while keeping risk exposure relatively low.
There are times when you just want to play it safe and avoid volatility risks, and in that case, parking your stablecoins in high-reward DeFi protocols is a key move. So, this week’s guide will walk through six places where you can deposit your stables to pick up yield and protocol-native rewards.
As always, remember that yields will vary over time, you may need to bridge assets across chains, and DeFi is never risk-free, so be aware of the possibility of smart contract exploits, front-end vulnerabilities, bridge risks, market volatility, and stablecoin de-pegs.
Next though, let’s go through some top platforms that are currently offering high yield returns.
Summer
A multi-chain yield platform emphasising transparency and automated rebalancing, Summer allows users to deposit various kinds of stablecoins across several supported chains.
In its favor, Summer is easy-to-use with a simple UX, and vaults are preset and managed, so it allows for a passive approach. Note that yields are paid partly in the protocol’s own SUMR token, so check on the exact yield breakdown for each vault.
To use Summer, open the app, you can log in by connecting your wallet, and then navigate to the Earn section, where right now you’ll see that the top-earning USDC vault currently offers a 30-day APY coming in at 10.59%.
This is a lower risk vault that claims to have no exposure to peg or swap risks, and it has no lockup period, so you can withdraw funds whenever you like. Also, on Summer you can deposit using any token, and the protocol will automatically convert it into the required base asset.
Gearbox Protocol
This protocol acts as a DeFi credit layer where you can supply capital and earn yield from borrower interest and fees. To read more about it in detail, check this earlier guide, but what you’re getting here is a very easy-to-use range of pools into which you can park stables and passively earn.
Again, you can deposit many different kinds of stablecoin across a variety of chains. To get started here, go to the Earn tab, click on the USD button to narrow it down to stablecoins, and if you want to specify a particular chain, select your preferred network.
Right now, as an example of a high yield option, you can deposit USDT0 into the USDT0 v3 pool, and receive 11.24% APY, although note that this means receiving 6.65% organic yield in the base token and, in this case, 4.59% in WXPL (wrapped XPL), and in all cases, make sure to check exactly how rewards are broken down.
Harmonix Finance
Yield strategy platform Harmonix was covered last week as part of this guide to the Hyperliquid ecosystem, and is a must-check if you’re looking to earn from stablecoins while using the HyperEVM blockchain.
For a very straightforward play, you can open the app, navigate to its Yield Markets, and the USDC – HYPE…
