How To Use Trader Joe DEX? Avalanche Defi Guide 

Trader Joe is the one-stop decentralized trading platform powered by the Avalanche network. Users who go to Trader Joe can Swap, Stake, Farm, Lend, Borrow, and Leverage – they can do it all in one place. The platform is a fully integrated, highly accessible DeFi Trading Platform.

Getting Started on Trader Joe

Before you get started on Trader Joe, you need to connect a wallet. For this example we will be using a MetaMask wallet. However, there are other wallets you can connect too.

1. Firstly, go to  https://traderjoexyz.com/home and click on ‘Connect to a wallet’ in the top right-hand corner. Then select your wallet from the modal screen.
   • Select your account from your wallet that you would like to connect.

2. As MetaMask is, by default programmed to the Ethereum network, you will need to switch the network to Avalanche. 
   • Click the ‘Switch to Avalanche Chain’ button, and then within your MetaMask wallet, press the ‘Switch network’ button.
   • Confirm the Avalanche Network details and complete the switch.

3. Once complete, your connected wallet will be displayed on the screen.

Remember, as this is the Avalanche network, you need a small amount of $AVAX in your wallet to cover gas fees.

Trading Tokens

Trading is the most popular feature on the Trader Joe platform. It’s a very simple tool that you can use to swap any token on Avalanche. You need to make sure that Trader Joe has permission to ‘spend’ your tokens in your wallet, and you can then enjoy instantaneous, low-cost transactions.

1. First, you need to click on ‘Trade’ in the navigation menu.

2. Select the tokens that you wish to trade/swap. For this example, we are using $AVAX and $JOE
   • Once you have selected the tokens, enter the quantity to trade and press the ‘Swap’ button.

3. You will be asked to confirm the swap – so press the ‘Confirm Swap’ button.

4. Your wallet will pop up asking for confirmation to swap. Confirm the swap in your wallet.

5. Once confirmed in your wallet, you will see a ‘Transaction Submitted’ pop up and after a few seconds, your trade should be completed!
   • You can view the transaction by clicking on the ‘View on Snowtrace’ link.

Liquidity Pools

A liquidity pool (LP) is a pool of two tokens, e.g. $AVAX and $JOE tokens. Users can earn a share of the trading fees within the pool by depositing a pair of tokens into the LP (also known as “adding liquidity”). You will receive an LP token, representing your share of the LP. This is a super simple process!

1. Click on the ‘Pool’ link in the navigation menu.
   • Find the pool where you would like to add liquidity by using the page filters and/or typing in the tokens you wish to deposit, e.g. ‘JOE’ or ‘AVAX’.

2. Once you have selected the correct Pool, you will see the landing page for given Pool. Here, you can add tokens and amend slippage if necessary.
   • Once you click the ‘Approve Joe’ button, you’ll have to approve the use of your Joe tokens from your wallet. 

3. Click on the ‘Supply’ button to supply your tokens to the liquidity pool. 
   • Approve the transaction in your wallet.

Then you are done! You will be able to see your tokens have been added to the pool.

Farming on Joe

In return for depositing tokens to a Liquidity Pool, you will receive a “JLP” token. You might be able to use this token in one of the Farms on Trader Joe to earn extra yield (on top of the Trading Fees) in the form of $JOE Tokens.

1. Click on the ‘Farm’ link in the navigation menu and locate the Farm you wish to deposit your LP tokens.

2. When you select your farm, you can see all the details about it, including Liquidity, Pool APR, $JOE APR, and Bonus APR.
   • If you don’t have LP tokens yet, click on ‘Get LP Tokens’ – This will take you to the token-pair’s liquidity pool e.g. ($JOE / $AVAX). Once you have supplied Tokens into the pool and received your LP tokens, return to the farm.
   • On the right-hand side, select ‘Stake’ and enter the amount of LP tokens you wish to deposit.
   • Press the ‘Approve’ button and authorise the use of LP tokens from your wallet.

3. Press the ‘Stake’ button and approve the transaction from your wallet.

Congratulations you have now deposited your LP tokens into the Farm and are now earning Farm rewards!

Staking Pools

There are various staking pools on the Trader Joe platform, each offering different utility. 

If you stake $JOE into rJOE, you are given the ability to participate in Rocket Joe – a liquidity launch platform;

If you stake $JOE into sJOE, you can earn Stablecoin rewards by sharing revenue generated on the platform; 

And

If you stake $JOE into veJOE, you will receive a boosted yield of JOE rewards in selected Farms.

1. To access the staking pools, click on the ‘Stake’ in the navigation menu. For this example, we’re going to stake for sJOE rewards. Staking for rJOE rewards works in the same way.
   • To stake $JOE into sJOE click on the sJOE tile.

2. You select the amount of $JOE tokens that you want to stake, and you click on the ‘Approve’ button.
   • You will need to approve the access to your $JOE tokens from your wallet.

3. Once approved, click on the ‘Stake’ button.

4. Your $JOE tokens are now being staked. 
   • Once your rewards become available, you can click the ‘Get Harvest’ button to redeem them. 

That’s it for staking!

Note: From the 25th of February 2022, xJOE will cease to accrue revenues on the platform. xJOE will no longer receive yield and users staking into xJOE, will be required to transition to sJOE Staking to accumulate rewards.