Before we get started, this is not a recommendation or endorsement to buy any token mentioned.
What is PoolTogether?
PoolTogether is one of the first protocols to secure an OP grant from the Optimism Governance fund, for work deploying their signature protocol on the Ethereum L2. You may recall previous write-ups on PoolTogether, which is a no-loss savings game that’s been live for over three years. Since its inception, the protocol has distributed over $5 million in prizes to depositors, with the luckiest winner to date having deposited $74 and won over $40,000.
PoolTogether allows you to permissionlessly and trustlessly deposit tokens (commonly stablecoins), lend the pooled tokens to Compound and Aave, and award the aggregate yield to a randomly chosen winner. Some of the most beloved benefits of PoolTogether are:
- No risk to your deposited principal (barring an exploit)
- Easy and fun to play–deposit and you’re auto-enrolled in each drawing!
- The gamification of saving with the chance to win a larger prize!
Today, I’ll show how I can earn 9.7% vAPR in OP rewards just for depositing USDC in PoolTogether on Optimism, with the added bonus opportunity to win the daily drawing every 24 hours at 3 pm EST, for a prize currently worth $4,732.
How to Earn Up to 9.7% vAPR with USDC on PoolTogether on Optimism
Before we get started, please be aware of these risks.
- Smart contract risk in PoolTogether on Optimism and Aave
- Systemic risk in DeFi composability
- Pegged assets such as stablecoins can go to $0
- Estimated yield can go up or down depending on the amount of competing liquidity for OP rewards
Here’s how I get started!
- First, I go to the PoolTogether dApp on Optimism here and click Connect Wallet (ie MetaMask) and be sure I’m connected to the Optimism network.
- Next, I specify how much USDC to deposit and click Review deposit. If I need to bridge USDC from Ethereum Mainnet or another EVM-compatible L2, I can go to bungee.exchange to find the cheapest, fastest bridging route to Optimism.
- Then, I follow the prompts to Confirm approval so I can spend / deposit USDC (requiring one MetaMask transaction).
- Lastly, I deposit my USDC by clicking Confirm in wallet and following the prompts to confirm a second transaction in MetaMask.
That’s it! I’m now earning OP rewards and eligible for all future daily prize drawings so I can check in every few days in the hopes I might have won!
For more DeFi video tutorials and insights, follow me @DeFi_Dad on Twitter and subscribe to DeFi Tutorials with DeFi Dad on YouTube at defidad.com. If you’re a builder raising capital for the next killer DeFi app, my team and I would love to partner with you at 4RC (Fourth Revolution Capital). Contact me via DMs on Twitter or at [email protected].
Disclaimer & Risks: This is not financial advice or a recommendation/endorsement to buy any token mentioned in this post. You should approach all DeFi applications, wallets, protocols, and tools with caution. Please be aware there is always risk in using DeFi, especially technical risks (ie smart contracts bugs), financial risks (ie liquidity crises), and potentially admin risk (admin key compromise, governance vulnerabilities).
DeFi Dad is one of the earliest power users of DeFi, having worked with early Ethereum startups going back to 2018, including Zapper.
