Volumes and Yields for BOLD liquidity pools

[Stengarl]

This topic is a continuation of this one, which presents the stats for all existing liquidity pools on BOLD (the title was confusing )

Epoch 21 update

Deleted pool: BOLD/EUL on Ekubo

New pool: LQTYFORKS (USDFI / USDaf / ebUSD / BOLD) on Curve

Curve

LQTYFORKS is the latest BOLD-related pool on Curve and has 2,950 CRV ($2,154) as rewards for this epoch, hence bringing massive yields for the week.

LQTYFORKS is currently the stable/stable pool with the highest yield, and we can expect this pool to be diluted fast.

DeFi Stable Avengers (BOLD / fxUSD / USDaf / USDC)

Good performance from this pool with 338k BOLD-related volumes this week

Real volumes of the pool are 3.2 millions, and this makes it the 5th highest total swap fees.

DeFi Stable Avengers is one of the most scalable liquidity pools so far, alongside:

• BOLD/USDC on Uniswap v3
• BOLD/USDC on Balancer (Gyroscope)
• BOLD/USDC on Ekubo

Uniswap

BOLD/USDC v4 has more votes with 1.18% total votes (compared to 0.09% last week), but still inferior to the 2% threshold to be eligible for PIL.

Initiatives failing to reach the 2% threshold during four consecutive epochs may be unregistered. Uniswap has 2 epochs left!

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

If you are interested in the APR:

• Yields vary significantly from week to week. If revenues decrease and/or TVL increases, the APR decreases
• Stable/volatile pools are subject to impermanent loss. Go for stable/stable pools to protect yourself from this risk

Full sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 22 Update

New pools

• BOLD/EUL on Ekubo
• BOLD/USDC on Uniswap v4

DeFi Stable Avengers (BOLD / fxUSD / USDaf / USDC)

4 Epochs in a row with TVL increasing and good volumes overall:

• BOLD volumes: $662,596
• Total volumes: $1,843,674
  Furthermore, this is the pool with the highest Volume/Total revenues ratio, meaning it has high volumes even with few incentives

LQTYFORKS (BOLD / USDaf / ebUSD / USDFi)

CRV emissions have been increased on this pool (2950 > 3240 CRV)

Even though the yields were massively diluted compared to last week, it has the 2nd highest APR for stable/stable pools

Opinionated thoughts about Curve

DeFi Stable Avengers and LQTYFORKS showed during several epochs that they perform better than BOLD/LUSD on lots of aspects.

We cannot expect them to perform as well as BOLD/USDC, as we are talking about very specific stablecoins.

That said, I think those pools deserve to challenge BOLD/LUSD for PIL rewards

Uniswap v4 enters the chat

BOLD/USDC on Uniswap has now 2.10% of voting power. It’s now eligible for PIL rewards and immediately used it to bring $38/day of incentives during this epoch.

Ekubo

Ekubo’s BOLD/USDC hits an all-time high with $4.15M volumes, more than a quarter of all volumes during Epoch 22 were realized on this pool.

The main explanation for these high volumes is that the pool charges a 0.01% fee to be selected as a priority by aggregators, so the BOLD/USDC can make volumes even with low TVL

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

If you are interested in the APR:

• Yields vary significantly from week to week. If revenues decrease and/or TVL increases, the APR decreases
• Stable/volatile pools are subject to impermanent loss. Go for stable/stable pools to protect yourself from this risk

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 23 Update

Sheet revamp

Instead of counting volumes every week for each pool, the sheet now displays the total volumes for the last 30 days.

The weekly volumes creates biases in pool performance, even more so during the previous Epoch, when the market panic generated more volume than usual.

Volume/TVL ratios are now calculated monthly accordingly, which makes almost no difference compared to weekly ratios.

Swap fees now follow a weekly average according to the monthly volumes.

Pools log

New pools: BOLD/crvUSD on Curve, BOLD/USDC 0.01% on Uniswap V4

Deleted pools: BOLD/ebUSD & BOLD/EUL on Ekubo

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pools:

• LQTYFORKS (BOLD / USDaf / ebUSD / USDFi) on Curve, with ~20% APR mostly paid in CRV, CRV emissions increased by 56% this Epoch
• BOLD/USDC 0.05% on Uniswap v4, with ~100% APR mostly paid in BOLD, expect quick dilution as the TVL is low

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/LQTY on Ekubo, with ~35% APR mostly paid in BOLD
• BOLD/EKUBO on Ekubo, ~58% APR paid in both tokens, incentivized by both PIL and Ekubo DAO Wave One
• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with ~49% APR paid in AERO

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

The Pendle surge

Liquidations happened on Liquity during Epoch 23, meaning Stability Pool depositors and yield-bearing variants like yBOLD or sBOLD earned extra yields.

That also means yBOLD/sBOLD holders on Pendle have seen their future yields multiplied. Just like Stephen said, this is how we long black swans

This yield boost created a volume surge on Pendle, especially on the yBOLD side.

One more proof that market panic is the best marketing for Liquity

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 24 Update

Pools log

Deleted pool: BOLD/crvUSD on Curve

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pools:

• LQTYFORKS (BOLD / USDaf / ebUSD / USDFi) on Curve, 10% - 24% APR depending how much veCRV you have
• BOLD/USDC 0.05% on Uniswap v4, ~26% APR mostly paid in BOLD (as expected, yields are greatly reduced but still high)
• BOLD/WUSDN on Balancer, 14% - 25% APR depending how much veBAL you have. Yields on this pool are decreasing because of BAL’s price drop

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/LQTY on Ekubo, 62% APR mostly paid in BOLD
• BOLD/EKUBO on Ekubo, 37% APR paid in both tokens, incentivized by both PIL and Ekubo DAO Wave One
• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with ~43% APR paid in AERO

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 25 Update

Pools log

New pool: BOLD/USDT 0.01% on Uniswap v4

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pool: BOLD/USDC 0.05% on Uniswap v4, ~26% APR mostly paid in BOLD

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/LQTY on Ekubo, ~54% APR mostly paid in BOLD
• BOLD/EKUBO on Ekubo, 41% APR paid in both tokens, incentivized by both PIL and Ekubo DAO Wave One
• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with ~56% APR paid in AERO

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

Bold take: Uniswap v3 > Uniswap v4

The idea for this take came from looking at the stats for Uniswap pools over the last few weeks

First we have the v3 pool, which made 6.89% of total volumes during october and made $329 of swap fees.

Secondly, we have the 5 bps v4 pool, with 0.61% total volumes but with high APR thanks to the $338 PIL rewards.

Finally we have the 1 bps v4 pool, with 1.43% total volumes but almost no swap fees ($14)

It seems like v4 pools is stuck in a dilemma:

• Either we set the lowest possible swap fees to maximize volumes but sacrifice revenue for LPs
• Or we maximize revenue for LPs with the PIL but the stats remain low compared to Uniswap v3, suggesting that LPs capture more value than they create

The v3 pool doesn’t look affected by this dilemma, as it is the fourth pool that generates the most volume without any incentives.

The main explanation for this comes from TVL and volumes of Uniswap v3 and v4 as a whole.

Even today, the vast majority of TVL and trading volume is on Uniswap V3 (both for stablecoins and more volatile tokens).

In other words, if we create one v3 pool and one v4 pool for any pair, the v3 one will certainly be the one that generates more statistics, as the addressable market is larger.

This take may be wrong

The v4 pools were only launched a few weeks ago. This observation may be confirmed or refuted in the coming weeks/months.

If this take is considered for PIL voting, some other liquidity initiatives may be more suitable than Uniswap for the growth of BOLD

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 26 Update

Pools log

BOLD/EKUBO on Ekubo: Incentives from Ekubo DAO Wave one have ended

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pools:

• BOLD/USDC 0.05% on Uniswap v4, ~23% APR mostly paid in BOLD
• Gyroscope’s BOLD/USDC on Balancer, ~15% APR mostly paid in BOLD (additional APR from yield-bearing tokens excluded)

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/LQTY on Ekubo, ~75% APR mostly paid in BOLD
• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with ~62% APR paid in AERO

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

Update about Uniswap

The BOLD/USDT 1bps pool has the 4th biggest volumes during last week

Contrary to what was said last week, the volume issue does not necessarily depend on Uniswap V4, but rather on USDC, which seems to be generating less volume than USDT.

That pool is very relevant for maximizing volumes, but it has the same limitation as Ekubo, meaning that its scaling will depend heavily on the rewards it receives.

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 27 Update

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pools:

• Smardex’s BOLD/WUSDN, 19-34% APR depending how much veBAL you have

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with ~62% APR paid in AERO
• BOLD/LQTY on Ekubo, 139% APR mostly paid in BOLD

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

Bold take: Smardex is profitable…For now

The Smardex initiative (BOLD/WUSDN on Balancer) is showing several signs of exhaustion that are worth mentioning.

Before getting started, it is important to remember how the initiative works.

1. Smardex bribes LQTY voters with SDEX tokens (they get more value as BOLD rewards than they spend with SDEX tokens, so far so good)
2. With BOLD rewards, Smardex bribes veBAL & vlAURA voters to maximize BAL emissions on their pool
3. The BAL emissions boost the pool yields to attract liquidity

First sign of exhaustion: The BAL amount directed to the pool is broadly consistent, but the BAL price keeps decreasing so the absolute value of incentives decreases as well.

The effectiveness of incentives depends directly on BAL price, and the outlook for BAL is far from optimistic. The recent Balancer v2 hack has certainly exacerbated the price decline, but Balancer remains a DEX that is generating less and less total volume compared to its competitors, and the market is reflecting this trend in the price (until proven otherwise, because the market does what it wants in the end).

Second sign of exhaustion: At the beginning of the initiative, Smardex offered a bribe for each Epoch. However, in recent weeks, it appears that bribes are no longer continuous but periodic (for example: 1 bribe every 2 epochs)

Third sign of exhaustion: In general, Smardex makes a $1,000 bribe with SDEX tokens. However, as the price of SDEX tokens falls, an increasingly larger amount of tokens is required to reach $1,000:

• Epoch 16: 250k SDEX
• Epoch 28: 333k SDEX

Increasing the amounts does not seem to be a problem for Smardex, but this allocation for bribes cannot be infinite.

Wat do?

Considering these signs, it is difficult to imagine a sustainable future for this initiative as it currently stands, but some solutions exist:

• The market does what it wants. If both BAL and SDEX prices rise, then the question of sustainability no longer needs to be asked.
• Merkl incentives. If BAL emissions are no longer profitable, it would be more efficient to distribute BOLD directly via protocols such as Merkl.

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 27 Update

Pools log

BOLD/EKUBO and BOLD/LQTY on Ekubo no longer have PIL incentives. From now on, 100% of rewards received on Ekubo will go to the BOLD/USDC pool.

BOLD/LQTY on Ekubo still exists, but has only $400 TVL and negligible volumes, so it is removed from the sheet

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pools:

• LQTYFORKS (BOLD/ebUSD/USDaf/USDFI) on Curve, 15-39% APR mostly paid in CRV (depending how much veCRV you have)
• BOLD/USDC 0.05% on Uniswap v4 , with 16% APR mostly paid in BOLD

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with 53% APR paid in AERO

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

Fluid DEX v2 as potential liquidity initiative

Devconnect ARG - M1 Yellow Pavilion

DeFi Made Here (DMH) made a presentation about Fluid DEX v2 at Devonnect

TL;DR:

• Permissionless deployment of DEX
• Customization of Smart Collateral/Debts with price ranges, hooks…

Permissonless deployment is all that matters for us, as we can now launch BOLD-related pools.

Fluid has already driven the growth of several stablecoins (e.g. GHO) with stable/stable pools, so a BOLD-related pool on v2 + PIL rewards can greatly contribute to the development of Liquity and forks.

According to DMH, v2 has been deployed a couple of days ago and will be open for public on early december

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 29 Update

Pools log

New pool: BOLD/ebUSD on Ekubo, gaining momentum recently thanks to xEBISU mutliplier (x20 on this pool while ebUSD/USDC on Curve is at x5)

Deleted pools: sBOLD and ysyBOLD on Pendle, they crossed the maturation deadline

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pools:

• BOLD/USDC on Velodrome, with 10% APR paid in VELO
• Gyroscope’s BOLD/USDC on Balancer, with 10% APR mostly paid in BOLD
• BOLD/USDC on Ekubo, with 12% APR mostly paid in BOLD
• BOLD/USDC 0.05% on Uniswap v4 , with 13% APR mostly paid in BOLD

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with 43% APR paid in AERO

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

Bold take: How I would vote for liquidity initiatives

In a tweet, Bojan shared his opinion about how LQTY votes would be used

This prompted others to share their own opinions, and that is precisely what we are going to do here, in the hope that it will encourage others to join the debate.

Curve

BOLD/USDC: 50% is overkill to me, but we can’t reduce it significantly as it’s needed for the Multiply feature. 25-30% would suffice

As noticed in the tweet’s comments, there is a marketplace to bribe veCRV votes, using BOLD rewards to bribe voters can bring more incentives than sending BOLD to Curve pools.

BOLD/LUSD: send it to 0. We have many pools which are more efficient with less incentives

DeFi Stable Avengers and LQTYFORKS: those pools can be eligible as liquidity initiatives, and their actual volumes are higher than what is shown in the sheet as only BOLD-related swaps are taken into account in those pools:

• DeFi Stable Avengers: $2,417,955 (last 30d), x3.47 more
• LQTYFORKS: $1,682,767 (last 30d), x13.28 more

It remains to be seen whether this type of pool is beneficial to Liquity or to other stablecoins in these pools.

DeFi Collective

Keep the ratio as it is. Low volumes would suggest this is not efficient, but there are several arguments in favor of the Collective:

• The BOLD supply on Layer 2s is much lower than on mainnet, so we can’t expect the same efficiency
• BOTTO, LUCHA and POOL tokens use BOLD as the main stablecoin to be swapped with

In fact, the Collective’s influence will mainly depend on the development of Liquity’s ecosystem on Layer 2s

Smardex

Decrease the votes. This intiative has been made for LQTY voters, but not for Liquity has a whole.

LQTY voters get paid 2 times:

1. They get paid in SDEX for bribes
2. They get paid with BAL incentives on the pool acquired with BOLD rewards

The problem is, SDEX and BAL price are both going down. LQTY voters keeps getting payed, but Smardex needs more and more SDEX for bribes, for less and less yields on BOLD/WUSDN pool.

Unless Smardex is a massive LQTY voter, it is preferable to reduce the number of votes to prevent the protocol from becoming drained.

Gyroscope

Slightly increase the votes. Gyroscope is the quiet strength, it has good TVL, high volumes and yields consistenly since several months now.

Gyroscope is well positioned to get more votes (~10% total votes). Maybe it was left out because this pool is already performing well without needing much, and more incentives wouldn’t change it that much.

Ekubo

Increase the votes. And we can go big on this one, like 20-25% of total votes.

The tweet said it all:

most efficient routing, strong volume, and reliable BOLD bribes

I am pretty sure doubling the TVL of BOLD/USDC pool on Ekubo would make it get more volumes and yields than the same pool on Curve.

Uniswap

Same observation as for Gyroscope: we know Uniswap is PIL-worthy considering the pools’ efficiency, and I’m curious to see how it goes with more incentives…But will this be relevant?

We didn’t try money markets yet

Until now, all liquidity initiatives have focused solely on DEXes. But what if we create liquidity initiatives for money markets?

We already have a selection out there:

• Morpho
• Euler
• Fluid v2 (in a couple of weeks )
• Aave (when BOLD reaches critical mass )

So we can create an initiative for any of them, bring the incentives for the borrowers, and see what’s gonna happen

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 30 Update

Pools log

New pools:

• ysyBOLD on Pendle (new market with 6-month maturation)
• BOLD/LQTY on Ekubo

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pools:

• BOLD/USDC 0.05% on Uniswap v4, with 10% APR mostly in BOLD
• BOLD/USDC on Ekubo, with 9% APR mostly in BOLD

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with 43% APR paid in AERO
• ysyBOLD liquidity providing on Pendle, with 21-51% APR paid in PENDLE, depending how much vePENDLE you have (expect fast dilution nonetheless)

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 31 Update

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pools:

• BOLD/LUSD on Aerodrome, with 12% APR paid in AERO
• BOLD/USDC 0.05% on Uniswap v4, with 10% APR mostly in BOLD

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/LQTY on Ekubo, with 42% APR from swap fees only
• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with 43% APR paid in AERO

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

5 yield opportunities with the forks

ebUSD/USDC on Curve, with 18-45% APR mostly paid in CRV, depending how much veCRV you have

tBTC Stability Pool on Mustang (SagaEVM fork), with 22% APR paid in MUST

USDFI/frxUSD on Convex, with with 23-25% APR paid in CVX, depending how much veCRV you have

USDFI/frxUSD on Curve, with 12-30% APR mostly paid in CRV, depending how much veCRV you have

USDaf/frxUSDon Convex with 11-17% APR paid in CVX, depending how much veCRV you have

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 32 Update

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pools:

• BOLD/LUSD on Aerodrome, with 12% APR paid in AERO
• Gyroscope’s BOLD/USDC on Balancer, with 10% APR mostly in BOLD

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/LQTY on Ekubo, with 56% APR from swap fees only (low TVL though)
• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with 41% APR paid in AERO

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

Look at this graph

This is the yield track record of all active liquidity initiatives from Epoch 26 to the actual one.

Instead of reading the evolution of yields one epoch after another, we have a better overview with this (it shows APR but not all the other stuff like TVL or revenue to explain it though)

I think about adding other graphs like PIL revenue / Total revenue ratio to estimate PIL influence on an initiative:

• Near 100% = The initiative’s scalability depends solely on PIL amount
• Near 0% = PIL wouldn’t make any difference
  What do you think?

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 33 Update

Pools log

Deleted pool: BOLD/LQTY on Ekubo, no more volumes since two weeks

PIL rewards changes:

• Votes for Gyroscope’s BOLD/USDC on Balancer have been reduced to zero
• Votes for BOLD/USDC on Uniswap v4 have been multiplied by 6, leading the pool to have $2,442 from PILthis week

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pools:

• BOLD/USDC on Uniswap V4, with 9% APR mostly in BOLD
• BOLD/USDC on Ekubo, with 8% APR mostly in BOLD

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with 49% APR paid in AERO

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 34 Update

Pools log

Deleted pools:

• BOLD/EKUBO on Ekubo, no volumes since 2 weeks
• BOLD/USDT v4 0.01% on Uniswap, almost zero TVL as is certainly got transferred to BOLD/USDC 0.05%, where the PIL is active

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pools:

• BOLD/USDC on Uniswap V4, with 8% APR mostly in BOLD
• BOLD/LUSD on Aerodrome, with 12% APR paid in AERO

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with 35% APR paid in AERO

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

New metric: PIL revenues / Total revenues ratio

Context: The Volume / TVL ratio is a relevant metric when liquidity pools have the same swap fees.

In practice, some pools have lower swap fees than others, so they get prioritized by DEX aggregators, likely leading to have higher volumes, hence a higher Volume / TVL ratio.

The problem is, near-zero swap fees are maximizing volumes at the expense of swap revenues, while they are necessary to make LP yields scalable.

Zero swap fees would mean that liquidity pools yields rely solely on PIL rewards, which can not scale with TVL.

A new metric was needed that took into account the need to generate volume without relying too heavily on PIL Rewards.

The answer: The PIL revenues / Total revenues ratio is an order of magnitude for determining whether a liquidity pool is scalable with or without PIL rewards.

• Near 0% means the PIL rewards wouldn’t change anything to the liquidity pool yields, and should be used elsewhere
• Near 100% means the liquidity pool yields rely solely on PIL amount (just like BOLD/LUSD on Curve right now). In other words, when its TVL get multiplied by 10, the yields get divided by 10, so not good for growth.

The ideal ratio would be 50-90% for a liquidity initiative. Above 50% because we want the liquidity initiative to be impactful, and below 90% as we want it to be still effective when the BOLD amount goes down.

Also, PIL revenues / Total revenues ratio is appropriate for any protocol, while the Volume / TVL ratio is appropriate for decentralized exchanges only.

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 35 Update

Pools log

Deleted pools:

• BOLD/LUCHA on Aerodrome, it has zero AERO emissions since 4 weeks and almost no volume
• Gyroscope’s BOLD/USDC on Balancer, as it has no volumes since 2 weeks and its liquidity initiative is very likely to be delisted (reminder: a liquidity initiative below 2% of total votes during 4 epochs in a row is unregistered)

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pools:

• BOLD/USDC on Uniswap V4, with 7.7% APR mostly in BOLD
• BOLD/USDC on Aerodrome, with 8% APR paid in AERO
• BOLD/LUSD on Aerodrome, with 10% APR paid in AERO

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with 36% APR paid in AERO

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

Bold take: EulerSwap incentivised pairs are coming

Among all the liquidity initiatives we can vote for, there is this one:

Of course I won’t vote for it, but that won’t stop me from guessing what it might be , and there is a fairly good chance that EulerSwap is behind this initiative

In Liquity’s discord server, the team mentionned EulerSwap for the first time in July 2025, so they had already been considering integrating it into Liquity for some time

Today, Liquity has a EulerSwap pool with $250k as NAV and they tweeted some days ago about the recent performance of BOLD vault on Euler.

The only thing is, incentivised pairs are not available right now. So we all have to wait for launch to bring the liquidity initiative on.

But considering Liquity is highlighting EulerSwap and that we have a hidden liquidity initiative, we have some hints that incentivised pairs will soon launch and Liquity will certainly harness it.

Or I’m completely off topic and this will be remembered as one of the worst bold takes of the year, even though it’s only just begun

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 36 Update

Pools log

New pool: BOLD/USDC on EulerSwap

Deleted pool: BOLD/USDC on Uniswap v4 0.01% (no TVL + no volumes)

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pools:

• BOLD/USDC on Uniswap V4, with 7.8% APR mostly in BOLD
• BOLD/USDC on Aerodrome, with 8.5% APR paid in AERO
• BOLD/LUSD on Aerodrome, with 8.9% APR paid in AERO

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with 30% APR paid in AERO

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

WTF is going on with Smardex?

It turns out that Smardex’s presence among liquidity initiatives is becoming increasingly toxic.

Firstly, Smardex has been receiving PIL rewards for 4 weeks in a row without distributing anything to the BOLD/WUSDN pool. Smardex is supposed to bribe veBAL & vlAURA voters to get BAL emissions on their pool, but this pool gets nothing.

Secondly, in case the veBAL/vlAURA bribe is no longer profitable, there are alternatives like Merkl (used by Gyroscope and Uniswap) so the liquidity providers get rewarded in BOLD. The problem is, Smardex doesn’t use it and we have no idea how the PIL is used right now.

Thirdly, Smardex is currently rebranding

It seems the team doesn’t care of WUSDN anymore as they are building a new product.

So Liquity shouldn’t care either about BOLD/WUSDN pool as its utility was very limited outside of the yields offered to LPs

Maybe Smardex (soon to become “Everything”) might become another liquidity initiative in the future with its new product.

However, given all the reasons mentioned above, Smardex no longer deserves to be voted for.

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 37 update

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pools:

• BOLD/USDC on Ekubo, with 8.7% APR mostly in BOLD
• BOLD/USDC on Velodrome, with 6.7% APR paid in AERO

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with 32% APR paid in AERO

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

5 yield opportunities on Mainnet

ebUSD/USDC on Convex, with 13% APR mostly paid in CVX.

Deposit liquidity into the pool (without staking in the Curve gauge), then stake the LP tokens in Convex.

USDaf/frxUSD on Convex, with 12% APR mostly paid in CVX.

Deposit liquidity into the pool (without staking in the Curve gauge), then stake the LP tokens in Convex.

Frax AF on Curve, with 6-16% APR paid in CRV, depending how much veCRV you have.

Deposit USDaf/frxUSD into the pool.

LBTC Stability Pool on Ebisu, with 29% APR paid in ebUSD.

Deposit ebUSD into the Stability Pool
Doubling the TVL halves the yields

WBTC Stability Pool on Ebisu, with 20% APR paid in ebUSD.

Deposit ebUSD into the Stability Pool
Doubling the TVL halves the yields

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 38 Update

Pools log

New pool: sBOLD on Pendle, maturing 25th June 2026

Pool migration: BOLD/USDC on Ekubo, migrating from V2 to V3 with higher swap fees (0.01% > 0.02%)

The BOLD/USDC pools on Ekubo no longer receive PIL rewards, but this is probably due to migration

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pools:

• BOLD/LUSD on Aerodrome, with 12% APR paid in AERO
• BOLD/USDC on Velodrome, with 7.8% APR paid in AERO

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with 31% APR paid in AERO

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

Some news from Smardex

Some weeks ago, I made a rant about Smardex and their inactivity when it come to distribute the PIL rewards

Looks like they are back in business

https://quest.paladin.vote/#/bal/0x5a099E2C2a41A5A0aD99e4971c711400Eeef34db
As a veBAL holder, we can vote for the “TrustlessMaxi” bribe and get BOLD in return ($0.02/veBAL)

The higher the votes, the higher the yields will be on the BOLD/WUSDN pool, noting that yields will take effect on February 12th.

Despite this potential opportunity, I remain highly sceptical about the long-term feasibility of this initiative, as the yields are directly correlated with BAL price, which keeps falling.

We will see in two weeks whether the value of BAL emissions will exceed the bribe"s value. And if not, Smardex will have to quickly change the way its initiative operates.

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 39 Update

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pools:

• BOLD/LUSD on Aerodrome, with 12% APR paid in AERO
• BOLD/WUSDN on Balancer, with 18-32% APR paid in BAL (depending how much veBAL we have)
• BOLD/USDC on Curve, with 8% APR mostly paid in BOLD

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with 27% APR paid in AERO

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J

[Stengarl]

Epoch 40 Update

PIL Efficiency per Epoch
Label	Vote %	Rewards	TVL	Vol	Vol/TVL	Vol from $1	TVL from $1	$PIL / $Total	APR	Bribes	Rewards/Bribes
Curve: USDC	50.19%	9,283	7,376,583	14,178,998	1.92	1527	795	89.58%	7.30%	0
DeFi Collective	11.51%	2,129	810,232	612,207	0.76	288	381	130%	9.80%	0
Curve: LUSD	6.86%	1268	1,006,868	650,868	0.65	513	794	97.65%	6.71%	0
Smardex	10.26%	1,898	85,579	1,784	0.02	1	45	340%	20.21%	0
Ekubo	6.24%	1154	217,000	289,000	1.33	250	188	94.72%	29.20%	0
Uniswap V4	14.94%	2763	2,027,700	6,400,000	3.16	2316	734	76.63%	9.25%	0

Pools log

Deleted pool: LQTYFORKS on Curve (no more TVL)

PIL rewards resumed on Ekubo’s BOLD/USDC. Yields are high at the moment but can be diluted quickly

Yield opportunities

Stable/stable pools:

• BOLD/USDC on Ekubo, with 29% APR mostly paid in BOLD
• BOLD/WUSDN on Balancer, with 15-27% APR paid in BAL ( this is the last week with those yields)

Stable/volatile pools:

• BOLD/BOTTO on Aerodrome, with 21% APR paid in AERO

Careful with stable/volatile pools as they are subject to impermanent loss. The best way to manage is to ensure that the pool’s exchange ratio is the same in and out (just like stable/stable pools do), and multiple rebalancing brings massive losses.

Smardex will stop bribes

If you are a Liquity voter, here is some news about Smardex’s liquidity initiative:

• It will stop bribes on Liquity/Balancer, as it pays more in bribes than the related pool receives in BAL emissions (they give $400-$500 to get <$300 for the pool)
• Balancer’s short-term situation shows no signs of improvement

What we can do as LQTY voters:
Upvote other liquidity initiatives
Veto Smardex’s liquidity initiative

Disclaimer

If certain interpretations seem incorrect and/or if you would like to share your own, please share them here. This topic has been created primarily for discussion.

Thanks for reading

Full Sheet: https://sheets.fileverse.io/0xd96Ae7f4aFaA5aE926268ABcE7cEc822Ed79A7C4/7#key=Z1Y8CcpJTabwxyx9kr2iK5cnHUpnOaKbipdKhORoDwbhLGc2r8SfkHWwcpvXpW4J