The Definitive Yieldly Guide

If you’re bullish on Algorand, you should be bullish on Yieldly!

Disclaimer: This isn’t financial advice! As we say in crypto, don’t trust – VERIFY! Do your own research and don’t ever invest more than you’re willing to lose. Like any DeFi project, Yieldly comes with risks. The project can fail, there could be a rug pull by whales, smart contracts can be hacked, etc. Be safe out there and make sure you do enough research before you decide if Yieldly is right for you.

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Hey, gov! Since the deadline to sign-up for Governance period #2 has come and gone, we’ve been receiving a lot of questions on how else to earn passive income in the Algorand ecosystem. For your pals here at the Algorand Governor’s Club, the answer to the question couldn’t be simpler: Yieldly! In this guide, we’re going to break down what Yieldly is, what it hopes to become, how to navigate the app like a true governor, and most importantly how to make Yieldly work for you!

What is Yieldly?

Yieldly was the first DeFi app launched on Algorand and ushered in what we think will be one of the most profitable DeFi ecosystems over the next decade. It is a truly killer app with a promising roadmap and a passionate group of early supporters. 

So what is it exactly? 

In a nutshell, Yieldly is a staking platform which grants high APYs across ALGO and many different ASAs (Algorand Standard Assets). However, explaining Yieldly so simply would be doing the platform a disservice as it serves many different purposes:

1. Staking Pools & Liquidity Mining: Users can stake ALGO, YLDY (Yieldly’s native token), and other ASAs to accrue massive rewards. When we say massive – we mean massive! APYs typically range from 25% - 3,000+% depending on the staking pool chosen. The most popular pool, YLDY for YLDY & ALGO, returns anywhere between 25% - 35% APY. This is one of the best deals in the ecosystem currently in our opinion when you consider the long-term price potential of YLDY and how cheap it is currently (~$0.01). We’ll expand on this thought later on in this guide we promise.

   In addition to staking pools, Yieldly has begun to roll out liquidity pools. If users provide liquidity on other Algorand dApps (like Tinyman), they will be able to stake their liquidity tokens on Yieldly to earn YLDY. We’re excited to see how this feature evolves this year!

   You may be wondering, how are these rewards so good? What’s the catch? From what we can tell, there doesn’t seem to be much of one (note: that doesn’t mean there isn’t one that we haven’t found). At the inception of the project, the Yieldly team set aside a reserve of 3,000,000,000 YLDY for staking rewards, and these rewards are designed to be distributed over at least a 7 year period.

2. No-Loss Prize Games: Formerly known as the ‘No-Loss Lottery’, this was Yieldly’s claim to fame when it first launched. Essentially, users stake ALGO in exchange for lottery tickets for weekly ALGO and NFT jackpots. They call it no-loss because the tickets are free because users aren’t buying the tickets like a normal lottery. Instead, users are given tickets without needing to exchange ALGO for them. 

   Winners are selected randomly each week, but I will warn you there is one massive whale account that essentially wins every lottery drawing. This is because 1 ALGO = 1 ticket. For this reason, this governor personally doesn’t stake ALGO in the lottery any longer as I prefer to put my ALGO to better use. However, staking in these no-loss prize games yields YLDY tokens so they’re a good way to earn YLDY without needing to buy them if you’re in a pinch and want to try Yieldly out.

   With that being said, the Yieldly team has rolled out a program that selects multiple winners based on a tiered system so this problem could be mitigated in the future.

3. Cross-chain Bridge: If the above wasn’t enough, the Yieldly team is also working to build the first audited cross-chain bridge connecting Algorand with other ecosystems with Ethereum serving as the first bridge.

And I haven’t even mentioned the best part yet, gov! Yieldly is just getting started! According to their Q1 2022 roadmap, the platform also plans to roll out the following features:

1. Governance: The iYieldly token which allows users to participate in Yieldly’s governance program will be launching soon, and it’ll allow users to vote to shape the future of the platform, its features, staking pools (more on this below), and more. We expect to hear more about the iYieldly token, its features, and how it will be rolled out in the next month or so.

2. Community ASA staking pools: As part of the governance votes, the Yieldly community will be given the power to decide which ASAs will be brought to Yieldly for staking. By putting this power in the hands of its user, Yieldly is creating quite the value prop for its ecosystem.

3. Launchpad: Yieldly plans to become the first launchpad in the Algorand ecosystem by the end of Q1. For those who don’t know, a launchpad is a lot like Kickstarter for blockchain projects and NFTs that haven’t been launched yet. Projects launched on Yieldly will benefit from community staking and liquidity pools already in place while providing Algorand users the ability to get in on the ground floor of some interesting projects before the greater public. And with the cross-chain bridge in place, this may also provide Yieldly users with the ability to test projects on other chains as well!

Navigating Yieldly

If you’ve decided Yieldly and its native token YLDY are the right investment for you, you can follow the steps below to get started on the platform.

Step 1: Buy YLDY 

If you already own YLDY, please feel free to skip to Step #2. 

At the time of writing this article, the Tinyman Decentralized Exchange (DEX) is still down due to a hack. That leaves governors with only two different options to acquire YLDY at this time:

1. MEXC Global: I haven’t personally used this exchange, so I can’t vouch for its ease of use and affordability; however, the fees are a bit high to withdraw ALGO (0.1) compared to other exchanges. You can test it out for yourself here.

2. Stake ALGO in No-Loss Lottery: As mentioned above, you can accumulate YLDY in the No-Loss Lottery (now called ALGO Prize Game) while also giving yourself a chance to win ALGO. This is a great option especially for those of you who missed the Governance period #2 sign-up. You can stake more ALGO to accumulate more YLDY so you can test the platform out. 

If the above options don’t jive with you, you can always wait for Tinyman to come back online. Additionally, if you’re reading this article a couple months after its been published, you can check to see if the ALGO – YLDY swap has gone live on Yieldly to purchase YLDY directly on the platform itself.

Step 2: Connect Your Wallet

Once you have YLDY in your wallet, you will want to navigate to the Yieldly app here and connect your wallet by pressing the ‘Connect Wallet’ button in the upper right:

You will need to choose if you’re using the My ALGO Wallet or the official Algorand Wallet:

For the purposes of this guide, I will be using the My ALGO Wallet on desktop.

Step 3: Choose the Pools You’d Like to Stake In

Once your wallet is connected, click on the ‘Staking Pools’ button on the left sidebar. This will take you to the Staking pools homepage:

Spend some time researching the staking pools to decide how you’d like to split your YLDY between them. For the purposes of this guide, I will be showing you how to stake in the main pool: ‘YLDY — YLDY/ALGO’.

You have three actions you can take on any staking pool: ‘Stake’, ‘Withdraw’, and ‘Claim’:

For now, click on ‘Stake’ to navigate to the ‘Deposit’ screen:

You can enter the amount of YLDY you want to stake in the pool by manually entering the amount in the ‘Deposit Amount’ bar, or you can use the quick select options of ‘25%’, ‘50%’, ‘75%’, or ‘100%’ if you prefer. Once you lock in the amount you want to stake in the pool, click the ‘Next’ button. You will need to confirm the transaction through your Algorand wallet.

Withdrawing or Claiming from a pool is just as easy! You can click either of those buttons and will be presented with similar screens.

Withdrawal:

Claiming:

Note that Yieldly doesn’t have auto-compounding at this time so you will need to claim your rewards manually until that feature is rolled out later this year. The cadence in which you claim is entirely up to you. I personally claim once a week to bring some kind of sanity to my tax records.

As you stake in more and more pools, navigating the staking pools page can become a bit annoying. A pro tip is to press the ‘staked’ button on the homepage. This will filter to all the pools you are currently staking in!

Step 4: Stake any Liquidity Pool Tokens you Have

There are no liquidity pools open currently due to the Tinyman hack; however, staking in them is the same as staking in any of the pools in Step #3. You will have to navigate to the ‘Liquidity Pools’ section by clicking that option from the sidebar.

Once there you will have the same ‘Stake’, ‘Withdraw’, and ‘Claim’ actions you can take:

You will see the same screens from Step 3 during this process, so it should be relatively easy to navigate!

Step 5: Staking in the ALGO Prize Game

If you want to participate in the ALGO Prize Game (No-Loss Lottery), you can navigate there from the sidebar. Once you’re there, the overview screen will tell you the current estimated APY (to be rewarded in YLDY not ALGO), the estimated prize total, and what your odds are (if you stake):

If you’d like to stake in the game, click ‘Stake ALGO & Get Tickets’.

Input the amount of ALGO you’d like to lock up / stake in the game and click ‘Next’ on the following screen.

And you’re done! It’s that easy. If you scroll to the bottom of the screen, you can keep track of how many YLDY you’ve earned from the game:

Step 6: Staking In the NFT Prize Game

This process is super similar to staking in the ALGO Prize Game. To navigate to the NFT Prize Game, clicking ‘NFT Prize Games’ in the sidebar.

There are multiple pools you can join unlike the ALGO Prize Game. Choose the project(s) you’d like to enter to win, and select ‘Get Tickets’:

Enter the amount of ALGO you’d like to temporarily exchange for tickets, and click ‘Next’ on the confirmation screen:

You’re now entered to win NFTs on top of the fact you’re now a Yieldly pro!

Making Yieldly Work For You

The following is pure speculation and not financial advice; however, I hope it provides you with the ability to make your own mental framework for how to make YLDY work best for you!

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Now that you’re up and running on Yieldly, let’s talk about the earning potential of the platform so you understand why so many fellow governors are so bullish on this project. First and foremost, Yieldly provides users with BIG returns which in turn will provide great passive income streams in the future. 

Let’s say you make an initial purchase of 50K YLDY and plan to stake it for the next seven years until the initial rewards have been spent by Yieldly. Assuming a 20% APY to be conservative, and with the power of compound interest, you have the potential to earn an additional 100K YLDY give or take after taking taxes into account. Just for staking it on the platform!

At that point you can look for what options you have to earn additional interest off of it and use it as a true passive income stream in which you sell off your interest each month to pay the bills. Or you can convert your YLDY into ALGO or another ASA to earn interest that way if there are no options available to earn interest off of YLDY directly in seven years time. Or maybe you’d like to do a combination of both!

And this doesn’t take into account that the price of YLDY is likely to appreciate over the years if it continues to be successful. If YLDY were to reach the market cap of the 100th ranked project as of today, 1 YLDY would be worth $0.32 (12x from its current price). If it were to crack the Top 50 in today’s teams, it would be worth $0.92 (36x from here). And finally if it were to crack the top 25 in today’s terms it would be worth $2+ (85x from here).

All of these price predictions are possible, especially if you believe the entire crypto market will appreciate immensely in the next decade. What is considered a Top 50 project in market cap terms today could very easily be a Top 100 project in the future if the market continues its growth.

If we were to assume a YLDY price of around $1 in seven years time, your 50K YLDY investment today (around $1K in USD terms) could very well be worth $150K+ in the future! And you had to do was hold and stake it. How cool is that, gov?

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