DeFi has become extremely deep-rooted as an established breakthrough to a crippling economy. The opportunities that the present DeFi landscape offers to participants are undeniably profound. The space has, without a doubt, accelerated wealth creation among the masses. And one of the strongest contributing mechanisms that serve as proof that DeFi has completely reformed the financial system is Staking.
When earlier, people settled for the meager returns as interests on their capital holdings. The advent of DeFi staking now allows users to bank the unbanked quite literally. It is now possible to yield solid returns merely by holding your crypto and without performing any trades or transactions. The prospect must have felt like a technical impossibility a few years ago; it is now one of the most fundamental reasons behind the meteoric rise of DeFi.
The Top 5 Most Promising Staking Opportunities in 2021
In recent months, there has been an influx of projects that offer numerous staking opportunities with their own set rewards. However, there are specific DeFi protocols that stand out the most. These protocols not only represent the highest potential behind Staking in its present form. But allows us a glimpse of a future where Staking becomes a flourishing and sustainable channel of passive income for users.
Synthetix is a decentralized exchange and decentralized platform that allows for the trading and issuance of synthetic assets. Meaning specific digital assets that share similarities with or represent other real-world assets, including fiat currencies, cryptocurrencies, commodities, and share.
Synthetic Network Token or SNX is the utility token of the Synthetix network and plays a key role in the creation of synthetic assets, called the synths. The synth tokens, on the other hand, are synthetic assets that can represent the price of real-world assets. The Synthetix ecosystem offers users many mechanisms for revenue generation, including the ability to stake SNX tokens.
When users stake SNX tokens, their deposits are clocked automatically, and rewards are generated on the performance trading fees. Users can go one step further and participate in the inflationary nature of the SNX token. Currently, Synthetix offers a staking reward of 32.68% to its users.
Nimbus is a DAO-governed platform that combines time-honored traditional tools with the best advantages of DeFi. Nimbus has been around in the blockchain industry since 2019. However, recently, the platform transitioned into a true DeFi ecosystem that offers over 15 Revenue Streams generated by their pools and dApps. For an ecosystem offering so many complex value-based functionalities, Nimbus makes things extremely simple and user-friendly for its users.
Take, for instance, one of their functionalities – the Nimbus Staking for their NBU token. The great thing is, they offer 3 staking options with 10-40% APY that cater to different users. But the APYs will remain that high only until May 24, 2021, so users have to hurry up! Moreover, there are no minimum staking sum requirements so everyone can participate.
Also, there has been a lot of buzz regarding Nimbus’s P2P Exchange functionality, Lending-Borrowing dApp, and the expansion on Binance Smart Chain. It will undoubtedly be quite exciting to see where the upcoming events steer the Nimbus platform in the market. For now, things look extremely promising.
Mirror Protocol is another DeFi project powered by the Terra network that enables the creation of synthetic assets called mAssets or mirrored assets. The protocol aims to follow the price pattern of a fiat asset, thereby offering traders an open price exposure. This means, when interacting with Mirror Protocol, users don’t have to deal with the process of owning or transacting in fiat assets.
Besides mAssets, the Mirror Protocol also has a native token called MIR or Mirror Token. The protocol allows its liquidity providers to stake their LP tokens or MIR to receive staking rewards. Currently, Mirror Protocol offers a staking reward of up to 16.75% to its liquidity providers.
KAVA is the first DeFi protocol that is built on the Cosmos Network. KAVA aims to become a pioneer in offering users multi-collateralized loans on Crypto assets. Once a user sends a token to the KAVA platform, these tokens are locked in the form of collateral within a Collateralized Debt Position or CDP. This mechanism then allows the users to receive a loan in a stablecoin. The amount of stablecoin that a particular user receives depends on the amount locked as collateral. Upon unlocking the assets, users must simply make a payback on the loan.
KAVA allows its users to earn rewards by staking on the protocol. The staking mechanism is conducted by validators who act as nodes for validation of the blockchain. For the effort, the validators receive inflationary rewards. Anyone can become a validator on KAVA if you have the necessary technical expertise. Note, only the top 100 validator nodes receive staking rewards on KAVA.
Another way of receiving Staking rewards on KAVA is delegation, which is the process of bonding tokens with a validator and earning rewards from that validator. Currently, KAVA offers a 2.21% staking reward for delegation and 2.4% staking rewards to validator nodes.
Celo is a Proof of stake open-source blockchain with close similarities to networks like Cosmos and Ethereum 2. Belo uses the BFT (Byzantine Fault Token) consensus algorithm, which allows the network’s validator nodes to agree on a transaction to be included within the next block.
Once the block is agreed upon, its addition to the chain is finalized. When compared to the proof of work mechanism, Celo’s algorithm offers a higher transaction output, which dramatically lowers the network energy cost.
Users can earn staking rewards on the Celo network by delegating Celo and by running a validator node. The staking reward via delegation is 13.23% and 25.23% via the validator node.
Conclusion
Currently, there is an abundance of Staking opportunities that can be explored within the DeFi space. However, some may offer higher staking rewards, and others might offer better security or more options. The truth of the matter is finding those that will be sustainable in the long run.
The staking mechanism offered by Synthetix and KAVA has a certain allure – the allure of the market’s historical data. But there are some new contenders, giving tough competition while at the same time promising sustainable returns.
Take, for example – Nimbus, the platform’s ongoing increased Staking rewards campaign is proof of a great promise. Diving deep, Nimbus began this endeavor to compensate for the exorbitantly high gas fees that users have to deal with. Until they expand on to Binance Smart Chain, which reduces transaction fees by ten times while also enabling speedier transactions.
Finally, staking is a mother mechanism of DeFi and a highly lucrative one. However, it is essential to approach with caution and a complete understanding of the prospect you are about to interact with. Remember, crypto, in general, comes with its risks; therefore, always do your research and make safe, informed decisions.