The favorable outcome of the general election has brought new vitality to the crypto market, with Bitcoin briefly surpassing $93,000, leading the market. A number of mainstream altcoins, including SOL and DOGE, have also seen significant increases, and the total market capitalization of the crypto market has exceeded $3 trillion. In fact, the influx of new funds has not revitalized the DeFi market, which remains weak in growth and returns due to a long-term lack of innovation. However, on the other hand, the influx of market funds has brought new opportunities for a new round of growth in the DeFi sector. In this new market cycle, the new yield effects brought by innovative DeFi protocols will become an important driving force for the next round of growth in this field.
Astherus: A New Solution for Breaking Through in the DeFi Market
Astherus is one of the best examples of innovative DeFi in this market cycle. The protocol has launched two major product segments, AstherusEx and AstherusEarn. The former is a perpetual contract DEX that supports derivative trading of mainstream assets like BTC. In this DEX, users can deposit a series of LST/LRT and some mainstream assets to earn a range of pre-market incentive points, including Au (Astherus points, which can be exchanged for $ASS tokens in future airdrops). Additionally, these deposited funds can serve as full-margin collateral for derivative trading and can even be directly used for derivative transactions.
The latter, AstherusEarn, is a strategy yield product that allows users to stake supported assets and earn yield-bearing assets called asToken. AstherusEarn will collaborate with a series of mainstream CeFi institutions, such as Ceffu (Binance's asset custody service provider), to generate income from both the crypto market and traditional finance through an actively managed yield strategy pool, providing substantial real returns for asToken holders. Currently, it supports BTC asset staking to mint asBTC.
Astherus is providing a comprehensive DeFi scenario for crypto assets, allowing these assets to further enhance capital utilization and achieve considerable real returns. By deeply connecting DeFi with the liquid staking market, it explores the potential of both major tracks. Through collaboration with traditional financial institutions and CeFi service providers like Ceffu, combined with the new benefits brought by ETF compliance and the election, traditional finance is expected to enter the Web3 world through Astherus.
Due to its product innovation and broad development prospects, Astherus has become one of the first four projects in Binance Labs' Season 7 incubation program and has received a series of resource support from Binance Labs. The market narrative around Astherus is also very positive, with the protocol's TVL surpassing $56 million, especially after the launch of its AstherusEarn segment, which offers the yield-bearing asset asBTC, leading BTC staking volume to also exceed $4 million.
In this new development phase, Astherus has once again partnered with Ceffu to launch the yield stablecoin asset USDF. This stablecoin is issued against short positions in the crypto asset and futures markets and will become an important source for USDT holders to unlock a second yield curve through DeFi.
Yield Stablecoin USDF with an APY of 20%~30%
As a product focused on real yields, Astherus's AstherusEarn initially targeted BTC, aiming to build a BTCFi ecosystem through innovative products and deeply unlock the immense value locked in BTC. With the surge in BTC during the U.S. elections, it is clear that AstherusEarn's initial asset direction was particularly successful.
After launching asBTC, Astherus turned its attention to the mainstream stablecoin USDT and launched the innovative stablecoin USDF based on USDT.
In fact, the product logic and yield mechanism of USDF are not complex. Users simply need to stake USDT in Astherus, and the system will mint USDF for users at a 1:1 ratio, with a 0.1% fee. For example, if I stake 10,000 USDT in Astherus, I will receive 9,990 USDF. The staked USDT is used to open positions in Ceffu's custody account, then tokens are purchased on major exchanges and short trades are executed in the futures market. At this point, users can earn triple Au point rewards.
After obtaining USDF, users can deposit USDF in AstherusEarn to mint asUSDF and continue to earn income, including:
- Generating APR through stable trading strategies and returning it to holders
- Derivative trading fees
- While holding asUSDF, users can further earn Au points.
In this yield, the first two income sources will reflect in the net asset value of asUSDF, with an APY of about 10%~15%, while Au earnings are expected to be around 10%. Therefore, the potential APY for users holding asUSDF assets can reach 20%~30%.
In fact, just from these yields, USDF has already outperformed the vast majority of stablecoin yield products in the industry. Additionally, USDF itself has good liquidity, further enhancing capital utilization.
USDF has enormous development potential, as it is anchored to USDT, theoretically making all USDT holders potential users of USDF, thus backing USDF with a multi-billion dollar blue ocean market.
On the other hand, USDT is currently the largest and most recognized stablecoin asset globally. With the overall recovery of the crypto market, USDT serves as the most important value anchor in the crypto finance sector, making it a crucial channel for traditional funds entering the crypto market, and holders also have a strong profit-seeking demand.
From the current market perspective, there are not many DeFi facilities that can provide stable arbitrage services for USDT, and Astherus has timely launched the USDF asset in this market opportunity, which will become the optimal way for these incremental funds to capture returns from the market and is expected to become the most popular stablecoin yield method.
The USDF product is now available to the market, and users can participate through astherus.finance/en/usdf. USDF is also becoming an important opportunity for users to unlock a second yield curve in the DeFi market.