How I'm Using... Platypus Wars
Echidna, Vector, and Yield Yak making love not war for my portfolio.
Platypus Finance is a native stablecoin swap protocol on Avalanche. The single-sided staking protocol offers a unique option with lower fees when moving between stablecoins. This is not an article on Platypus, but rather the PTP token and my thesis for the inevitable Voting Gauge.
PTP is staked by users for vePTP. vePTP will be used by holders to vote on where the reward emissions should be pointed. As one would expect, people tend to vote for emissions to go towards farms they are heavily invested in. This concept drives a war of locking up PTP to accrue vePTP. vePTP accrual is a unique metric to track, especially with the optimizer landscape developed around the Platypus protocol.
How Optimizers Connect:
Let’s use the MONEY stablecoin from Moremoney as our example asset. In this case, the underlying Platypus pool is the Alternative Pool. Users can interact directly with the Alt Pool, and utilize PTP NFTs to affect their personal vePTP accumulation. Users can also go with pools hosted by Optimizers and utilize their vePTP balances instead.
Echidna Finance, Vector Finance, and Yield Yak all offer better rewards for holders than if smaller PTP investors were to go into the Main Pools alone. Personally, I use all Yield Yak and Echidna for farming. I both lock up ECD and VTX.
Echidna (ECD)
My ECD is locked up for 2 years to achieve maximum boosting. $ecdPTP arbitrage opportunities from drastic price fluxations pre-peg fixing was one of my most profitable plays of 2022. This occurred just after the Rocket Joe launch but prior to echidna actively supporting the ecdPTP/PTP peg. ecdPTP is a great hedge for my PTP as I look for more ECD. Adding that accumulated ECD to my locked pile, in turn, keeps my % up. Locked ECD rewards in PTP, which I swap for ecdPTP to keep the cycle of rewards going and compounding.
Below is one of my positions in Echidna, the dashboard is pretty clean and the APR is lowered for sustainable emissions during this bear. Locking ECD for durations of comfort is an easy way to earn additional PTP on an asset I was already planning on holding regardless of price fluctuation.
My personal plan here is to continue to lockup reward ECD from staked ecdPTP into my locked up 2-year position without increasing duration (for now). As the thesis stands, I am still in the accumulation phase for ECD and PTP (specifically ecdPTP).
My reason for saying this is the accumulation phase is because voting gauges are not live. Currently, it’s just weekly snapshots, but when gauges go live this will be a very different story (ideally).
As prices continue to flatline for ECD, the vePTP accumulation only continues to grow for Echidna. With a market cap under 1 million dollars (371K), the token is seemingly undervalued in my eyes.
Vector (VTX)
Vector Finance is a unique play where you get JOE exposure alongside PTP and VTX rewards. Locked up VTX at super discounted prices seemed like an easy play. VTX is the ultimate ve-optimizer, as it goes beyond Platypus wars and into Joe Wars as well. The team is also a big selling point and their community is stronger than most other AVAX DeFi projects at this time.
Vector is utilized in my strategies to farm MORE and PTP at these low pricing using sAVAX and MONEY as the deposited collateral. VTX is locked up in bundles of 250 VTX or more. Earned rewards are compounded in this fashion manually. Locked VTX earns ~33% on top of the initial APR on staked VTX. At low price entries, I’m enjoying the risk ratio here.
Yield Yak (yyPTP)
Yield Yak is the premier auto-compounder, as discussed during last week’s article. Utilizing their PTP boosted yields, I use their farms as a means of keeping my stables actively yielding gains.
This also applies to my AVAX and liquid-staked AVAX bags as well. Using YY farms to keep the tokens yielding stable APY is the goal when not actively deployed in farming or leverage strategies.
Moremoney (MONEY)
Moremoney Finance has announced they are accumulating PTP as a means of voting for emissions to be rewarded to the MONEY pool in the Alternative Pool. This action would result in deeper liquidity for the MONEY stablecoin. Deeper liquidity incentivized by vePTP accumulation when voting gauges are enabled is extremely bullish for MONEY. This deeper liquidity for MONEY will allow for continued safe borrowing for users and in turn, increased interest payments for iMONEY depositors.
This dynamic is also potentially bullish for MORE holders, as MORE emissions can be reduced if PTP emissions are bolstered. This dynamic emissions rate will be important to watch once PTP Wars are in full swing.
MORE emissions from my Vector position are compounded into my veMORE and xMORE positions. Below is a visualization of my Moremoney positions relative to PTP Wars. Building up a healthy veMORE balance is important before MORE emissions are reduced on their PTP pools. I would rather transfer my MONEY to a boosted iMONEY farm than a flat reward farm and have to start accumulating my veMORE in a few months.
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