Who desires 3,000,000% APY? The reply is everybody, and that’s exactly the attraction of excessive APY DAOs.
However lately, Reddit consumer rayjaywolf identified that the majority (important) excessive APY DAOs are 90%+ down from their all-time highs. In response to the figures, the largest loser is R U Beneficiant, down 99.8% from its $2,041 ATH.
“All of the excessive APY providing crypto DAO’s that launched about 2-3 months in the past are actually both useless, have been rug pulled or exhibiting no signal of restoration.”

A glance on CoinGecko exhibits it’s worse than rayjaywolf claims. In response to the monitoring platform, R U Beneficiant is down 99.9% from its $2,803 ATH.
As ever, in cryptocurrency particularly, lofty claims ought to all the time be taken with a wholesome dose of warning and skepticism.
How do excessive APY DAOs supply such excessive APYs?
Though there are variations on the theme, excessive APY DAOs typically observe the mildew of mathematical sorcery to create a floating-supply forex monitoring the greenback. This they name an algorithmic stablecoin.
These function by rebasing the token provide, which means the provision will increase (or decreases) according to consumer exercise. In flip, this course of is backed by a treasury system that holds reserve property and allows “bonding.” This refers to a course of the place customers can promote property (like DAI) to the treasury and obtain discounted tokens in return.
Excessive APYs are doable via the value discrepancy between the token’s market worth and the treasury’s discounted worth.
The ultimate piece is staking, the place the asset provide is locked as much as safe utility and act as an extra incentive for demand. In response to sport idea, the excessive APY staking ingredient will appeal to extra new customers, who hold the cycle going.
Throw in an nameless workforce, and that’s the blueprint for the way excessive APY DAOs function.
Is the Ponzi scheme unraveling?
Proponents of excessive APY DAOs would argue that fiat cash is a shared delusion enabling worth change. How they function isn’t any totally different from what central banks do day in, time out.
However as seen with the current Wonderland debacle, by which a senior employees member was outed as one of many co-founders of disgraced change QuadrigaCX, investor confidence is the whole lot.
Commenting on OlympusDAO (arguably essentially the most well-known excessive APY DAO,) the CIO at Selini Capital, Jordi Alexander, floats the concept that the venture’s complexity and unorthodox mechanics are behind its demise.
Alexander provides that he doesn’t assume it was a rip-off from the off, solely an experiment that got here unstuck on the unsustainability of paying hundreds of % APY.
“I don’t assume it was ever an outright rip-off, I believe they believed that the sport idea mechanic may lead it to continue to grow perpetually and perhaps turn out to be an actual important a part of the monetary system.”
Nonetheless, the likes of OlympusDAO and Wonderland are nonetheless going, and degen buyers would say the very best time to purchase is when everybody desires out.
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