USDC is among the most popular stablecoins in the Web3 space. With a market cap exceeding $20 billion, USDC is Web3’s second ranked stablecoin by market capitalisation. As a highly regarded stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, USDC serves as a strong store of value for Web3 traders looking to hedge risk or simply shift some capital to the sideline without depositing it in a bank. But for the wise crypto trader, USDC isn’t just a reliable store of value – it’s a yield-generating instrument as well.
Opportunities to earn yields on USDC are abundant across the DeFi (decentralised finance) sector, where staking, liquidity provision (LPing), and farming are more popular than ever before. For most users, earning interest on capital that would otherwise remain unattended is a no-brainer. Once users acquire USDC, it’s only a matter of finding the best opportunities to earn yields, and the best ecosystems and platforms that offer them.
Staking: The Best Way to Earn Yields on USDC
USDC staking is the simplest, easiest, and most effective way to earn yields on USDC. In fact, learning how to stake USDC is one of the easiest tasks in all of Web3. To stake USDC, users simply lock up their USDC in DeFi applications and allow rewards to accumulate while they eat, sleep, and live their daily lives.
In many cases, the staking opportunities offered by DEXs (decentralised exchanges) tend to provide the highest rates of return. On DEXs, users swap between different digital assets and pay trading fees in exchange for the swap service. Meanwhile, DEXs compete fiercely with one another to amass superior liquidity – that means paying users to provide it. To provide liquidity (LP) on a DEX, users have to supply both assets in a trading pair – for instance, USDC and MATIC. LPing is a slightly more complex form of USDC staking that pays superior rewards. For a user that already plans to stake USDC, LPing is generally the best deal around.
Polygon: The Best Way to Earn Yields on USDC
When it comes to USDC staking, there is no better place to get started than on Polygon and Polygon zkEVM. Plain and simple, Polygon is Web3’s most popular and advanced Layer 2 scaling technology, and zkEVM is its newest high-performance chain. In the Polygon ecosystem, there are a number of popular DeFi platforms and DEXs where LPing is a breeze. Popular DEXs Uniswap and SushiSwap both have deployed on Polygon zkEVM, where users can stake USDC to earn yields.
But for those looking for the smoothest experience and most attractive yield opportunities on Polygon zkEVM, the QuickSwap DEX is another place to take your USDC and other digital assets. USDC staking on QuickSwap is not only user-friendly and fast, but super cheap as well. QuickSwap was designed specifically for Polygon, and its deployment on Polygon zkEVM has brought lightning-fast transactions and ultra-low fees to all users in the ecosystem. Like on other DEXs, to earn yields on QuickSwap users LP by contributing both USDC and another asset to bolster one of the platform’s supported trading pairs.
On QuickSwap, USDC/ETH is currently providing ~29% APR, while USDC/AXL carries an APR of ~34%. For more conservative plays, USDC can also be paired with other stablecoins such as DAI and USDT. To flip the switch and get yields piling up, users simply provide liquidity for one USDC-based trading pair in the “Pool” tab, and receive an LP token in return. Users may then head to the “Farm” tab to stake their LP tokens and begin receiving rewards.
Conclusion
For traders of all types, backgrounds, and risk appetites, earning yield on otherwise-dormant holdings is always a wise move. The best DeFi traders aren’t letting their USDC holdings sit idly; they are staking them alongside other blue-chip assets on Web3’s leading DEXs as liquidity providers and reaping the benefits in full.