On April 15, Binance Wallet officially announced the launch of the second season of Sei DeFi activity. Similar to the first season, this season will last 6 weeks, with a total prize pool of $1.4 million, and the main partner (accounting for $1.3 million of the prize pool) remains the leading project in the Sei ecosystem - Yei Finance.
Yei Finance: The Rapid Advancement of the Sei Ecosystem's Leader
Yei Finance is positioned as a decentralized money market (lending protocol) based on the high-performance Sei network, aiming to provide permissionless, secure, efficient, and flexible lending services for Sei ecosystem users.
On December 14, 2024, Yei Finance announced the completion of a $2 million seed round, led by Manifold, with participation from multiple well-known institutions including DWF Ventures, Kronos Research, Outlier Ventures, Side Door Ventures, and WOO.
As the mainstream lending market in the Sei ecosystem, Yei Finance's main features are as follows:
Amplified Yield: Through cooperation with Binance Wallet, the USDC deposit APY on Yei Finance can reach up to 12.8% after incentive amplification, which is almost the highest level among mainstream lending markets in various ecosystems.
Flexible Borrowing: Yei Finance supports two borrowing modes - traditional over-collateralized borrowing and flash loan borrowing without full collateral, but both modes adhere to strict risk parameters.
Dynamic Interest Rates: Yei Finance adopts a more flexible dynamic interest rate model that can be adjusted according to asset supply and demand fluctuations. This response mechanism maintains liquidity balance, with rates rising as borrowing demand increases and falling as borrowing demand decreases.
Efficiency Mode (E-mode): Yei Finance allows users to use price-correlated assets as collateral to maximize capital efficiency. This feature is particularly useful when trading stablecoins, as these assets can always maintain a stable value relative to a specific reference currency (such as the US dollar).
Safe and Reliable: Yei Finance is essentially forked from the original Aave protocol, thus benefiting from Aave V3's thoroughly tested and audited smart contract codebase. Additionally, the Yei Finance team has taken extra measures by hiring the renowned third-party audit institution Zellic to further strengthen the protocol's audit.
According to defillama data, Yei Finance currently ranks first in the Sei ecosystem with a real-time total value locked (TVL) of $227.7 million, leading other protocols by several times. Moreover, Yei Finance's official website shows that the protocol's total deposit and borrowing scale has reached $350 million (peaking at $600 million), with over 130,000 users and monthly protocol revenue of $700,000.
Partnering with Binance Wallet to Achieve Rapid Growth
Looking back at Yei Finance's growth path, high-quality and extensive ecosystem cooperation can be considered an effective "secret" for the protocol's rapid growth.
According to Yei Finance's official disclosure, the protocol has already collaborated with multiple well-known institutions/projects such as Circle, Binance Wallet, OKX Wallet, Frax, and Stargate. The cooperation with Binance Wallet, in particular, directly boosted Yei Finance's data surge.
On March 4, Binance Wallet launched the first season of Sei DeFi activity, lasting 6 weeks with a total prize pool of $1.5 million. During the activity, users could share rewards by cross-chaining assets to Sei EVM through Binance Wallet and depositing them into the Simple Yield Yei Finance pool (accounting for $1.3 million of the prize pool) or Yield+ SEI Silo Pit strategy.
Binance Wallet interface data shows that under the incentive amplification of this activity, the USDC deposit APY in the Yei Finance protocol consistently remained between 11% - 16%. Attracted by such high interest rates, a large number of users began to flood into the Sei ecosystem and deposit funds in Yei Finance through this pathway.
According to Yei Finance's post-activity review, the cooperation with Binance Wallet attracted over 750,000 visits, with 7,543 depositing users, a total deposit value of $759.8 million during the activity period, and a final retained locked value of $166.7 million.
Continuing the Activity: How to Participate?
Yei Finance and Binance Wallet's first season of cooperation officially ended today, but they have announced a seamless launch of the second season of Sei DeFi activity, which will continue until May 26, with Yei Finance's deposit activity accounting for $1.3 million of the total $1.4 million prize pool.
Similar to the first season, users need to bridge assets to Sei EVM through Binance Wallet and deposit them into the Simple Yield Yei Finance pool. However, this period is expected to provide deposit incentives for solvBTC in addition to USDC deposits - the Binance Wallet page currently shows "coming soon", with details unknown and worth watching.
Yei Finance Points Program: A Surprising Double Benefit?
In addition to clear higher APY, Yei Finance has currently launched a points program.
According to Yei Finance's official introduction, currently depositing SEI, WSEI, USDT, or USDC in the protocol earns 1 point per day for every $1 borrowed; borrowing SEI, WSEI, USDT, or USDC earns 4 points per dollar borrowed.
Additionally, users can earn points by sharing and inviting more users, and receive a share of the invited users' points. Moreover, completing Galxe tasks during the Binance Wallet cooperation activity can also earn double points bonus.
Although Yei Finance has not yet clearly defined points usage, based on current industry norms, points are likely to become a reference credential for future token generation event (TGE) airdrops.
Perhaps the Optimal Destination for Stablecoins Currently
In the current market environment of repeated fluctuations and uncertain direction, investors are becoming increasingly cautious about their stablecoin holdings, with a growing demand for risk-free financial management.
However, for most ordinary users, the current stablecoin yield rates on exchanges are too low, and various DeFi protocols have certain operational difficulties and unknown risks, making it hard to find a trustworthy and profitable stablecoin destination. In this context, the cooperation between Yei Finance and Binance Wallet effectively solves this problem - on one hand, Binance Wallet's endorsement strengthens Yei Finance's credibility, and on the other hand, the activity provides users with a clear and definitive guidance path.
In the current market environment, it's difficult to find a better stablecoin destination that offers stable 12%+ yields while also holding potential airdrop expectations.
