Top Platforms for Yield Farming in 2024: A Good List

When it comes to yield farming as an investment technique that specifically targets rewards in native tokens for impressive interest rates and high potential profits, many newcomers simply try avoiding it and focus on something that does not involve the same level of risk management and try to allocate their capital to less demanding options like staking. The latter is a valid strategy that often generates sufficient returns to beat tradfi numbers. However, some believe that yield farming is the real deal in 2024.

One of the trackers on Dune suggests that the number of active wallets has increased by at least 240% from March 2023 to July 2024. The total number of wallets that were active at least once during the past month is over 11,8 million. On the other hand, many estimates suggest that the number of active users peaked at 7.5 million in 2021 and has been on the decline ever since. Honestly, we believe that the latter is much better.

The overall decrease in actual users accompanied by the growth of the number of active wallets means that DeFi is maturing and building an audience of loyal users who are interested in what the sector can offer in the long run.

Some of the best yield farming tokens are doing well in the market, but many failed to reach prices that would justify the initial investments. As more people burn their fingers trying to dip them into something unknown, the number of users who are actively pursuing the DeFi route is decreasing with insufficient inflow of new ones. At the same time, those who learn the industry and make sound moves stay and focus on supporting protocols that provide valuable utility to the community.

We want to make the process of selecting the right project as easy as possible for our readers. Let’s talk about platforms where you can chase high yields and receive rewards in native tokens.

Yield farming coins and tokens: a curated list

Contemporary investors have access to a wide range of different digital assets. The problem is that up to 60% of coin holders do not know enough about blockchain and DeFi to be confident in their investment decisions. Basically, they make decisions based on hype, emotion, or the inherent desire to get rich overnight without putting in any effort. This approach is wrong in many ways.

We want to give some food for thought and explain why certain projects and coins are more interesting than others. We won’t be focusing on social media sentiment, rumors, and other shaky arguments. Instead, we will have a closer look at numbers and what they tell us. Our list of yield farming coins to watch is all about past performance and some general tendencies of protocols and their native digital assets.

Note that we do not endorse any of the projects and do not give you financial advice. Think of this list like it is a collection of ideas worth exploring in 2024. We strongly encourage you to do your own research and try having first-hand experience with all DeFi protocols using a relatively small amount of capital before committing to an investment strategy.

How to select the best yield farming opportunities

It is important for any investor to do their due diligence and research target platforms before allocating capital. While you can easily find a diamond in the rough, it is equally as easy to get rug-pulled out of nowhere. Since the crypto industry does not have any consumer protection measures, the responsibility to account for risks lies solely on the shoulders of an investor.

Thus, it is your duty to search for protocols that seem to be reliable and promise high returns without exposing you to an inadequate level of risk. Use analytical tools like TradingView for technical analysis, DeFiLlama to compare protocols, and various aggregators to keep your portfolio clean and organized. If you are equipped with these tools, let’s find out how to ward off the dangers of the DeFi sector.

How to choose yield farming platforms

With several thousand protocols offering their features to millions of users, making a good choice is a tall task. The number of DEXes alone is close to 1,400. If you are interested in yield farming, the number of tracked pools offering rewards in native tokens or managed by a yield aggregator is over 2,300. Separating the wheat from the chaff is a time-consuming endeavor. How should you approach it?

Here are some tips:

• Pick protocols deployed on time-tested blockchains with a good reputation. Solana is notorious for its overabundance of scams and memecoins which can be valid investment targets if you know what you are doing. Inexperienced newcomers should stick to projects deployed on Bitcoin or Ethereum.
• Consider UX/UI. Onboarding is one of the biggest problems in the DeFi ecosystem. Financial instruments are complex and have a steep learning curve. Make your life simpler by focusing on platforms that have a nice UI that you can understand and use without any issues.
• Scout the internet. It is a good idea to join dedicated subreddits on Reddit or servers on Discord to search for additional information about up-and-coming protocols. For instance, r/Solana has 262,2K users who regularly discuss new protocols and tokens.
• Test everything personally. Use a small amount of assets to test how protocols work. Pick interesting projects, invest a couple of bucks, and check how smart contracts operate. It is also a good idea to verify APYs since interest rates are floating and may change depending on market circumstances.

The best practices for yield farming

After finding several interesting protocols that may act as target dummies for further research and exploration, you should start weaving an investment strategy. We strongly recommend following some of the tips below:

• Do not chase the highest number. The PEPE-WETH pool on Uniswap is partially served by Beefy Finance deployed on Base with a 551% stated APY and a 95,000% 30-day mean average. It may seem like a fantastic investment option, but all rewards are paid in meme coins and rates are floating. As of the time of writing, it had only $123,000 in TVL. Many HY pools are scams or memes.
• Diversify your investments. Some theorists believe that concentrating market positions is a better idea in the long run. Unfortunately, the vast majority of yield farming strategies are not designed to work 10 years into the future. Try allocating capital to several promising pools and have small positions alongside large ones.
• Never forget technological risks. Another reason to spread your investments is the problem with smart contracts which can have vulnerabilities easily exploited by hackers. Since you don’t know how secure the protocol’s contracts are, you should not invest everything on a single platform.

Always account for risks and interest payments in complex schemes. One can use liquid staking on LIDO to get stETH for 2.88% base APY and use it as collateral to take out a loan in USDC on Aave which can be further staked on Merkl for 420% APY paid in ARB. This setup seems to be excellent, but ARB prices have been tanking throughout 2024 and you should never forget about borrow APY which is 5.18% on Aave. This investment can be a catastrophic failure.

Be safe, do not overexpose your portfolio, focus on reliable protocols, and choose good pools. These rules are pretty simple yet can save you from losing a metric ton of money in the long run.

Best yield farming projects and where to find them

It is important to use on-chain analytics to identify protocols that should be on your priority list. Websites like De.Fi and DeFiLlama are good if you are into numbers and want to have a nice overview of the sector. Some data on these platforms may be incorrect or outdated so checking out protocols directly is very important. Nonetheless, these analytical websites still give you a comprehensive picture of the DeFi ecosystem.

Here are tips on how to select a good protocol:

• TVL is a reliable indicator of popularity. Protocols that have high total value locked numbers are solid choices since many people trust them. You should never use it as the main reason to invest, but selecting high-priority targets based on TVL is not a bad approach at all.
• Pay attention to the blockchain name. Ethereum is still the leading destination for the vast majority of promising projects. However, in any yield farming return list focused on interest rates alone, Ethereum-based protocols may seem underwhelming. Solana and Arbitrum usually have higher numbers but the prevalence of meme and scam coins makes these chains less attractive to conservative investors.
• Choose platforms that pay in tokens that retain relevancy. Many digital assets issued by DeFI projects quickly lose value and never recover after the initial push from bulls. On the other hand, some coins manage to stay at relatively healthy prices for years.

Comprehensive list of top yield farming platforms 

In 2024, investors can choose from over 13,000 different pools managed by several thousand protocols. A sizeable portion of this staggering number falls into the yield farming category (1,081 pools). Given the sheer size of the sector and the variety of available investment options, making a good decision based on personal research alone seems unfeasible considering the amount of time it will take an investor to go through every protocol and test each one.

We want to give you a comprehensive yield farming list of projects that you should check out first before trying to find something in the wild. The methodology is quite simple: we pick protocols based on their UX/UI, TVL, interest rates, and general popularity. To make the selection fair, only a couple of projects are from a single chain. Ethereum may be the most reliable and deep ecosystem out there, but Solana, Base, Arbitrum, and many other blockchains also deserve the attention of investors.

Top defi yield farming projects

Without any further ado, let’s take a look at the best protocols in this category:

• Pendle is by far the biggest project in this category. With 168 pools totaling $2.553 billion in TVL as of August 2024, it looks like a good contender for the top spot in any ranking. The primary reward on this platform is the PENDLE token with a $512 million market cap and $70 million average daily trading volumes. The asset is among those rare few that did not lose value since launching. Notable pools are ePENDLE for the liquidity poo, with a 21.64% reward APY and a 24.4% base APY, and mPENDLE with a 20.4% reward APY. Note that the project is focused on yield derivatives and trading.
• Toros is a leveraged farming protocol focused on derivatives and pools that pay rewards in layer-1 or native tokens. Here you can find a plethora of interesting investment strategies that revolve around supplying liquidity or direct staking. Toros allows users to participate in airdrops and track incentive programs on a variety of protocols. Among good yield farming opportunities in 2024, this one stands out thanks to its longevity and dedication to the craft. The TVL is close to $32 million. One of the most profitable pools is ETHy (yield) on Arbitrum with a massive 190% floating APY paid in ARB coins. You can also check out their delta-neutral strategies.
• Pancakeswap is one of the leading AMM protocols and DEXes in the whole sector. Currently, it offers 233 pools with varying rewards and base APY allowing investors to build flexible portfolios without much effort. You can receive $CAKE for your contributions. Liquidity providers with a more conservative approach to capital allocation will extract immense value from two-sided stablecoin pools like DAI-USDC (0.01%) with a 2.4% floating APY reaching a 6.17% 30-day average in August 2024. If you are all about high reward rates, check out the WETH-MGP pool with a 113% reward APY.

Among emerging protocols for yield farming with high APY, you should keep an eye on BlackWing deployed on Binance Smart Chain. It is currently in its early access phase and has an airdrop ready to go. Other honorable mentions in the category are the biggest DEX in the sector Uniswap, Curve, and Venus on BSC.

Yield farming protocols comparison

Comparing different projects is never a good idea since numbers may vary greatly despite investors having good outcomes on large platforms like LIDO with an estimated TVL of over $26 billion and Toros with a combined TVL of less than $35 million. Nevertheless, it can be useful to check out numbers from time to time.