- Yield farming tokens are now flooding the space, with every ‘Y’ combination imaginable making an appearance
- The performance of early yield farming projects led to a plethora of copycats and Frankenstein replicas
- There is still an appetite for making money off these pump and dumps, so the trend will sadly continue for a while yet
First there was YFI. Then there was YFII. Then there was YFV. Then the floodgates really opened, which has led to the entire crypto space being flooded with yield farming clones with ever more ridiculous names that promise to be the best thing since the last one. With barely any of these clones having made anything like the impact of YFI, and most dying a quick death, are we finally ready to wave goodbye to the ‘Y’ yield farming meme and move on?
Early Yield Farming Tokens Spark Copycats
The concept of ‘Y’ yield farming tokens began with Yearn.Finance (YFI), which launched in July at $27 on Uniswap. The concept, lending out your tokens to form liquidity pools and earning some back in return, was unique and sparked huge interest in the coin – so much so that it rocketed through the zeros in August and September, topping out (temporarily, at least) at a monstrous $30,000 last month.
This run naturally sparked copycats, with many developers cloning the open source YFI token and making slight changes (or none at all) in the hope of riding the yield farming ‘Y’ train. As a result there are now dozens of ‘Y’ tokens on the market, from the relatively sensible (YFValue) to the frankly ridiculous (Yield Farm Rice @ YFR.money).
Clones Are Just Pump and Dumps
Taking some of these clones at random, let’s have a look and see how they have performed to date:
If the words ‘pump and dump’ don’t come immediately to mind then we have a bridge to sell you. It’s pretty clear that these yield farming clones, and now clones of clones, serve no function other than to enrich pre-sale buyers and early entrants, just like the ICO craze of 2017. The crypto Twitter Uniswap 100x club tout their chosen new coin as the next YFI, sell the pump, and move onto the next one, knowing that as a long term yield farming project these clones show as much promise as a cardboard house.
Still Juice in the Tank
So, with dozens of these yield farming clones now saturating the market, has the craze passed? The rate at which ‘Y’ yield farming clones are still being produced would suggest that someone still thinks there is an appetite for them, and indeed, while there is still the ability for people to make a quick buck they will take it.
One example is yesterday.finance (YFIN) which launched, conveniently, yesterday on Uniswap:
As we can see, the token enjoyed an immediate jump of almost 200% the moment it listed. There is no possible way that this token, out of the multiples now on offer, is a mold-breaker in the yield farming world. It is much more likely to be a combination of everything that is out there at the moment and, after its pump, it will fade into obscurity like all the others and be remembered by no one.
However, the fact that ‘Y’ yield farming tokens are still being created and that they are still pumping on their Uniswap listing means that the opportunity remains to make money off them, no matter how much of a rip off they are. If we needed further evidence that this giant rolling snowball of a sham is not going away anytime soon, Uniswap is currently enjoying record liquidity of over $2.2 billion, meaning we will have to put up with the charade of ‘Y’ yield farming tokens and their stupid names for a while yet.
