My first impression of the platform.
While trying to search for ways to stake my crypto assets, I somehow stumbled onto a website called Cake DeFi and saw crazy numbers like 112%, 115, and even 146% APY from some of their liquidity pool matchups. Could this be for real, or is it a total scam?
is this even real?
Uniswap was getting me a nice little return on a very small investment, but what I was seeing on Cake DeFi (essentially the business side of the DeFiChain Network) blew me away. It sounded too good to be true, so I spent my time digging further: several hours reading nearly every page on their site, their FAQs, social media accounts, dozens of YouTube videos, etc. and decided I’d give it a try. DeFiChain has been around for a few years now, but their Cake DeFi platform really kicked into gear late last summer and into winter — so you could safely say this is a fairly new platform.
Much of the media coverage made me a bit skeptical, but the reddit forum demonstrates some strong brand loyalty here. Plus, with them being relatively new and me feeling like I’m way too late to the Bitcoin craze, I was intrigued by the opportunity to jump into something that could explode. So yeah, I’m giving it a try.
Time to dive in
The application process was pretty simple (traditional KYC-know your customer verification — get your driver’s license ready) and instead of waiting the full 24 hours for approval, I got my notice in about 6 hours after applying. The challenging part, however, was getting some of their DFI token. I initially tried buying BTC from their interface but when that failed, I gave up and just contributed some BTC that I already had. I’m sure it was a blessing in disguise because the premium that comes along with using your credit card seems totally not worth it at all. I then exchanged BTC for some DFI on the spot, which was very convenient, but again, you pay a premium on the transfer.
After several stops and starts, I finally had the right combination of BTC and DFI to join the liquidity pool! So down the rabbit hole I went. As soon as I allocated the funds, I refreshed the page like a madman, even though it states clearly on the site that it can take up to 24 hours for the first rewards to kick in. At the time of this writing, I have already seen some of those rewards and I like what I see, but I still am in the first day of this experience.
Other products
A few other features really drew me to the Cake DeFi platform. For those who want something more traditional, they have some significantly lower-risk offerings:
Staking: This is your traditional interest-building product. They only offer it for DFI and DASH right now, but the DFI average return is a very generous which is 94%-96% APY with no commitment and rewards paid out every 12 hours.
Lapis: This is very much like a one-month CD. You lock in your assets for 28 days and your return, posted up front (typically varying between 5% up to 7.5%) is guaranteed. You read that right — guaranteed.
Freezer: This is like locking up your assets (from one month all the way up to ten years) in a vault that compounds even more interest over time. The returns are essentially passive income for the duration of your contract and you can comfortably build up to 95% APY, which, compounded over 10 years would be very significant. Note: the Freezer has a handy calculator and graph that shows your potential returns over time.
Which one did I choose?
As someone who loves to try new things, I did a little bit of everything. I put in about $50 for standard staking, $50 more for their Lapis product, and $50 into their freezer for 3 months. I’ll be following up later to share with you my results and thoughts.
Why Cake DeFi and a more widely-known pool?
I’ll be honest, I’m a real sucker for a good aesthetic and their site is super clean and user-friendly, and their explainer video is surprisingly very informative and entertaining at the same time. They don’t have an app (there are some security reasons associated with that) but like I said, they’re still somewhat new in this space. I also found their CEO, Dr. Julian Hosp, incredibly knowledgeable, informed, and quite charismatic. Cake does quarterly transparency video webinars and they’ve been produce videos literally all the time since they started ramping themselves up in mid-2020.
The DeFiChain DEX app
Outside of Cake DeFi, DeFiChain has their own DEX (decentralized exchange) app which boasts even greater returns and you get the security of holding on to your own wallet. However, I couldn’t get the app to install correctly on my laptop and I didn’t want to trust my computer to handle it. Maybe in the near future I’ll try it again but I won’t go into it in this article.
Other challenge to consider
As I mentioned earlier, getting DFI is actually not easy, especially if you live in the United States. Outside of buying the DFI coin directly from Cake or the DEX app, which came at a premium, I ended up signing up with yet another exchange, KuCoin, in which I received a much more competitive rate for transferring BTC (or USDT) to DFI. Even though it took more steps, it was definitely worth the savings.
What does the future look like?
I think there’s so much potential here and I can’t wait to see how the next several months play out. Like any coin, there’s so much volatility and risk — so keep that in mind. DFI went from $0.20 to $4 in just a few months, and anything can happen in 10 years, all I can say is, nothing ventured nothing gained. So I decided to commit to the 10 years freezer program and see what is going to happen next. You can too!!
🎁 Get $30 in DFI free(until July 2021) when you sign up for Cake DeFi today!
For a limited time (until July 2021), you can get $30 worth of DFI when you register for Cake FREE!
Get $30 in DFI FREE today, when you…
Sign up for Cake DeFi account
Next, Deposit a minimum of $50!
DONE! Your FREE $30 Reward is automatically deposited to your account and will be staked at 95% APY
Do note that in order to receive the bonus, you must:
Make a single deposit bigger than $50.
The deposit of $50 must be made in one transaction to receive the bonus.
The amount must be $50 or more when it arrives at Cake DeFi. Please note and factor in the withdrawal fee of the exchange or wallet you are sending your coins from, as well as the price fluctuation of the coin.
If the amount has arrived at Cake DeFi, and it is under $50 at that time, the bonus cannot be credited.
Get DFI. HODL on. Enjoy!