Public research guide

Understand DeFi before comparing returns

Lending markets, yield strategies and liquidity pools earn returns in different ways. Start with the source of the return, then compare the rate, liquidity, network and risks on the same basis.

Three different questions to research

Lending and borrowing

Supplying assets can earn interest from borrowers. Borrowing creates a separate liability, generally backed by collateral. A supply rate and a borrow rate answer different questions; compare them only after identifying the asset, market and network.

Review utilization, available withdrawal liquidity and collateral rules. For borrowing, understand the liquidation threshold and how changes in asset prices affect the position.

Aave protocol documentation

Yield strategies

Identify what produces the yield: lending interest, trading fees, staking rewards or token incentives. A strategy may combine several sources and add fees, lockups or additional smart contracts.

Record the deposit asset, the withdrawal asset, fees and the assumptions behind compounding. A reward token’s quoted value can change, so distinguish the base return from incentives when the source reports that split.

Liquidity pools

Liquidity providers make assets available for swaps. In concentrated-liquidity pools, a position uses a selected price range; a pool-wide return does not describe every position in that pool.

Compare the asset pair, fee tier, price range and trading activity. The position’s asset mix can change with prices. Compare its outcome with holding the same assets, including fees and transaction costs.

Uniswap concentrated liquidity documentation

Build a comparison you can check

  1. Match the instrument. Keep the protocol, version, network and asset visible. Similar names do not establish identical contracts or risks.
  2. Check the rate definition. APR is an annualized rate; APY includes a compounding assumption. Record the period used to estimate the rate and whether fees or incentives are included. A displayed rate is not a guaranteed future return.
  3. Check liquidity separately. Total value locked measures capital under the source’s definition. It is not a safety score or a promise that all capital can be withdrawn at once.
  4. Keep the timestamps. Distinguish when the source observed a figure from when Mattheus retrieved it. If the source does not report an observation time, its age remains unknown.
  5. List what can fail. Consider smart-contract changes, oracle behavior, collateral price moves, stablecoin depegs, bridge dependencies and withdrawal constraints. Record missing information rather than replacing it with zero.

Research access and data scope

This guide is available without an account. The DeFi explorer is a separate research view; this page does not publish a current rate table or claim that a displayed opportunity can be executed through Mattheus.

Use the source protocol’s documentation to verify the exact market and its mechanics. Data availability and approved publication scope determine which observations can appear in the public catalog. Trading and account actions retain their authentication, policy and approval requirements.

For a source-side overview, DeFiLlama’s yield directory links yield observations across protocols. Its figures and coverage are separate from this guide.