I'm on the hunt for a DEX where I can stake USDC or USDT and earn at least 8% annually. I've seen that Perpmate has vaults, but I'm kinda clueless about how they actually work since I haven't tried them out yet. They’re currently offering 5.29% for USDC through their HPL provider, but I've also come across some vaults promising 40-80% APR, which sounds a bit too good to be true. I checked out yo protocol too, and they seem to have rates around 7-8%, but not many people seem to be using that one either. I know everyone is big on BTC and ETH, and I'm into those as well, but I'm looking to spread my investments into USDC. Plus, when the crypto market dips, I’d like to swap some USDC for BTC instead of letting it sit there doing nothing.
I'm not able to suggest any proper platforms for this, but keep in mind that just because it's a DEX does not mean that your funds are completly safe in this case. DeFi platforms gets hacked all the time, even the big reputable ones got their fair share of hacks in the past.
There are of course good DEXes like Aerodromes, Uniswap v3, Aave v3 and Ethena for your picking and discovery, but it is important to note that a DEX like Aave v3 hovers around 3.5 to 5% and that makes your target of 6-12% to require an advanced DeFi strategy.
Also in DeFi, the yield you make isn't interest, as a 12% yield might simply mean what you earn for the risk you took before dropping in value.
sUSDe from ethena offers lower than 6% but at least its close enough, you just need to hold it and the staked stablecoin will go up in value.
Recently I also have notification in my binance app about 20% APR incentivization from binance for just holding USD1, a world liberty's issued stablecoin. I usually only use USDC flexible in binance app because thats where i'm trading but it's not DEX.
If you really want to earn annually from your stablecoins in the safest way possible, just put it on CEX instead of a DEX.
At the end of the way, both CEXes and DEXes are not prone to hacking. It's just that you want to risk putting your stablecoins on an exchange for a return, or you will put it on a hardware wallet where you might not earn from it, but it's safe... well kind of, but safer than either putting on a DEX or CEX. Now if you want to put it into a DEX, I will not recommend something but Ethena is being partnered with many DEXes out there where if you put your stablecoins out there, you will earn points as well that will make you eligible towards the Ethena Airdrop. There's a risk still so just put the amount of money that you're willing to lose. I put some as well just so that I make some money thru the airdrop... or will I?
Anyway, some CEXes offers around the number that you said. If I remember correctly, Bitget and even Binance offers around that. Even MEXC does as well. Just beware of the risks though.
Since you only intend to hold USDC for a short term and spend it to buy Bitcoin, you don't need to stake it because it's risky and you are definitely not even going to make up to that 10 or 12% APY before you might want to unstake and buy your Bitcoin. I won't advice you stake with any platform except you are already prepared to risk losing your asset if the platform get hacked.
+1, even if you use a safe cryptocurrency wallet like hardware wallets, your funds are still not safe because once you stake it, you let these platforms have access to your funds, and even in what chain/network, still not safe.
Plus, think also about having these low APY/APR versus the safety of your funds; sometimes it's not worth it.
You can find staking pools from either CEX or DEX but by staking, your coins will be locked in those staking pools which can be compromised by the team or your wallet through smart contract approvals can be exploited too. Moreover, stablecoins themselves are already risky assets that can be frozen in your non-custodial wallets.
With two big risk factors, if you want to stake your stablecoins in a staking pool, you are like doubling risk on your stablecoin fund, which is not good at all.
PSA: Most Stablecoins Can Be Frozen, Even in Your Own Wallets.
Don't, just don't do this. USDC alone is a risky move itself, waiting with USDC in your account when it could go to zero tomorrow is a huge risk and you shouldn't be doing it. On top of that, you are taking even extra risk by putting your USDC in a place that is doubtful because of how high it gives returns, and that is not a good way to make profit.
USDC is simply dollar, you can have fiat and you can put it in SP500 average out and then you can make more than 10% return yearly from it as well. If you are going to wait, getting bonds like that would be better chance and at least you would have a chance to have a good return with trust involved. Or you can go with full crypto and not some untrusted dex with untrusted stablecoin.