First Mover: Day in the Life of a Yield Farmer Means Part-Time Gig, Full-Time Risk

One is a Grammy Award-winning musician with lots of spare time. Another is a software engineer with nowhere to go during the pandemic. There’s also an editor for a data site and a fund manager who invests in digital assets.

What these people have in common is an obscure side gig known as “yield farming,” a type of cryptocurrency trading and investing that didn’t really even exist until 2020. Yield farming is producing fixed income-like returns that can, at least for brief stretches, provide annualized interest rates equivalent to percentages investors cannot find anywhere else.

As documented in First Mover over the past few months, the yield farming boom, itself a subsector within the fast-evolving realm of decentralized finance, or DeFi, started in June when the projects Compound and Aave launched. They were soon followed by Kyber, Balancer and Yearn.Finance. More creative names like Spaghetti, Tendies and SushiSwap followed.

CoinDesk's Daniel Cawrey spoke to four yield farmers to get their stories. Here's a link to his highly recommended piece, along with a video interview he conducted with André Allen Anjos, also known as RAC, who finds time for yield farming in his spare time, when he's not producing and recording music.

Read More: Meet the Yield Farmers Plowing Cryptocurrency’s Riskiest Trend

Bitcoin Watch

Bitcoin's low volatility consolidation continues as the dust settles on the BitMEX controversy.

On Thursday, the U.S. authorities charged the crypto derivatives exchange for facilitating illegal transactions.

Initially, bitcoin fell from $10,900 to $10,450 but recovered to $10,500 on the following day. The cryptocurrency held ground even though the regulator probe triggered massive outflow of bitcoins from BitMEX and the drop in the futures open interest, a sign of panic among traders.

However, while the cryptocurrency has jumped to $10,700 over the weekend, it remains trapped in a contracting triangle, as seen on the daily chart.

A breakout would confirm an end of the pullback from the August high of $12,476 and a reversal higher. That would expose resistance lined up at $11,183 (Sept. 19 high).

Alternatively, a range breakdown may invite a stronger chart driven selling pressure.

- Omkar Godbole

Read More: Open Interest in CME Bitcoin Futures Slides as Market Sapped by Surging DeFi

Token Watch

Bitcoin (BTC): 180-day volatility falls to lowest mark since November 2018 as market mostly unfazed by President Donald Trump's positive coronavirus test and U.S. charges against BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange.

Ripple (XRP): Job listing indicates XRP-affiliated blockchain sponsor is preparing to launch a next-generation trading platform.

What's Hot

Hybrid decentralized exchanges with on-chain custody and a centralized off-change trade-matching engine could prove next market evolution, IDEX CEO writes (CoinDesk Opinion)

SEC Chair Jay Clayton says U.S. regulator is open to the idea of a tokenized ETF (Decrypt)

Binance, Gemini and Kraken appear to be benefiting from bitcoin flows as traders defect from BitMEX following CFTC, DOJ charges (CoinDesk)

Coinbase employees reportedly take up CEO Armstrong's offer for severance adopting policy on non-engagement with societal issues (CoinDesk)

Bitcoin use rises in Egype amid economic recession (Cointelegraph)

Analogs

The latest on the economy and traditional finance

Pandemic could accelerate depletion of U.S. Social Security trust fund reserves (Brookings)

Movie-theater chain Cineworld closing U.S. and U.K. locations, including Regal chan (FT)

U.S. Treasuries lose their edge as hedge against stock-market plunge (WSJ)

Negative-yielding bonds could profit from deflation, currency swings (WSJ)

Tweet of the Day