Liquity is LIVE on Ethereum mainnet!
How to use your crvLUSD on Element Finance

How to use your crvLUSD on Element Finance

Derrick Nguyen

July 13, 2021

n this post, I’ll be providing a step-by-step guide on how to “save” and “earn” on crvLUSD using the recently launched Element Finance.

What is Element Finance?

Element is a decentralized protocol that allows users to obtain fixed-rate and variable-rate yield in the DeFi market, as well as trade between the two with high capital-efficiency. Element Finance recently launched on Ethereum (June 30th, 2021) with initial support for crvLUSD, the LP token for Curve’s LUSD+3Pool — they’ve since added Curve’s Tricrypto pool as well.

Quick Disclaimer: This tutorial is not a recommendation and interacting with new protocols can be risky. Element is experimental, please do your own research and use your best judgement.

Obtain crvLUSD

Before you can interact with Element, you’ll first need to obtain crvLUSD. This is done by providing liquidity to Curve’s LUSD+3Pool. If you need guidance, here’s my previous tutorial on how to deposit to the pool. Otherwise, you can jump right in.

Navigating Element’s UI

Now that you’ve obtained some crvLUSD, you’ll want to access Element’s homepage:

Feel free to browse around, but at first glance you’ll notice two options: Start Saving and Start Earning.

I’ll go in to more detail on how each option works in their dedicated sections, but for now this is what you need to know:

Saving: For casual and risk-averse users seeking to earn fixed-yield on their asset, start here.

Earning: For more advanced users seeking to take advantage of the underlying fixed-rate/variable-rate asset market, this is your playground.

Saving

If you’re looking to earn fixed yield (i.e. yield that won’t change up or down, but is guaranteed), click on Start Saving and the Save UI will open:

Here’s how it works:

In short, you’re purchasing a discounted version of your asset of choice called Principal Tokens and in exchange you’ll earn all of the guaranteed fixed-rate yield displayed upon purchase by the end of the selected term when you get back your initial asset. It’s that simple, cool right?

https://docs.element.fi/element/principal-tokens

What do you mean by upon purchase?

You may notice that the displayed fixed-rate may change after purchasing, but rest assured — this won’t affect you. The fixed-rate (APR) comes from the discount at which you purchased the Principal Tokens, so your APR will remain the same.

In the UI you’ll notice a few tabs:

  • From: You can click on this to switch assets, we’ll be using crvLUSD.
  • To: You can click on this to swap terms, for now we’ll stick with the 3-month term displayed.
  • APR: This is the fixed rate you’ll earn at the end of maturity.

Here, I’m opting to purchase ~508 crvLUSD Principal Tokens. Afterwards, all that’s left to do is wait until the maturity date (in this example, Sep 28, 2021). When the date comes, I’ll be able to redeem my Principal Tokens for my initial deposit + the earned APR.

Note: As displayed on the UI, there are no minimums, no withdrawal penalties, and you can exit anytime by selling your Principal Tokens. In that case, your actual yield will depend on the difference between the purchase price and the selling price.

After purchasing crvLUSD Principal Tokens, you’ll begin earning a fixed yield — i.e. the yield is guaranteed! In the last section, I’ll share a tip that could earn users additional yield on their Principal Tokens 👀

Earning

For the advanced users, it’s time to explore the Earn UI. You can do so by returning to the homepage and clicking Start Earning.

Under the “Earn” tab, you’ll see two maturity terms for the Yearn crvLUSD Vault. Click on your preferred term and the page will transform to this:

In contrast to earning fixed-term rates by simply purchasing the discounted Principal Tokens (Save), you’ll be opting to mint Principal Tokens, which represents your base principal, and Yield Tokens, which represent the variable interest gained from the yield generating protocol.

https://docs.element.fi/element/concepts-overview

Having access to both tokens gives you more flexibility since you can provide liquidity or trade both tokens within the secondary market (AMM) built into Element. In addition, you’ll have exposure to the underlying variable-interest rate of the Yearn Vault which is often higher than the fixed-rate.

I’ll be minting 1000 Principal Tokens and Yield Tokens. At maturity, I’ll be able to redeem my minted Principal Tokens for the underlying crvLUSD and redeem my Yield Tokens that accumulated the variable-rate.

Users can stop here, but instead let’s explore the new opportunities that come with minting these tokens.

Trade

To find these other opportunities, you’ll want to click on the Trade tab at the top of the Earn UI.

I won’t be providing examples for this last section since there a handful of things you can do. Instead, I’ll break down some possibilities:

  • Providing Liquidity: This is the important part for Save users. If you want to earn the additional APY (trading fees) for providing liquidity to Element’s AMM, you can do this by depositing your purchased Principal Tokens. The more advanced users that have minted Yield Tokens can provide liquidity as well. Keep in mind that you’ll need to pair both Principal and Yield Tokens with an equivalent amount of crvLUSD to do this.
  • Trading between Principal Tokens and Yield Tokens: Depending on your outlook on variable-interest rates, you can increase or decrease your exposure to both assets. For example, if you become bearish on variable-interest rates — you have the option to sell your Yield Tokens for crvLUSD in order to purchase more Principal Tokens, decreasing your exposure to the variable-rates and locking in a fixed-rate. The process works in the opposite manner if you’re bullish on variable-interest rates — selling your Principal Tokens for crvLUSD in order to buy more Yield Tokens, leveraging your exposure to Yield Tokens or “Yield Token Compounding”.

What’s next?

If you made it this far, you should have all the information you need to get started with Element Finance. To learn more, check out more Element resources here:

Resources: Website | Twitter | Discord | Telegram | Github | Reddit | LiquityCN