Although the crypto market appears lackluster and dominated by macro factors, there is a group of emerging, promising, tokenless protocols. This article will highlight nine protocols where you can participate in yield mining.

The perpetual contract exchange space is an intensely competitive arena with shifting leaders: dydx → GMX → Hyperliquid.

However, Ostium stands out as a unique protocol. It introduces leveraged trading of the S&P 500 index, Dow Jones, Nikkei, gold, copper, and numerous other TradFi assets on-chain.

Ostium is built on Arbitrum. These "risk-weighted assets" (RWAs) have no real backing, but Ostium provides synthetic on-chain price exposure through oracle price information.

While Ostium is not the first in this space, it's gaining momentum (source: Dune):

• Total TVL in Ostium Liquidity Pool (OLP) is $46 million, functioning similarly to HLP on Hyperliquid for generating trading and liquidation fees.

• 845 daily active users, 2,225 weekly active users.

• Total trading volume of $2.1 billion.

• Ostium has offered points to traders and OLP depositors since March 31.

On-chain RWA trading, even synthetic, holds great potential for many crypto-native users. It allows them to keep stablecoins on-chain instead of withdrawing them to traditional finance platforms.

This could be a good airdrop opportunity for early users.

You might have heard of Photon, BullX, GMGN, BonkBot, and other Solana-based trading platforms.

But those are from 2024.

Y Combinator-backed Axiom launched in February and has already dominated the category (44% total share, dark blue section in the dashboard below).

Source: Dune

Interestingly, Axiom's official X account and co-founders are very low-key on X, posting rarely. It seems marketing is done through word-of-mouth.

Moreover, Axiom's ultimate goal is to trade any asset on any chain, including perpetuals (via real-time trading on Hyperliquid), yield protocols, wallet tracking, and more.

When the speculative fervor of Solana network trading returns, Axiom stands to benefit.

Currently, the points event is ongoing, with participation possible through trading, tasks, and referrals.

If you missed Solayer, Fragmetric might be your second chance (since LAYER is actually rising post-airdrop).

Two things to know about Fragmetric:

Bad news: It's not too early, as deposit services opened in October 2024.
Good news: It's not too late yet, the token isn't live, and points are still being counted. It's a simple "deposit-to-mine" model.

In summary, Fragmetric is a liquidity restaking protocol built on Solana.

When you deposit SOL or LST into Fragmetric, you receive LRTs like fragSOL or fragJTO.

Restakers become SANG (SolanA Network Guard), a community of guardians protecting the Solana ecosystem. Additionally, you can earn extra rewards by guarding NCN/AVS (new decentralized services).

If you have idle SOL and want to diversify away from Kamino, Marginfi, and Solayer, this is a straightforward strategy.

TVL has reached $125 million, so it's not too early.

F Points are Fragmetric's loyalty system, awarded to users just for holding LRTs. You can also earn more points by wrapping LRTs (e.g., wfragSOL for DeFi).

Fragmetric has raised 12million.Thelatest5 million funding round was led by RockawayX, Robot Ventures, Amber group, and BitGo.

In short: Fragmetric is a very simple SOL farm.

Now, Loopscale allows you to earn more yield with your newly acquired fragSOL. More on that later.

Loopscale brings modular, order-based lending innovation to Solana DeFi.

This is different from the liquidity pool model used by Kamino, Marginfi, and even Aave:

As Loopscale writes in its official documentation: "By replacing liquidity pools and algorithmic interest rates with direct order book matching, Loopscale increases capital efficiency, enables more precise risk management, and supports new markets that are difficult to realize with traditional DeFi architectures."

Users can lend/borrow, Loop (one-click leverage multiplication like Kamino), or join Vaults.

Since Loopscale ended its closed beta 5 days ago, it has launched Genesis Vaults, offering over 6x points before they reach their cap.

A simple strategy is JUPSOL looping, yielding over 22% APY (similar to Kamino multiply). Double points can be earned.

Additionally, the official statement says short-term LST/LRT depegging won't liquidate users' loops, "but staking yields lower than borrowing costs or validator underperformance could lead to liquidation."

For users who are more degen and want 32% APY on SOL, there's another Vault to deposit fragSOL:

• Deposit SOL into Fragmetric.

• Get PT-fragSOL on Exponent (Solana's Pendle).

• Loop PT-fragSOL on Loopscale for 32% APY.

Currently, TVL is around $40 million, so it's still early.

Loopscale is backed by: CoinFund, Solana Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Jump, and Room40.

Do you feel DeFi is getting more complex and time-consuming to find high-risk-reward opportunities?

At Upshift, you can deposit your crypto into Vaults managed by "seasoned hedge funds" and investment managers.

Yield strategies range from looping to more complex products, including delta-neutral hedging, OTC options, or systematic stablecoin DEX market-making.

Upshift has four core products:

• Lending: On-chain over-collateralized loans to verified institutions.

• DeFi Yield: Curated Vaults by top DeFi funds.

• Vaults-as-a-Service: Plug-and-play protocol Vaults.

• Synergies: Borrowing against Vaults to enhance yield and capital efficiency.

At the time of writing, total TVL is a decent 236million.Additionally,5xpointsareoffereduntildepositsreach750 million.

Personally, I prefer the Hyperbeat Ultra HYPE strategy, which manages HYPE token yield farming on the HyperEVM ecosystem.

The project is backed by Dragonfly VC, Hack VC, 6MV, and Robot Ventures.

If you hold any stablecoins, pay attention:

Level is a stablecoin protocol issuing lvlUSD. lvlUSD itself is also a stablecoin, backed by USDC and USDT, and generates yield through premium lending protocols.

You deposit USDC → USDC is deposited into platforms like Aave/Morpho → You receive lvlUSD and use it elsewhere in DeFi.

You simply stake lvlUSD as accrual-enhanced slvlUSD to get 8.48% APY.

But to earn XP points, you need to mine with lvlUSD in DeFi protocols: deposit lvlUSD into Curve, Spectra, or Pendle (currently 13% PT yield), etc.

At the time of writing, TVL is a decent $138.26 million. Level's social account followers on X are also growing, a good sign for token upside.

The project is backed by Dragonfly VC and Polychain.

Level isn't the first protocol to try this strategy, and many have failed to achieve PMF. However, given the decent yield and upcoming airdrop, this could be a promising opportunity.

Stablecoins and RWAs are the hottest topics, but they're hard for users to access. Maybe wait for Circle's IPO, but don't expect 10x in a day.

The PayFi network Huma recently raised $38 million from Hashkey Capital, Folius Ventures, Stellar, etc.

Previously, Huma merged with Arf, a Circle-backed protocol providing liquidity and settlement services for cross-border payments.

Huma's uniqueness lies in:

Traditional cross-border payments take days, with high fees, and banks capture most of the profit. Huma solves this by using blockchain and stablecoins (USDC), enabling instant, global, and low-cost transfers.

Huma leverages stablecoins and on-chain liquidity to accelerate real-world payments. Financial institutions can settle large amounts of funds globally, replacing the need for legacy systems like SWIFT or pre-funding mechanisms.

Two ways to earn:

• Classic mode: Stable monthly yield + Feathers (points). Currently over 10% yield.

• Maxi mode: 0% APY, but if bullish on Huma's future governance token $HUMA, you can get 5x Feathers.

Users can now also deposit USDC → get $PST (PayFi Strategy Token), a yield-bearing token usable on Solana DeFi (can be swapped on Jupiter, used as collateral for borrowing on Kamino).

Even locked positions can be exited early via the PST liquidity pool.

Data source: Dune

As of now, Huma:

• Pays 10.5% APY on USDC.

• Has $74.7 million in PayFi transaction volume that can earn yield.

• Holds $7.2 million in liquid assets (stablecoins) for a rainy day, not earning yield.

• TVL is $81 million.

You might often see DeFi App advertised on X, but the amount and manner of its ads might be off-putting. It always makes one more vigilant and gives a strange intuition.

But there are reasons to be bullish:

• Third-ranked DEX aggregator with 229millionindailytradingvolumeand991 million in weekly trading volume.

• Raised 6millionfromVCsata100 million valuation, including Mechanism Capital, Selini Capital, North Rock Digital, and about 50 angel investors.

DeFi App is an all-in-one superapp that makes DeFi simple.

From the beta app, the cross-chain swap functionality is excellent. No annoying gas fees, supporting Solana and EVM chains. Future features like yield farming and perpetual contract trading will be added.

The token HOME isn't live yet, and users can earn yield through simple token swaps.

Additionally, users can earn points by swapping tokens and joining the Degen Arena.

The top 50 factions get extra rewards and early access to new features of Defi App. Why join a faction? In the first season of Degen Arena, there's a higher allocation ratio for $HOME:

• 60% of season 1 experience points will go into the faction experience pool.

• 40% of season rewards will go into the faction reward pool.

If there's one mobile app to swap all tokens cross-chain, it might be Slingshot.

Before trying it, here's what you need to know:

• Creating an account is super simple, just like a Web2 app.

• Magic Eden recently acquired Slingshot, reducing the likelihood of a Slingshot token airdrop.

• Users will soon be able to swap Bitcoin Rune tokens.

So, if you primarily trade crypto on mobile, Slingshot is a must-have app.