1/ Something’s quietly brewing on @etherlink DeFi 👀 A USDC vault on @GearboxProtocol has been yielding 25%–30%+ APR for two months straight and the mechanics behind it are actually fascinating. Let’s unpack what’s going on 🧵👇

2/ At first glance, the vault looks like your usual stablecoin pool. But dig deeper and you realize the yield is being stacked from multiple layers of incentives and strategies. Here’s how the ~34% APR breaks down 👇

3/ Yield composition: Base USDC yield: 7.34% Base applstXTZ incentives: 17.84% Additional applstXTZ (vesting): ~8.3% GEAR incentives: 0.45% ➡️ Total: ~34% APR The consistency of this yield (20–27% avg for 2 months) is what’s making people take notice.

4/ The utilization rate is almost 90% which is high. Why? Because this vault supports looping strategies. Borrowers are using Curve LP positions as collateral (like mRE7/USDC and mBASIS/USDC) to loop and compound their yield exposure.

5/ Loopers are essentially leveraging yield-bearing assets to borrow more USDC → deposit → loop again. The result? Many of them are earning 100%+ effective APRs on their positions. Not something you see every day in stablecoin vaults.

6/ From a design perspective, it’s interesting because: Supply side earns stable, consistent yield Borrowing side gets structured leverage opportunities Incentives align both sides to keep utilization high It’s one of the more composed forms of “degen yield” we’ve seen recently.

7/ All of this sits on Etherlink, Tezos’ EVM-compatible Layer 2. Low fees, fast confirmations (~500ms), and the on-chain Apple Farm reward model (applstXTZ) make these mechanics possible at scale. That’s why you’re seeing sustained yields, not just short-term spikes.