The team has been steadily partnering with a variety of protocols. The latest collaboration is with our friends at Alchemix—an Ethereum protocol that enables users to create self-repaying loans. In this guide, I’ll show you how to use Alchemix and earn some extra yield with your apxETH.
Please note: This guide is not a recommendation. Interacting with DeFi protocols can be risky. Please do your own research and use your best judgment. Best of luck out there!
Before we start, let's go over all the details to make sure you're fully prepared.
Pirex ETH offers two tokens: pxETH, an ETH-pegged asset for users who want to pursue DeFi yield and apxETH (staked pxETH) for users who want to earn staking yield. pxETH is usually the asset integrated into various DeFi apps however, for leveraged looping it’s best to use a yield bearing asset like apxETH so users can amplify the underlying yield even further.
Alchemix is a DeFi protocol where users can deposit stablecoins or yield-bearing assets (such as USDC or ETH) as collateral. In return, they can borrow a synthetic version of their deposited collateral, like alETH (for ETH) or alUSD (for stablecoins). The protocol generates yield on the deposited collateral, which is used to automatically repay the user's loan over time—eliminating the risk of liquidation.
In this tutorial, we’ll demonstrate how to use apxETH as collateral.
Before getting started, you’ll need to get your hands on apxETH. You can mint some here. The mint screen will provide you with two options:
Mint pxETH with ETH
Mint apxETH with ETH
As shown, select apxETH on the drop down menu. From there, simply input the amount of ETH you’d like to deposit and let the Dinero app guide you through the transaction process.
Alchemix makes depositing apxETH as simple as possible. To begin, navigate to the apxETH Vault in the Alchemix dApp:
Before continuing, let’s note a few stats on the UI:
LTV: How much you can borrow against your deposit. 50% means you’ll be able to borrow a maximum of half the deposited amount. Users should DYOR on the associated risks highlighted here.
TVL / Cap: Displays how much ETH has been deposited into the apxETH Vault and what the maximum amount is
APR: The amount of yield your deposited collateral will be earning
To deposit, follow the steps below:
Connect your wallet
Select apxETH as your collateral in the dropdown menu.
Note: If you didn’t mint apxETH beforehand, ETH and WETH deposit options are available. All you have to do is select your maximum slippage %, and the ETH will be swapped into apxETH behind the scenes.
Enter the amount of apxETH you’d like to deposit
Click “Deposit” and sign the transaction
After depositing into the apxETH vault, head to the Borrow tab at the top of the UI. Now, you’ll be able to borrow up to 50% of your deposited collateral in alETH by following the steps below:
Make sure alETH is selected as your borrow asset
Enter the amount of alETH you’d like to borrow
Click “Borrow alETH” and sign the transaction
You have now minted alETH using apxETH as collateral!
After borrowing alETH, users can view the available Alchemix Farms as shown above to become an LP and earn additional yield. If other yield opportunities better suit you, feel free to swap alETH for other assets.
And finally, you can either let your loan automatically repay itself from the yield generated on your collateral, repay manually on the UI using alETH, WETH, or frxETH, or liquidate your loan if needed.
If you encounter any issues, open a support ticket in the Discord.