In today’s decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape, leveraging for restaking has become a key strategy to maximize airdrop returns. But does this strategy actually lead to higher rewards? We’re putting it to the test with live trading (see here for details).

In last month’s restaking experiment, we divided our funds into five equal parts, using them in Juice, Stella, and Extra for a “leveraged restaking + yield farming” approach. Over a month later, we revisited the trades to answer two crucial questions:

1. Can yield farming income offset the interest from leveraged loans?

2. Which protocol offers the highest airdrop returns?

The first question can be answered by looking at the current positions in each protocol. However, before diving into the details, I recommend you read these two articles, “Demystifying Restaking” and “[Live Trading] How to Maximize Restaking Returns?”, otherwise, the following content might leave you scratching your head.

Alright, let’s get straight to the point. First, can yield farming offset the interest from leveraged loans?

1. Yield Farming Can Offset Leverage Costs

The answer is yes: yield farming not only covers the interest on leveraged loans but also generates surplus earnings, with Extra performing the best.

Extra not only fully covered the loan interest but also generated a surplus of around $11.

In contrast, all three positions in Juice were in the negative. Clearly, the yield farming income couldn’t cover the loan interest, as shown in the chart below.

Stella’s position was switched midway, and its yield farming income not only covered the interest on 5x leverage but also generated a small surplus. Additionally, we earned extra Pendle and Arb rewards, as shown in the chart.

From this, we can conclude: Extra had the best yield farming efficiency, followed by Stella, with Juice performing the worst.

However, our goal is to use leverage to gain more from restaking airdrops. So, the comparison of restaking airdrop returns is key.

Since Renzo (ezETH) and KelpDAO (rsETH) don’t provide real-time airdrop scores for each sub-protocol, we can only compare the airdrop scores for Etherfi (eETH).

2. Leverage for Restaking Yields the Highest Returns

When we started, Extra didn’t offer weETH for restaking, so we can only compare the restaking airdrop results on Juice and Stella.

We allocated 0.12 ETH in both, but there were two significant differences:

First, the collateralized assets were different. Juice used WeETH as collateral, then borrowed WETH for yield farming; Stella directly collateralized 0.12 ETH.

Second, the leverage multiples were different. Juice used 3x leverage; Stella used 5x leverage.

Like you, I initially thought Stella, with 5x leverage, would generate higher restaking airdrop scores, but the reality was the opposite.

Look at the chart below. The boxed 95.29K score is an additional gain from using WeETH as collateral.

Now, look at the Etherfi scores in the circles: Juice scored 285K, while Stella scored 266K, with similar funding amounts in both cases.

Adding the boxed scores from directly staking WeETH, the answer becomes clear:

Using Juice’s 3x leveraged yield farming can generate more restaking airdrop scores than Stella’s 5x leverage.

The reason is simple: Stella shares the restaking points with users who provide deposits to enable leverage. Stella has made this clear through a pinned announcement, as shown in the image.

In fact, Juice’s airdrop benefits aren’t just from restaking.

3. Juice’s Extra Airdrop Bonuses

You might have noticed that Juice itself also offers airdrops. By clicking on the LeaderBoard in the above image, you’ll see your Juice airdrop scores. But that’s not all; since Juice is on the Blast chain, and because you participated in yield farming, you can earn all the airdrop scores shown in the image below.

Currently, only the Blast points can be checked via this link.

Nonetheless, it’s clear that leveraging restaking + yield farming on Juice maximizes airdrop benefits, including not just restaking airdrops but also those from Blast L2, as well as from Juice itself, Thruster, HyperLock, and other Dapps.

Conclusion

Here’s the dilemma: Juice offers the highest potential future airdrops, but it doesn’t achieve zero-cost leverage, so you’ll need to pay extra loan interest. This is understandable—everyone recognizes the current model of Juice, where you get multiple benefits, and despite the higher interest costs, many are willing to continue participating.

But that might not be the best choice for you. You should make your decision based on your risk tolerance. If your principle is to avoid capital loss, I recommend choosing Stella and Extra. While the airdrop returns are lower, your capital remains safe.

If, like me, you believe it’s worth paying a bit of interest to gain more future airdrop opportunities, then Juice is the way to go.

The key is to make a choice that gives you peace of mind. If a decision keeps you up at night, don’t hesitate—that’s the wrong choice for you. Change it immediately.

Here’s my choice, and this is the link to my live trading account, where you can check my positions anytime.

As the market evolves and protocols continue to optimize, the strategy of leveraging for restaking may see new changes. I will closely monitor these developments to adjust strategies accordingly and maximize airdrop returns.

[For more content, please visit the Airdrop Project Base]