Robust Investment Options During Market Turbulence

In April 2025, the global financial markets experienced severe fluctuations. New tariff policies triggered a strong market reaction, causing the S&P 500 to lose $5.8 trillion in market value in just four days, marking the largest single-week loss in over 70 years. The price of Bitcoin also oscillated sharply between $80,000 and $90,000.

In the face of this uncertainty, how should investors respond? This article will introduce four low-risk yield products based on stablecoins that may serve as solid investment options during this turbulent period.

Note: This article is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. Investors should conduct their own in-depth research and risk assessment.

1. USDC Savings Product on the Spark Platform (Ethereum Network)

Operation Steps:

1. Visit the official website of the Spark platform
2. Connect your Ethereum wallet
3. Choose USDC savings products
4. Deposit USDC

Source of income: The earnings from saving USDC mainly come from the Sky Savings Rate (SSR). This rate is obtained by the Sky protocol through various channels, including fees from cryptocurrency collateral loans, investment returns from U.S. Treasury bonds, and income generated from providing liquidity to other DeFi platforms.

The USDC deposited by users will be exchanged for USDS at a 1:1 ratio and deposited into the SSR vault to earn returns. The value of the sUSDC token will increase as returns accumulate. The Spark platform is responsible for providing liquidity support for USDC.

Risk Assessment: Low Risk As a mainstream stablecoin, USDC has a high level of stability. The Spark platform has undergone multiple security audits to reduce the risks of smart contracts. However, investors should still be aware of the potential impact that market fluctuations may have on liquidity.

2. BYUSD/HONEY Liquidity Pool on the Berachain Platform (Berachain Network)

Operation steps:

1. Visit the Berachain official website
2. Enter the BeraHub page
3. Connect a wallet that supports Berachain.
4. Select the BYUSD/HONEY pool on the Pools page.
5. Deposit BYUSD and HONEY to provide liquidity
6. After obtaining LP tokens, you can choose to stake them in the reward vault to earn BGT.

Source of income:

• BGT Rewards: The current annualized yield is approximately 3.41%, based on the staking weight and the distribution of BGT emissions by validators, updated every 5 hours.
• Trading fee distribution: an annualized yield of approximately 0.01%, derived from the distribution of trading fees within the pool.

BGT is the non-transferable governance token of Berachain, which can be burned at a 1:1 ratio for BERA (irreversible operation). BGT holders can share in the fee income from the core DApp, with the specific ratio determined by community governance.

Since BYUSD and HONEY are both stablecoins, the price volatility risk of this liquidity pool is relatively low.

Risk Assessment: Low to Moderate Risk BYUSD and HONEY are stablecoins with relatively stable prices. The PoL mechanism of Berachain has been audited by authoritative institutions, and the risk of smart contracts is relatively low. However, it should be noted that BGT rewards may fluctuate due to emission adjustments.

3. USDC-USDT Liquidity Pool of Uniswap V4 (Uniswap V4 Network)

Operation Steps:

1. Visit the official website of the Merkl platform
2. Connect your wallet
3. Select the "Provide Liquidity to Uniswap V4 USDC-USDT0" product
4. Deposit USDC or USDT

Source of income: The main source of income is the UNI token incentives.

Uniswap V4 is set to launch in 2025, introducing a "hook" mechanism that allows developers to customize pool functionalities, such as dynamic fee adjustments and automatic rebalancing, with the potential to enhance capital efficiency and yield potential.

Risk Assessment: Low to Moderate Risk USDC/USDT, as a mainstream stablecoin pair, has lower price volatility risk. However, investors should be aware of smart contract risks, as well as the possibility of declining returns after the incentive period ends.

4. Echelon Market's USDC Pool (Aptos Network)

Operation steps:

1. Visit the Echelon Market official website
2. Connect a wallet that supports Aptos.
3. Select the USDC pool on the Markets page
4. Deposit USDC to participate in supply

Source of income:

• USDC supply interest: annual yield approximately 5.35%
• Thala's thAPT rewards: annualized yield of approximately 3.66%

thAPT is a deposit certificate of the Thala protocol, which can be minted and redeemed for APT at a 1:1 ratio. A fee of 0.15% is charged upon redemption, and these fees will go into the sthAPT (staking yield token) reward pool.

Risk Assessment: Low to Moderate Risk USDC has a higher stability, but investors need to pay attention to the smart contract risks in the Aptos ecosystem, as well as the impact of thAPT redemption fees on actual returns. Although this product offers an instant exit option, ensuring high liquidity, market volatility may affect the value of thAPT rewards.

Summary

The table below ranks the main features of the four products mentioned above from high to low based on Total Value Locked (TVL), for reference only:

| Product Name | Network | Annual Yield | TVL | Risk Rating | |---------|-----|-----------|-----|---------| | Spark Saving USDC | Ethereum | 5.47% | 718 million USD | Low | | Berachain BYUSD|HONEY | Berachain | 3.42% | 281 million USD | Low to Medium | | Uniswap V4 USDC-USDT0 | Uniswap V4 | 2.74% | $135 million | Low to Medium | | Echelon Market USDC | Aptos | 9.01% | 15.2 million USD | Low to Medium |

Investors should carefully choose suitable products based on their own risk preferences and investment goals. Before making any investment decisions, it is essential to conduct thorough due diligence and risk assessment.