For many newcomers to the cryptocurrency market, it is not uncommon to find yourself in a situation where you don't know how to utilize the stable coins you have in your possession, such as USDT and USDC. If you put them in the account of a centralized exchange, you will worry about the risk of the platform or the low return, but if you try the projects on the decentralized financial DeFi ecosystem, you will be afraid of the complexity of the operation or the security of the funds. Do you have the same problem?

After all, no one wants their money to sit idle, especially during a long bear market or a cold snap, and finding a safe and easy way to add value can seem overwhelming!In fact, the current DeFi ecosystem has developed a number of very newbie-friendly tools and strategies that allow you to start earning passive income in a simple way by putting your hands on transparent and high-yield agreements.

In this article, we'll introduce you to the basics of DeFi step-by-step, and share 3 of 2025's most popular DeFi protocols to keep your stablecoin assets rolling in money!

What is DeFi and why does the chain offer high yields in stable currency?

DeFi (Decentralized Finance) is a financial product ecosystem built on blockchain. Unlike traditional finance or CeFi platforms, DeFi projects on different blockchains run on open smart contracts, where access to funds and computation of returns are publicly available, and where everyone can interact directly with the agreement without the need for a bank or exchange to act as an intermediary.This transparent and unmediated nature reduces the cost of trust on the one hand, and on the other hand allows for a more efficient utilization of capital, and therefore tends to give a higher interest return to the capital providers!

Yield Farming or Interest on Deposits in DeFi is particularly attractive to stable currency holders, as you can deposit stable coins such as USDT, USDC, etc. into a variety of DeFi Agreements to earn passive income. Compared to traditional bank deposits that offer less than 5%, many DeFi agreements offer annualized yields on stablecoins of 10% or more!

I'm sure some people will ask, "Why is it possible to have such a high interest rate?"

The DeFi agreement often lends your stablecoins to borrowers in need, participates in decentralized lending markets or market-making transactions, and collects interest and fees that are then returned to you, plus some projects will additionally issue their native tokens as incentives to further increase the total return.

Since DeFi programs are automated through smart contracts, eliminating the need for traditional financial intermediaries such as banks, lenders can receive higher returns and borrowers may receive lower interest rates!

Of course, the higher the return usually means the higher the risk, and although DeFi does not have an intermediary, you need to assess the security of the smart contract, the risk of market fluctuations, etc. Don't worry. But don't worry, later in this article, we will introduce how to use tools to understand the capital size and risk level of various agreements to help you avoid common pitfalls and choose a relatively stable income plan.

Next, we'll dive into 3 star DeFi deals from the current hot ecosystem, each with their own unique and user-friendly features that are perfect for newbies trying to make their first steps in putting their idle money to work!

Pendle Finance

Pendle Finance is an innovative interest rate trading protocol on networks such as Ether.

It is innovative in how it separates the proceeds from the underlying asset. When users pledge a token or deposit an interest-bearing asset, Pendle allows them to partially tokenize the proceeds into a separate asset. Users receive two types of tokens:

  • PT (Principal Token) = Principal (Original Assets)
  • YT (Yield Token) = Yield (future reward)

Simply put, if you have a stable currency and deposit it into a Pendle-backed income stream, you can sell future interest early on Pendle for a stable fixed income, or conversely, buy someone else's income rights for a higher variable income.

Currently, through the Pendle platform, stable-currency-related fixed-rate products can yield up to approximately 20% annually, and as of November 2025, the cumulative value of assets locked in the platform has exceeded $5 billion, making it one of the leaders in DeFi's fixed-income space. Such a high TVL also demonstrates the confidence of many users in Pendle's security and stability of returns.

Pendle covers a wide range of mainstream stablecoin income sources, you can put your USDC into the USDe stablecoin income market provided by Ethena through Pendle to get fixed income, because Pendle is fully abstracted, so users don't need to split tokens manually, they just need to prepare stablecoins, and choose the fixed income they want in the Pendle app! All you need to do is prepare your stablecoins, select the fixed income product you want in the Pendle app, and invest with one click!

For example, a uSDe is directly exchanged for a PT or YT token on the Pendle platform.Just use it to redeem the principal at maturity!

Stable money yields on Pendle vary depending on market conditions and maturity. For example, the Ethena USDe Fixed Rate product offered through Pendle has an annualized interest rate that fluctuates between approximately 10-20%, and these yields are fixed to maturity, which means if you hold them to maturity you're locked in at that level of interest rate regardless of market interest rate fluctuations during that time. For newcomers who want to earn a steady stream of high interest rates, this model of buying fixed certificates of deposit offers extra peace of mind!

Click me to enter Pendle Finance

Kamino Finance

Kamino Finance It's aBuilt on the Solana blockchain,The DeFi protocol that integrates borrowing, liquidity provision and leverage. It helps users optimize their investments in DEX (e.g., Solana's concentrated liquidity positions) through automated strategies, theSimply put, Kamino encapsulates the complexity of DeFi operations into a one-click activation strategy, especially for users who want to increase their stablecoin earnings but don't want to manually tweak it over and over again!The Kamino platform has grown to a significant size, with TVL now exceeding $2.5 billion.

Kamino It offers a so-called "Modular Loan Market" and "Automatic Income Pool". Users can deposit stablecoins on Kamino to participate in lending, or access pools of strategies managed by a team of professionals. These pools automatically allocate your funds to various income opportunities such as decentralized lending, liquidity mining, and the introduction of RWA returns.

For the uninitiated, you don't need to know every detail, just select a pool of strategies that match your risk appetite, click to deposit, and leave the rest of the optimization to Kamino Smart Contracts.

Taking USDC stablecoin strategies on Kamino as an example, one of the star products "USDC Prime" has recently achieved an annualized yield of around 8%, which is much higher than the general interest rate of ~5% for simple deposits. In addition, after depositing into this type of strategy pool, users can also receive KMNO, a bonus token from the Kamino platform, further increasing their total return.

It's very easy and intuitive to use Kamino, just connect to a Solana blockchain enabled wallet such as Phantom or OKX Web3 wallet, select the strategy you want to participate in and click on the stablecoin to deposit into your wallet. the Kamino interface will instantly show you the strategy's current APY, funding size and composition.

If you're already using a wallet to transfer funds on Solana, there's almost no additional barrier to using Kamino. Some pools are labeled "conservative," "balanced," and "aggressive," making it easy for newcomers to choose according to their risk tolerance.

Click me to enter Kamino Finance

Scallop

Scallop It is the next generation of lending agreements emerging from the Sui public chain, and has been described as the native high-interest "savings account" of the Sui ecology.

Scallop provides services similar to traditional bank demand deposits and loans, but with higher interest rates and more flexible use of funds through blockchain. For newcomers to the Sui chain, using Scallop to deposit stable coins and earn interest is a good starting point.

The logic of the product is very similar to that of older DeFi programs such as Aave, Compound, etc., but with a few optimizations Scallop first uses a unique Trilinear interest rate model to determine the interest rate for borrowing. Simply put, interest rates rise in three stages as capital utilization increases, ensuring that depositors receive a sufficiently high return in a tight market and borrowers are signaled to reduce their borrowing in response to higher costs.This model allows for smoother interest rate adjustments and helps to provide a steady stream of higher deposit yields while maintaining market stability.

In addition, Scallop introduces a deposit certificate token called sCoin, which represents your certificate of deposit. When you deposit assets in Scallop, you will get the corresponding sToken, for example, when you deposit USDC, you will get sUSDC. sUSDC not only represents your certificate of deposit, but it will also increase in value automatically with the interest (the interest is directly reflected in the value of sUSDC), and you can use the sUSDC to continue to benefit from other agreements!

In other words, Scallop opens up the liquidity of your assets between different agreements, so that while you are earning interest on your deposits, you can also take this certificate of deposit to participate in more income opportunities, thus realizing the "one fish, many mouths to feed".

The current annualized interest rate for depositing FDUSD in Scallop is around 10%. By transferring FDUSD in your hand to the Sui chain and depositing it in Scallop, you will be able to enjoy much higher interest income than a bank fixed deposit on a daily basis, and you can withdraw it as often as you like without locking up a position for a certain period of time (call income). Such an impressive interest rate is of course due to the strong demand for stablecoin lending on the Scallop platform, as well as the incentives provided by the SCA, the token of agreement!

It's worth mentioning that Scallop has designed the veSCA lock-in mechanism: users can lock in their SCA holdings to enhance their deposit and borrowing return entitlements. If you become an advanced user in the future, locking SCAs can further increase the interest rate on your stable currency deposits to a more impressive level (according to data shared by the community, locking a SCA can increase the deposit rate on some assets by an additional few percentage points after the increase of the incentive)!

Press me to enter Scallo.p

How can a newbie start? Prepare a wallet!

After reading the protocol descriptions above, you may be asking, "What do I need to do to get started on these DeFi platforms?"

The first step, of course, is to prepare a multichain-enabled Web3 wallet that will be used to store your crypto assets and interact with various DeFi protocols.

We highly recommend you to use OKX Web3 wallet, which is a recently acclaimed multi-chain self-hosted wallet launched by the well-known exchange OKX. It operates in a similar way to the familiar MetaMask, but supports more diverse blockchain networks and is deeply integrated with the OKX exchange ecosystem.According to the official information, OKX Web3 wallet currently supports more than 50 major public chains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Sui, Base, Arbitrum and so on.

 Through Monsterblockhk Exclusive Coupon Code "MB002"Registration.Discount on 20% Permanent Trading Handling FeeThe newbies are getting a better deal!

How to install and use OKX Web3 wallet?Please follow these simple steps:

1. Download wallet: Go to OKX official website to download and install OKX Web3 wallet plugin, when registering enter Monsterblockhk Exclusive Coupon Code "MB002"Registration.Discount on 20% Permanent Trading Handling FeeThe following is a demonstration of the operation process using the mobile phone interface. The following is a demonstration of the operation procedure using the cell phone interface.

2. Create a new wallet: After opening the App, click "Create Wallet" and then "Create Now".

3. Backup Wallet: After you create your wallet, the app will not automatically back it up for you, so be sure to take the initiative to back up your helpers. This is the only way to recover your assets in the future if you lose your device or forget your password. (I suggest readers not to use iCloud backup, because it's always safest to write it down manually!)

4. For the first time, we recommend that you switch to your target public chain within your wallet, e.g. if you deposit USDC to Scallop, switch to the Sui network, and then withdraw funds from the exchange to your wallet address on that network. (Don't know how toDeposit from an exchange or other platform?Read moreOKX Web3 Wallet Registration ProcessTeaching )

5. Open the official application of the corresponding protocol (e.g. Pendle's DApp website, Kamino's or Scallop's interface) and connect the authorization with the wallet. Once connected, you will be able to make deposits and withdrawals on the agreement page, and at each step the wallet will pop up a confirmation window for you to sign the transaction. Be sure to click through the official channels to avoid phishing sites!

5. Once the deposit of Stablecoins is completed, you can see the deposit amount and real-time earnings changes on the agreement interface.

Tip: Since assets are not directly interchangeable between different public chains, if you plan to experiment with multiple chains, such as jumping from Pendle on the Ether chain to Scallop on the Sui chain, you may need to use a cross-link bridge to transfer funds to the target chain, which can be accomplished using the cross-link feature built into the OKX Web3 wallet, or any other reputable cross-link bridge. It is recommended to try a small amount for the first time to familiarize yourself with the process!

Make good use of the DeFiLlama tool to check the latest data

When entering the world of DeFi, there are a number of information tools that you can use to get the most out of your time. One of these tools is DeFiLlama, which is a must-have for newcomers.

DeFiLlama is one of the most comprehensive decentralized financial data platforms available today, providing information on various agreements such as funds locked in positions (TVL), yields, and flows, as well as aggregating the risk ratings of different items. For those who are new to stablecoin returns, DeFiLlama provides a one-click view of which agreements across the market offer stablecoin interest, as well as their respective yields and sizes.

It's easy to use. DeFiLlama On the website, navigate to Yields or simply use the Stablecoin Pools filter, where you can see a list of various yield opportunities categorized by stable currencies. If you select USDC, the list will show you at a glance which agreements offer deposit yields in USDC, what the annualized rate is, the type of yield (borrowing, mining, liquidity pools, etc.), where the public chain is located, as well as the pool's TVL (Total Locked Position) and risk rating.You can sort the list by APY high or low or TVL size to filter the options to suit you!

Additionally, DeFiLlama provides detailed information on the historical data trends of the agreements, such as interest rate trends, TVL changes, and capital distributions. If you are interested in a particular agreement, you may want to click on its details page to see more background. For example, Pendle, Kamino, and Scallop all have pages on DeFiLlama that list their respective ecosystems' TVLs, revenues, and support chains.This data can help you understand market conditions more fully and make more informed decisions. 

Using tools such as DeFiLlama can shorten the learning curve for newbies. You need to keep an eye on the market around the clock, but you can still find out where to get a better interest rate on stable currencies, and whether the agreement is safe or not. It is recommended that newbies search for relevant agreements on DeFiLlama before committing funds to make sure that the size of the funds and the risk level are within their acceptance range, so that they have a clear picture in their mind before proceeding!

Conclusion

Congratulations on seeing this! We've taken a look at how DeFi makes stablecoin assets work by looking at the pain points of newbies, and we've learned about the workings and benefits of three popular protocols: Pendle, Kamino, and Scallop. Once you've prepared your wallet and taken the first step, the door to the world of DeFi will officially open to you!

It is important to emphasize that the DeFi ecosystem is changing rapidly and new opportunities are emerging. As a newbie, you should keep learning and paying attention to the market dynamics, and if there is anything you don't understand, please feel free to join our Telegram Community Networking is also a great way to share and discuss the latest DeFi information, airdrop campaigns, and revenue strategies!

Disclaimer

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