Last night I came across a yield aggregator again that claims "annualized returns are very attractive." For someone like me who always reacts a bit late to these messages, don't rush to jump in just yet. My first instinct is to check whether the contract and the money have actually changed hands multiple times... No matter how beautiful the APY is written, it could be backed by a strategy contract that frequently swaps pools, or it might involve an unseen counterparty (such as bridges, custodians, whitelist market makers, etc.). If something goes wrong, it's not just a "yield pullback," but the principal could be stuck or drained.

Recently, everyone is still arguing about interest rate cut expectations, the US dollar index moving up and down with risk assets, and that whole set of things. I also find it exhausting... But the more these sentiments heat up, the easier it is to overlook "where the returns come from." I now honestly make a checklist: Are there multi-signature permissions? Can it be upgraded arbitrarily? Can the fund flow be reviewed on-chain? Is unlocking/incentivizing relying on new money to keep it alive? If it’s slow, so be it. For now, that’s how I proceed.