Hey, hey, hey, hey… how are my fellow DeFi Degens doing today?
It’s Chad here, and today I have something incredibly important to share with you all.
So grab a beer and get comfortable. I’m about to make your day.
Harvest Finance is set to make a huge comeback and I’m about to tell you why so that you can make sure you’re on the right side of this move.
But first, I gotta tell you. I’m writing this piece for the #DeFiFARMer Writing Contest, so be sure to share this piece and comment good things ;)
Now let’s go ahead and jump in.
Planting the Seed: Harvest Finance Beginnings
Harvest Finance launched in August 2020, just as the crops were ripening. At the time, yield farming had become an unstoppable force. Chad farmers were making bank and farmer Joes’ were doing alright too.
People began asking, “How can I be more like Chad and less like Joe?”
The answer was simple:
You had to evolve from using primitive knowledge, tools, and information (ie. endless research, high gas fees, manual deposits and withdrawals for different yield farming strategies).
To using advanced machines and equipment (ie. automated farming strategies that save you gas and expose you to the highest yield available across select decentralized finance protocols).
Enter Harvest Finance.
Harvest Finance was created to accommodate the growing demand for automated yield farming strategies. It was inspired by Andre Cronje’s automated DeFi yield farming protocol Yearn Finance, which launched 1 month earlier than Harvest Finance.
At the time of Harvest Finance’s launch, August 31, 2020, Yearn Finance (YFI) was the king of automized yield farming with nearly $1B total value locked (TVL) on the protocol:
(Source)
How Harvest Follows YFI
So, at the time when Harvest was just starting out, Yearn was at its peak of TVL.
Shortly after though, Yearn Finance got a rebound hit with the Eminence Finance (EMN) flash loan exploit, leading DeFi investors of this protocol to lose $15 million and negatively affecting Yearn Finance in the process.
At the same time, Harvest was at its peak with nearly $1 billion TVL and more than $80 million annual profits to farmers:
That said, Harvest’s TVL followed Yearn to a T. And today, both projects find themselves in a similar position, facing a rollercoaster with refunds for victims of flash loan exploits.
Similar to the Yearn Finance TVL chart, Harvest Finance also experienced a sudden drop in TVL after the exploit.
(Source)
As for these DeFi farming protocol token prices, Harvest’s $FARM token seems to follow Yearn’s $YFI token as well.
$YFI reached a peak price of $40,864 on September 15, 2020, and then crashed severely (over 80%!!) through the month of October reaching a low of $8,325 on November 4, 2020:
(Source)
Similarly, $FARM reached its peak price of $317.93 one month later on October 21, 2020, and then crashed like YFI through the month of October reaching a low of $89.70 on November 1, 2020:
(Source)
Taking the price action of $YFI and $FARM into account, it’s clear that the micro DeFi bubble pop along with various DeFi exploits sent these token prices down.
Now the question remains, will they bounce back?
The Great Comebacks
Do you remember the Ethereum DAO hack? Or have you heard of it?
It occurred back in 2016 when “The DAO” raised 12.7 million Ether equating to more than $150 million USD back then. The hacker managed to siphon 3.6 million Ether from the DAO and it devastated the Ethereum community and investors.
The price of Ether crashed from over $20 to under $13.
But guess what? Being the Chads that they are, Ethereans didn’t let this hack get them down. They recovered and they moved on.
My point is, just because a hack or an exploit can send the price of an asset cascading down, it doesn’t mean the world is ending.
Great projects, with great code, and great people will recover, move on, and prevail.
The same can be said for Yearn and Harvest Finance as both $YFI and $FARM are already recovering.
$YFI already went up 146% from its local low and $FARM is following its lead with an 85% increase from its local low.
Attributing to this rise in price action is the following:
As seen in the tweet above, Andre Cronje managed to get 50% of refunds back ($8 million) and the Yearn Finance protocol is chugging along with V2 updates.
(Source)
At the same time, it looks like Harvest Finance has passed a proposal to compensate for the flash loan victims who experienced a 15% drawdown. They have decided to come up with a GRAIN token that will do the following:
$FARM fans are ecstatic about this new development and it’s bringing newfound faith in establishing Harvest Finance as one of the most legitimate DeFi projects out there.
As stated by a fellow farmer:
All in all, Harvest Finance is set to make a great comeback and is already showing signs of strength. That said, the future looks bright for $FARM. And for all you farmers out there, remember:
Your hard work is easier with Harvest. It ain't much, but it's honest work.
