yield farming
/jiːld ˈfɑːrmɪŋ/
CommonEarning rewards by locking up crypto in DeFi protocols, often in exchange for interest or governance tokens.
The returns are often unsustainably high at launch, attracting degens who know they need to exit before it collapses. The term sometimes signals naive optimism and sometimes sophisticated strategy.
Real-world examples4 examples
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Been yield farming on three different protocols this month. Up overall but one nearly wrecked me. | Actively managing DeFi positions across multiple platforms with mixed results. | reddit, 2022 |
| 02 | 300% APY sounds great until the token inflates into nothing. Yield farming is a race against time. | Warning that high advertised returns are often unsustainable. | x, 2021 |
| 03 | Started yield farming in 2020 summer and it genuinely changed how I think about money. | Referencing the DeFi Summer of 2020 as a formative experience with yield strategies. | reddit, 2023 |
| 04 | Got into yield farming thinking it was passive income. It is not passive at all. | Correcting the misconception that yield farming requires no active management. | reddit, 2022 |
Use it when
- Describing the act of depositing tokens into DeFi protocols for rewards.
- Discussing the high-APY strategies on lending or liquidity protocols.
- Sarcastically describing chasing unsustainably high returns.
Do not use it when
- You are describing traditional staking or interest in centralized finance.Use “staking” instead.
- You mean simply holding for long-term appreciation.Use “hodl” instead.
Variations and related forms
Origin and context
Emerged from the DeFi Summer of 2020, when Compound Finance introduced liquidity mining by distributing COMP tokens to users. The practice exploded across new DeFi protocols throughout 2020 and 2021.
- First seen
- 2020
- Confidence
- high
Cite this page
Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/yield-farmingUpdated: 2026-08-28License: CC BY 4.0