DeFi Altcoin on Ethereum Rallies 50% in Just Two Days, Outpacing Sideways Crypto Markets

One altcoin that helps holders earn yields is seeing its own value soar even as the broader crypto markets try to shake off a recent slump.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Yearn.Finance (YFI) offers lending and trading services so users can optimize their crypto asset earnings.

The YFI token’s price jumped by 50% virtually overnight after word spread that Yearn had gone on a major shopping spree buying back its own token.

Yearn says in a tweet to its 159,200 followers,

“Yearn has purchased $7,526,343 worth of YFI from the open market. We got 282.4 YFI (0.77% of total supply) at an average price of $26,651.

More YFI has been bought back in the past month than in the prior year.”

Yearn reports that its treasury now holds over $45 million and intends to do more buybacks in the future.

In the investing world, companies often do buybacks when they believe their shares are undervalued or to reward existing holders by reducing the total available supply.

The move is paying off in a big way for the Ethereum-based protocol. YFI’s price has surged from a weekly low of $18,877 on Wednesday all the way to $28,802 at time of writing, including a nearly 20% rise on the day.

When Yearn first launched in July of 2020, the YFI token was worth around $30, then skyrocketed to a staggering valuation above $90,000 back in May before crashing down to $33,000 within days.

Like most of the crypto markets, YFI has experienced choppy price action in recent months.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/andreync/pikepicture/Vladimir Sazonov