Okay, look. Every other Tulip guide out there jumps straight into "connect your wallet and deposit!" But that's dead wrong. You can't just yeet money into yield farming without knowing Solana's quirks or Tulip's risks. I mean, one bad swap and you're eating liquidation fees. In my experience, newbies lose 20-30% right off the bat because they skip the basics. Why does this matter? 'Cause Tulip's on Solana - super fast, dirt cheap fees like ~0.000005 SOL per tx - but if you don't get the wallet right, you're toast.
And honestly, Tulip's not just another farm. It's got auto vaults that compound your yields non stop, lending for steady gains, and leveraged farming that can 3x your APY.. or wipe you out. We'll fix that. Sound familiar? You've probably seen 100%+ APYs advertised. Pretty much fake without understanding impermanent loss or borrow rates.
Now test a swap on Jupiter inside Tulip later. Don't skip this. The thing is, Solana's RPC can lag during pumps - switch to Helius or QuickNode if mainnet clogs.
What's next? Head to tulip.garden. Boom, connect wallet. No KYC bullshit. Just approve.
These are Tulip's bread and butter. You drop LP tokens from Raydium or Orca, and it auto compounds rewards. No manual harvesting every day. In my experience, this boosts APY by 10-20% over regular farms.
Fees? Controller 1%, platform 3% on medium, performance 1.5% on yields. Still nets way more than manual. But pull out if APY dips below 10% - markets shift fast.
Okay, but what if you hate LP risk? Lend single assets here. Supply SOL, USDC, whatever - earn variable APY from borrowers. Low risk, unless utilization hits 100% and you can't withdraw.
I usually park stables here during volatility. Rates fluctuate - saw 5-15% on USDC last week. Borrowers use this for leveraged farms, so your supply fuels the fire.
Pro tip: Pair with strategy vaults. Deposit USDC to Tulip's vault first (5% APY), then friction vault for options yield. Stacks nicely.
Now we're talking. This is where Tulip shines - borrow to amp your position up to 3x. Turn $1k into $2-3k farm size. APYs explode: 80% on 2x SOL USDC, 130%+ on 3x. But risky as hell. Liquidation if prices tank.
Why borrow the cheaper asset? Borrow rates eat yields. SOL at 15%, USDC 11%? Borrow USDC.
| Leverage | Example Pair | APY | Liquidation Risk (SOL drops to..) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2x | SOL USDC | ~84% | $38 (if SOL $113) |
| 3x | SOL USDC | % | $70 |
| 2x | RAY SRM (correlated) | High, low IL | RAY/SRM ratio to 0.53 |
Min deposit $50, max $50k collateral. Start small.
Paired with stable? Impermanent loss if SOL dumps. Non stable like RAY SRM? Correlation helps, but divergence kills.
Issue 1: Liq creeping close. Fix: Add collateral or delever. Click "Increase Collateral" in positions.
High borrow rates tanking net APY? Borrow less volatile asset. Or exit.
Tx fails? Solana congestion. Retry or use priority fee ~0.0001 SOL.
Impermanent loss wrecking you? Stick to correlated pairs or stables. I've been in RAY SRM 2x for months, zero issues 'cause they track tight.
Closing? Unwind button sells debt, removes LP, sends proceeds. Or harvest first.
These are newer. Deposit USDC or RAY, Tulip deploys to multi strats. 5% on USDC vault, then layer to friction for covered calls. No details on exact strats yet, but yields beat holding.
Just deposit. Auto handles. Great for noobs wanting passive 5-10% without LP hassle.
Grab TULIP tokens. Stake 'em for governance and yield boosts. I've staked mine - adds 5-10% to vault APYs. Check token tab. Low risk, pure alpha.
Look, leveraged farming's powerful but bites. Liquidation? Auto if kill buffer hits zero. Smart contract hacks possible - Tulip's audited but nothing's bulletproof. Solana outages? Rare now, but happened.
Start with $100 unlevered vault. Scale up. Monitor daily. Net APY after fees/borrows: still crushes banks.
That's it. You're farming like a pro now. Go crush it.