Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Yearn.Finance’s governance token has risen in value by more than 15,000% in the past three weeks. According to CoinGecko, the token, YFI, was traded around $ 31.65 in mid-July, while now trading at $ 4,786.
Hard Fork in Cryptocurrency
According to crypto analytics firm Santiment, these huge gains have created a fork rush for opportunists eager to profit from YFI clones. Some of these forks look like legitimate projects, while others don’t look very legitimate.
1. Hard Fork: YFII
Still, a legitimate fork, YFII, is backed by a few trusted members of the crypto community.
YFII rose from $ 600 to $ 1,129 before dropping to $ 105. According to Santiment, the crash was partly due to the emergence of other high-yielding clones, lack of new innovation, and Bitcoin price increases, among other factors.
Still, the analytics firm believes that YFII, which is traded at $ 139.69 at the time of writing, may have some potential, noting the presence of real governance recommendations and developers. As Santiment said, they think the clone, which he says is limited in the DeFi area due to language barriers, could enter the Chinese market. However, other clones appear less serious.
2.Hard Fork: YFFI
Another clone, YFFI, appeared in early August and tried to take advantage of the yield frenzy. However, little is known about who is behind this project. It also turns out that the top holders have pre-mined a reasonable percentage of the tokens before their official launch. The clone was an instant success, but dropped from about $ 619 to $ 1.22.
3.Hard Fork: YFI
Santiment also points to a fraud allegedly the founder of YFI fork Asuka. The developer of the token is accused of abandoning the project just two days after the fork, causing its value to drop from $ 1,600 to about $ 18. The developer seems to have disappeared with around $ 60,000 in cryptocurrency.