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Daily Brief

Finding Low-Risk Yields

Welcome back to the Citizen Daily Brief. Today, we're flocking to safer crypto yields.
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Nov 20, 20254 min read
Finding Low-Risk Yields
Published on Nov 20, 2025
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Sponsor: Bit Digital — ETH treasury that combines the two greatest assets of our time: ETH & AI.

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NEED TO KNOW
Samourai Founders Sentenced
  1. 🧑‍⚖️ Samourai Wallet Co-Founders Sentenced to Prison. The wallet's CEO and CTO were respectively sentenced to five and four years in prison.
  2. 💸 Coinbase Adds $ETH Collateral to Loans. Coinbase expands its crypto-backed loans by adding $ETH as collateral, with staked $ETH soon to come.
  3. 🇺🇸 Rep. Davidson Bill: 'Pay Taxes in Bitcoin to Grow U.S. Reserve.' Davidson introduced the Bitcoin for America Act on Thursday.
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Daily Market Snapshot: The total crypto market cap dropped below $3 trillion Thursday as BTC (-4%) and ETH (-5%) took major hits on a rough day for markets broadly.
Prices as of 6pm ET 24hr 7d
Crypto $3.00T ↘ 3.2% ↘ 10.2%
BTC $87,540 ↘ 4.0% ↘ 12.5%
ETH $2,870 ↘ 4.9% ↘ 11.6%
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CHEAT SHEET
Aztec at Last

Once a week, Citizens get access to the top Market Plays, Hot Reads, Farming Opps, and Airdrop Hunts that our analyst team is tracking! Don't miss out! 👇

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PLAY OF THE WEEK
Finding Contagion-Proof Yields
Bankless Analyst: Jack Inabinet

Crypto yield markets have assumed a notably heightened risk profile over the past month following a slew of lending market mishaps, making it more important than ever to understand the mechanics behind the farms you’re depositing into.

Today, we’re breaking down five of the most popular crypto yield opportunities that exist, weighing the risk versus the rewards of each yield generation model.

Read on for core onchain opportunities you can’t afford not to understand 👇

🕰️ Pendle

Website | Twitter
Best For: Guaranteed Yield
Risk Level: Variable
Reward Level: Low to High 

About:

Pendle is a yield splitting protocol, a special type of DeFi primitive that creates two distinct tokens: principal tokens (PTs) and yield tokens (YTs). The first can be redeemed for an underlying crypto asset at a specified future date, and the second represents a claim to all yield generated from that asset in the interim.

Using PTs, Pendle yield farmers can safely guarantee their yields until a specified future date, denominated in units of the underlying asset. PT holders can also redeem early by purchasing an equivalent amount of YTs, which can be used in combination to create a liquidity provider position and redeemed for the underlying.

While Pendle users are responsible for evaluating the safety of the individual yield markets they deposit into, there is zero risk of protocol-wide contagion if the value of any single Pendle-onboarded crypto asset becomes impaired. The Protocol’s smart contract logic is solely responsible for ensuring that users can redeem their tokens for a pre-specified amount of underlying assets, insulating the broader system from any specific asset shocks.

Exponent Finance is a popular alternative to Pendle deployed to the Solana Network, yet the benefits of network effects and trusted reputation in this sector are undeniable; Pendle’s lesser known competitor safeguards just 2% of the segment leader’s total value locked.

Top Yield Opps:

Get risky and receive a guaranteed 21% APY on sUSDai (a GPU-backed stablecoin) for the next three months, play it safe and lock in 3% APY on Lido’s stETH until Christmas Eve, or select another risk-return combination that meets your needs with Pendle’s principal tokens.


FRIEND & SPONSOR: BIT DIGITAL

Bit Digital: The premier ETH treasury that combines the two greatest assets of our time—ETH & AI compute. Harness massive Ethereum holdings with institutional-grade staking for optimized rewards, while powering cutting-edge AI infrastructure for unparalleled innovation. Unlock the future of digital assets where blockchain meets intelligent computing.

*We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ: BTBT) for this ad promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one-time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at bit-digital.com/investors. Not investment advice.

Not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.

Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here.