Boosted lending APY - +12% on top of base, capped at $500K

The numbers

The base APR is variable - it tracks utilization on the lending pool the same way it always has. The +12% boost sits on top of whatever the base happens to be at the moment. If utilization spikes the base to 18%, you earn ~30%. If the pool drains to 8%, you earn ~20%. The boost is what's fixed.

Where the yield comes from

This is the question that matters. Two common answers in DeFi:

1. Token emissions - the protocol prints a governance token and pays it out, diluting holders.
2. Treasury inflation - the protocol pays from a fund raised earlier, with no underlying revenue.

Neither applies here. The boost is paid from the protocol's revenue share - the difference between what borrowers pay on margin loans and what's owed back to lenders at base rate. We're widening the cut that goes to lenders during this window. When the window closes, the cut returns to its previous split.

How the cap works

The $500K cap is a hard limit on boosted capacity. Deposits beyond it still earn the base rate, but no boost.

• The cap fills on a first-deposit-through-full basis. There's no whitelist, no allocation per address.
• If you withdraw and the pool falls below cap, the next deposit fills the gap.
• A counter on the lending page shows the current utilization of the boosted slot.

Worked example

Deposit $10,000 USDC.e on April 5, hold through May 31:

Days held:           57
Effective APR:       ~25% (13% base + 12% boost)
Daily yield:         $10,000 × 0.25 / 365 ≈ $6.85
Total accrued:       $6.85 × 57 ≈ $390

Payouts land monthly. The first arrives end of April for the partial month, the second end of May for the full one.

Eligibility and risks

• Any wallet that holds USDC.e on Arbitrum can participate.
• The lending pool is the same one that backs Atomic's perpetuals. Risk model is unchanged - see Lending → Risk model if you haven't read it.
• The boost is non-binding if pool utilization sits at zero (no borrowers = no fees to share). In practice the pool runs at high utilization, so this hasn't been a concern in any historical week.

What's next

After May 31 the boost ends and the pool returns to its standard revenue split. We'll publish a postmortem with the realized APRs, total payouts, and how the protocol's revenue cut performed under the wider lender share.

To deposit, head to app.atomic.green/lend and supply USDC.e. To withdraw, the partial-withdraw flow respects in-flight liquidations - the April 9 changelog entry has the details.