Alpaca Finance (ALPACA)

Lending and Borrowing

Alpaca Finance is a platform where users can lend their crypto to earn stable yields or borrow assets to open leveraged yield farming positions. Borrowers can use undercollateralized loans to increase their farming capital and potentially earn higher returns.

Leveraged Yield Farming

It allows users to farm with leverage (up to 6x on BNB Chain and Fantom), meaning they can borrow funds to increase their investment size in liquidity pools, aiming to boost their farming rewards.

Staking and Earning

Users can stake interest-bearing tokens or LP tokens on the platform to earn additional ALPACA tokens as rewards, increasing their overall earnings.

Portfolio Diversification and Capital Efficiency

By combining lending, borrowing, and staking, users can diversify their strategies and improve capital efficiency, making the most out of their crypto assets.

Community-Driven and Fair Launch

Alpaca Finance is a fair launch project with no pre-sale or pre-mine, designed to be accessible for users of all wallet sizes and experience levels.

For more details, visit Alpaca Finance official site.

Pros of Alpaca Finance

• Largest leveraged DeFi lending platform on BNB Chain and Fantom, offering up to 6x leverage.
• Enables lenders to earn stable yields and borrowers to take undercollateralized loans for yield farming.
• Fair-launch project with no pre-sale, no investor, and no pre-mine, emphasizing community-driven development.
• ALPACA token holders can stake to earn rewards and participate in governance decisions.
• High capital efficiency by connecting liquidity providers and borrowers, improving DeFi ecosystem liquidity.
• No deposit or withdrawal fees and no lockup periods for lenders.
• Conservative liquidation settings to protect lenders.
• Supports perpetual futures allowing indefinite position holding without contract rollovers.

Cons of Alpaca Finance

• Leveraged yield farming can be complex and may not suit all users.
• Limited to BNB Chain and Fantom ecosystems, which may restrict some users.
• As a DeFi platform, it requires some understanding of decentralized finance concepts.
• Price volatility of ALPACA token can affect staking rewards and governance value.
• No traditional customer support like centralized platforms.

These points summarize the main advantages and disadvantages based on current information about Alpaca Finance.

Founders of Alpaca Finance

• Yoshi Yokokawa: Co-founder and CEO. He has a background in financial services and tech startups.
• Hitoshi Harada: Co-founder and Chief Product Officer (CPO). He leads the technology team and has experience with large-scale financial systems.

These two started Alpaca Finance in 2015, building a platform focused on API-first stock and crypto brokerage services.

Investors in Alpaca Finance

Alpaca Finance is a fair-launch DeFi project with no pre-sale, no investor allocations, and no pre-mine, meaning it did not have traditional investors backing it at launch.

Investors in Alpaca (Alpaca Markets / Alpaca Securities)

For the broader Alpaca company (which provides APIs for stock and crypto trading), investors include well-known venture capital firms and angel investors such as:

• Portage Ventures
• Spark Capital
• Tribe Capital
• Social Leverage
• Horizons Ventures
• Unbound
• Eldridge
• Positive Sum
• Elefund
• Y Combinator

These investors have supported Alpaca through multiple funding rounds, raising over $120 million in total.

For more details, you can visit Alpaca Finance's official site or Alpaca's company pages.

Halal Status of Alpaca Finance

• Halal or Not: No, Alpaca Finance is generally not considered halal.
• Reason: Alpaca Finance involves leveraged yield farming and undercollateralized loans, which often include interest (riba) and speculative elements that are not compliant with Islamic finance principles.
• Additional Info: While some platforms like Zoya integrate with brokers to enable halal investing, Alpaca Finance’s DeFi lending and borrowing model does not align with typical Shariah-compliant investment criteria.

For more detailed guidance, consulting a qualified Islamic finance scholar or using dedicated halal investing apps like Zoya is recommended.