Binance's sentimental token has been tagged with monitoring label $ALPACA , which is almost a prelude to delisting.

In 21/22, I made quite a bit from its functionality and tokens, at that time its core selling point was leveraged mining, which amplified the returns of liquidity mining through borrowing.

For example, I invested 1000 BUSD and chose to leverage 3x to mine in the BUSD/BNB liquidity pool.

The system would borrow assets worth 2000 BUSD (BNB or BUSD), making the total position 3000 BUSD.

Then, the system automatically converts half of the assets into BNB, while keeping the other half as BUSD, forming a BNB-BUSD LP token worth 3000 BUSD, which is invested in PancakeSwap for mining.

Returns include mining rewards (CAKE), transaction fees, and ALPACA token incentives.
Although borrowing interest and platform fees must be paid, the overall APR can reach 2-3 times the base return, for instance, if the base APR is 50%, the leveraged return might approach 150%.

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A simple formula and logic significantly improved the efficiency of the principal, and that was when I fell into the DeFi pit.

ALPACA's leveraged mining is not just about amplifying returns; since it is based on borrowing, users can flexibly operate the borrowed assets.

For example, in the v2 version, the system supports two-way borrowing: when mining BNB-BUSD, you can choose to borrow either BNB or BUSD.

If you borrow BNB and invest in the liquidity pool, when BNB drops, the value of the debt repaid decreases, effectively allowing you to short BNB while enjoying mining returns.

That period was the peak of PancakeSwap, with $CAKE serving as the “golden shovel” of the BSC ecosystem, and ALPACA, as a part of the Pancake ecosystem, was also thriving.

However, with the launch of Uniswap v3, liquidity mining entered the era of concentrated liquidity, and PancakeSwap subsequently followed up with an upgrade.

ALPACA's old mechanism could not keep up with this change, and the project came to a standstill. By the time it updated, the market environment had changed, and the characteristics of v3 could no longer support the logic of leverage.

The project team also attempted to transition to GameFi, hoping to capture new trends, but unfortunately, they could not reverse the decline.

Technological iterations and changes in industry direction are unstoppable; if a project cannot keep pace with the times, being eliminated seems inevitable.

From the glory of leveraged mining to today's monitoring labels, ALPACA's journey is not only the end of a sentimental token but also a microcosm of various projects in Web3!