I used to be a die-hard fan of Ethereum. From the craze of smart contracts to the celebration of DeFi, I witnessed the growth of this chain. But recently, I started to reflect on a question: how much of my DeFi earnings have actually ended up in my pocket?

After doing some calculations, I was shocked.

The process of earning interest on stablecoins on the Ethereum mainnet is actually quite fixed: first stake ETH to get liquid staking tokens, then use those tokens as collateral to borrow stablecoins, and finally put the stablecoins into liquidity pools to earn fees. It sounds simple, but each step requires Gas. With an ordinary operation, if Gwei prices are unfriendly, hundreds of RMB can just disappear. For this kind of slow and steady stablecoin strategy, Gas costs can eat up more than half of the returns.

So I started looking at BNB Chain.

Not because I want to follow the trend, but to find a truly practical alternative. The conditions are clear: the returns need to be decent, the chain’s ecosystem needs to be active, and the products used need to be reliable. During the selection process, I noticed a project that focuses on stablecoin infrastructure. Its design approach is a bit special.

What attracted me the most was its interaction flow. Previously on Ethereum, to generate assets and earn yields, you had to go to three different places: first exchange assets for liquidity tokens, then use another platform to collateralize and borrow stablecoins, and finally provide liquidity on a DEX. Three contracts, three interactions, three times Gas. Risks are scattered everywhere.

With the BNB Chain project, the process is flattened. Deposit BNB, and it directly mints a stablecoin for you. Then, within the same interface, you can put this stablecoin into an interest-earning pool. Two steps, Gas fees are so low they can almost be ignored. This operational experience is smoother than anything I’ve experienced on Ethereum.

Regarding the returns, it’s actually more interesting. I convert the Gas fee savings from my previous Ethereum operations into annualized costs, plus the incentives from the stablecoin pool itself, and the overall return rate far exceeds what I used to chase on the mainnet. This isn’t a denial of Ethereum’s value, but an acknowledgment of a reality: strategy costs vary greatly across different chains.

Now my stablecoin allocation is very clear. The main portion is placed on BNB Chain for earning interest, with a small part kept on the mainnet to handle emergencies. This isn’t a betrayal of my beliefs; it’s about putting money where it’s most efficient.

If you’ve also been tortured by Ethereum’s Gas fees or are considering where to place your stablecoins, my advice is one sentence: cross-chain and try it out. Comparable returns, lower costs, simpler interactions. The competitive landscape of DeFi is indeed changing; the most cost-effective solutions are no longer on a single chain.