How to Set Up a Liquidity Pool Position on MaxFi | Tutorial #2

Choosing a DEX: Uniswap, Aerodrome, or PancakeSwap

MaxFi supports three DEXes on Base: Uniswap V3, Aerodrome, and PancakeSwap V3. The pools are similar, but there is an important difference in how they pay you.

Uniswap V3 pays trading fees only. No extra tokens. Generally pays the highest base fee rates.

Aerodrome pays trading fees plus AERO tokens. Every position on Aerodrome earns a share of AERO on top of the fee income. These tokens are not reflected in the APR shown on MaxFi — they are an additional bonus.

PancakeSwap V3 works the same way, paying trading fees plus CAKE tokens as a bonus on top.

The APRs you see on the MaxFi earn page account only for trading fees. Any AERO or CAKE you accumulate is extra income the numbers do not show.

The AERO and CAKE Accumulation Strategy

AERO started at 4 cents and reached $1.80. CAKE reached $40 in a previous bull run. These DEX tokens behave predictably: they trade low during bear markets when activity is reduced, and they spike during bull runs as demand for the platforms increases.

The strategy: open positions on Aerodrome and PancakeSwap during the bear market, accumulate AERO and CAKE tokens passively over months, and hold them. When the bull run comes, those tokens can triple or quadruple. A $38 accumulation of CAKE tokens over two weeks could become $3,000-$4,000 in the next bull run — and that is on top of all the trading fee income already collected.

This is a bonus most LP managers overlook entirely. On MaxFi, it is automatic — you just need to not sell.

Using the Backtester

The backtester at maxfi.tech/backtest lets you simulate historical returns for any pool using real on-chain data from the past 365 days.

Some examples from live testing:

• WETH/USDC, 10% range, 4-hour delay, $10,000 on Uniswap: total position outperformed HODL by 21%
• WETH/USDC, 15% range on PancakeSwap: total value grew to $34,000 from $10,000, outperforming by 242%

These numbers come from historical data and are not a guarantee of future returns. DEX performance shifts — a pool that outperformed on PancakeSwap historically may not repeat exactly. Use the backtester to understand the range of outcomes and compare strategies, not to predict exact future returns.

Take the results with a grain of salt and use real positions to test. Open a small position, see how it performs live, and expand the ones that are working.

Range Width: Why 5-10% Beats Tight Ranges

The range width setting controls how wide or narrow your concentrated liquidity position is.

It is tempting to go aggressive (1-2%) because the APR looks higher. Do not do this on most pools. Here is why:

At a 1-2% range, the price leaves your range roughly 50% of the time. You are constantly out of the money, constantly rebalancing, and suffering higher impermanent loss on each rebalance cycle. The headline APR is misleading.

At a 10% range, you stay in the money roughly 93% of the time. You are earning fees almost continuously. The rebalance frequency drops dramatically. Less rebalancing means less impermanent loss and lower costs.

Recommended starting ranges:

• Conservative blue chip (WETH/USDC, cbBTC/WETH): 10-20%
• Moderate (standard volatile pairs): 5-10%
• Degenerate high-volatility pairs (CLAWD, Felix): 10% minimum — these tokens move too aggressively for tighter ranges

The backtester confirms this: wider ranges often produce better real-world returns than tight ranges, even though tight ranges show higher APR numbers. Test it yourself — run the same pool at 5% and 15% and compare the simulated outcomes.

Single-Sided vs Double-Sided Deposits

Single-sided means you deposit only one token. MaxFi opens the position, but it will sit outside the current price range until the market moves into your range. For a stable pair like WETH/USDC, that might be a few minutes. For a volatile token that is trending, it could be hours or days.

The advantage: you do not need both tokens. If all you have is USDC, you can still open a WETH/USDC position without buying WETH first — avoiding that extra swap cost.

Double-sided means you deposit both tokens. MaxFi opens the position in range immediately, and you start earning fees from the next swap that hits your range.

When to use each:

• Blue chip pairs where you only hold one token: single-sided is fine, the wait is usually short
• Degenerate/volatile pools: always use double-sided. These tokens move fast and a single-sided position on a 1% fee pool can sit out of range for a very long time, earning nothing

Live Demo: Opening a Blue Chip Position

To open a $50 WETH/USDC position with only USDC:

1. Go to maxfi.tech/earn
2. Select WETH/USDC on Uniswap V3
3. Set range to 3.5% (moderate)
4. Select single-sided, enter $50 USDC
5. If first time using USDC with MaxFi, approve the token (one-time step)
6. Click Deposit — confirm in your wallet

Total gas cost: around $0.03 on Base. The position is created and shows on your Positions page immediately. MaxFi places it right at the edge of the current price tick, ready to enter range as soon as the price moves.

Live Demo: Opening a Degenerate Pool Position

For a CLAWD pool paying 2,200% APR (1% fee tier):

Step 1: Buy the degenerate token

Go to Uniswap, select Base network, swap USDC for CLAWD. If you see "transaction likely to fail," wait a moment and retry — the price estimate was bouncing. Budget $1 or less for this swap.

Step 2: Open a double-sided position on MaxFi

1. Go to maxfi.tech/earn and select the WETH/CLAWD 1% pool
2. Set range to 10% — these tokens move too much for anything tighter
3. Set delay to 2 hours (aggressive, but this pool pays enough to justify quick rebalances)
4. Disable fee compounding — you want fees to go to your wallet, not back into a volatile token
5. Enter both tokens. MaxFi automatically calculates how much of each is needed — the split will not be exactly 50/50 based on the current price and range.
6. Approve CLAWD (one-time), then deposit

Note: MaxFi may use $75 of ETH even if you enter $100, because the pool math determines the optimal split. The remainder stays in your wallet.

Monitoring Your Earnings

After your positions are live, use DeBank to watch transaction activity on your wallet. What you will see:

• A continuous stream of small transactions flowing in throughout the day
• ETH, CLAWD, BTC, CAKE, AERO — each rebalance triggers a fee collection
• Individual transactions of $2-$14, adding up continuously

At 35+ positions, this becomes a flood. $4 of ETH, $11 of CLAWD, $7 of AERO, $2 of CAKE — the wallet fills up all day long. That is what $215 per day looks like in practice: not one big transaction, but dozens of small ones.

If you want to collect fees manually without waiting for a rebalance, go to your Positions page and click "Collect Fees" on any position showing uncollected earnings. Otherwise, the system collects automatically at each rebalance.

Give new positions a few hours before expecting accurate APR data. The positions page needs time to calibrate — a position opened just now may show zero or inaccurate APR until enough fee data has accumulated.

Strategy Summary

Starting out:

• Open small test positions ($20-200) across a few different pools
• Give each one a few days to see real performance
• Add $500-5,000 to the ones performing best
• Do not start big on an untested pool

Bear market approach (right now):

• This is the best time to start. Accumulate positions while the market is low.
• Collect AERO and CAKE bonus tokens and hold — do not sell them
• Your position value may fluctuate with the market, but fee income is continuous
• $215/day from $15,000 = position pays for itself in about 60 days

Bull run exit strategy:

• When degenerate pairs pump 3-5x, close those positions
• Rotate into blue chip pools or newer underpriced pools
• Let the compounding blue chip positions run through the bull market

Tutorial #3 covers impermanent loss — the most important concept to understand before scaling up your positions.