# Why UpYield  Finance

DEFI really took off in the summer of 2020 (DEFI summer) and some of  the original protocols defined the main categories: DEXes (Uniswap) and Lending protocols (AAVE, Compound). Multiple replicas appeared and in order to compete for users they started offering incentives (for example Sushi swap) such as liquidity mining and this is how the phenomena of yield farming. Of course, there were a myriad of scams and ponzis as well.

Then many yield farming protocols appeared. The problem is that none of those yields were sustainable and soon all the opportunities were gone (there is no free money). At the same time crypto derivative trading volumes have soared to levels higher than in spot markets. What structured products can offer is real, sustainable yield, extracted from market volatility or as we explain above offer alternative risk/reward profiles to investors. The first decentralised option vaults (DOV) protocols have appeared and they can be extended to implement well known structured products from TradFI or new blockchain specific ones.

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