What is PancakeSwap (CAKE)?

PancakeSwap – CAKE

Get your Maple Syrup ready, we’re diving into Binance’s leading DEX…

PancakeSwap

This is a Project Review on CAKE.

AltCryptoGems

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What is PancakeSwap – CAKE?

PancakeSwap is a Decentralised Exchange (DEX) and Automated Market Maker (AMM) that launched on the BNB Chain in 2020 and swiftly grew to have the largest user base of any DEX in the world!

The protocol has proven to be one of the most secure decentralised exchanges, by securing over 17 security audits with large audit companies such as CertiK and by using multisig crypto wallets to secure their assets and liquidity.

PancakeSwap is open-source which allows anyone to look at all the codes on their smart contract, providing superior transparency to its community.

PancakeSwap is the leading Protocol on the BNBChain by achieving over $3.9B in Total Value Locked, which comes as no surprise as they have a protocol that offers so much like Staking, Perpetual Trading, Lottery, NFTs and so much more we will go through in this article!

After dominating the BNB Chain, PancakeSwap decided to launch on the Ethereum mainnet and most recently the Aptos network! Who could be next?

How Does PancakeSwap Work?

Like many other decentralised exchanges, PancakeSwap is an automated market maker (AMM), but what is an Automated Market Maker (AMM)?

Automated Market Makers are simply a type of DEX that use algorithmic money bots to make it easy for users to buy and sell crypto at any time!

In short, allows users to make swaps in a decentralised manner, as it doesn’t require permission from an individual or centralised authority.

AMMs require users to provide liquidity in pools, e.g. $BNB – $CAKE which in turn allows users to either buy/sell those assets whenever they like, assuming there are enough funds in the Liquidity Pool.

Exchange

The Exchange is the most popular part of the protocol and where it all began. It is forever receiving upgrades and is one of the easiest interfaces to use.

If there is a crypto on the BNB Chain, then you can swap/trade it on the PancakeSwap DEX, all without having to use a Centralised Exchange (CEX).

It’s simple, complete a swap/trade in a few quick clicks and the crypto will appear in your wallet, just like that.

Syrup Pool

You’re going to need syrup with those pancakes…

Staking on PancakeSwap is made very easy and profitable. There are two methods by which you can Stake the native token $CAKE and earn more $CAKE tokens:

Fixed-Term Staking

Using the ‘Fixed-Term Staking’ option will require locking up and staking your tokens for a fixed duration of time. The longer you lock your tokens, the higher the APR% and $CAKE tokens you will receive. You can currently earn up to 48.89% APR just by staking $CAKE with the Fixed-Term option.

Depending on the crypto you are staking, this option can be considered the highest risk as you never know what could happen in the time that you lock up your tokens. Market conditions are extremely volatile at the time of writing.

Flexible Staking

Using the Flexible Staking option does not require users to lock up tokens and can deposit or withdraw at any time. However, be aware if you withdraw (unstake) within the first 72 hours you will be taxed with a 0.1% fee.

If you want to go with the Flexible Staking option, it is considered the safest option and you can stake the platform’s native token $CAKE and earn up to 2.28% with flexible staking, at the time of writing.

Yield Farms

You can’t make pancakes without a farm…

The Yield Farm section of the protocol allows users to simultaneously secure/support PancakeSwap and earn $CAKE tokens, simply by staking LP (Liquidity Pool) tokens.

Total Yield Farm APR% rewards are made up of two different APR%s:

  • LP Rewards APR – earned by providing liquidity (e.g. 50% $BNB – 50% $CAKE)
  • Farm Base Rewards APR – earned by staking the LP tokens into the Farm!

Double whammy rewards right there!

Perpetual Trading

Now unlike most decentralised exchanges, PancakeSwap released its very own Perpetual Trading platform, which allows users to leverage borrowed Crypto to perform leveraged trades of up to 100x!

There is a large variety of cryptocurrencies you can trade from such as $XRP, $BTC and many more popular tokens. PancakeSwap’s perpetual trading platform is similar to GMX which operates on the Avalanche and Arbitrum blockchains.

You can check out our article on GMX here.

Lottery

Personally one of my favourite ideas that came to PancakeSwap, was the implementation of the Lottery! All you have to do is buy your Lottery tickets with the $CAKE token and if you match X amount of numbers you will win X amount of the jackpot, which is currently over $110K!

If you are also one for trading and you can read chart patterns, then you can gamble and predict if either $BNB or $CAKE will go Up or Down. You can earn payouts of up to 6.63x the amount you’re betting…

NFT Marketplace & Profile

Just like TraderJoe, the number 1 decentralised exchange on the Avalanche network, PancakeSwap has its very own NFT marketplace, where users can list, swap or buy NFTs!

PancakeSwap has a very unique and cool feature called the NFT Profile system! These are custom and personalised profiles which can be created by anyone. You choose your name, choose an NFT profile image and join a team! Creating a profile costs 1.5 $CAKE which roughly costs $6.58 at the time of writing.

 

How To Buy $CAKE

There are two main ways to buy $CAKE, but either way, you will always go through a centralised exchange (CEX). Here are the options:

Option 1- Centralised Exchange

The $CAKE token is available on most of the largest centralised exchanges.

Here are some Centralised Exchanges we recommend:

Option 2 – DeFi Wallet & Decentralised Exchange

Firstly, you will need the Binance Smart Chain (BNB Chain) connected to your DeFi wallet like Metamask.

You can watch our step-by-step tutorials on Youtube, using these links:

Metamask Wallet Tutorial – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpm0ZtgKS2Y&list=PLM5AqH6zm1XQ9WAoClAaP_TubNDliX9pG&index=1

BNB Chain Tutorial – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKVHnz9MA74&list=PLM5AqH6zm1XQ9WAoClAaP_TubNDliX9pG&index=4

You can swap $CAKE tokens on the Binance Smart Chain (BNB Chain) using the PancakeSwap decentralised exchange (DEX) to perform the swap of either $BNB/$CAKE or $BUSD/$GALA for example.

PancakeSwap Tutorial – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1AIMNDcoHE&list=PLM5AqH6zm1XQ7DZZ7YjchpgiBlehioOed&index=1

 

Conclusion

There’s an average of 1.7 million users and 19 million trades per month. As Binance grows, we can be assured that PancakeSwap will grow right alongside.

The PancakeSwap roadmap for 2023 is extremely exciting as it will be doing the following:

  • MultiChain Expansion
  • Fiat Integrations
  • NFT Utilities
  • Platform Upgrades
  • Swap & Liquidity upgrade
  • And so much more…

PancakeSwap has also mentioned they will be integrating and partnering with other top protocols in the BNB Chain ecosystem. Exciting times are ahead!

At the time of writing, the $CAKE token is hovering at a price of $4.39 with a market cap of $623.5M! $CAKE has seen incredible All-Time Highs of $44.18 and exceeded a market cap of over $6.8B!

PancakeSwap is the 3rd largest DEX by Market Cap!

Links

Pancake Swap Twitter – @PancakeSwap

Pancake Swap Website – https://pancakeswap.finance/

Binance Website – https://accounts.binance.com/en/register?ref=11206113

 

 

 

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