In the world of DeFi, TVL is often seen as the metric of trust. The higher the TVL, the more reputable newbies think a project is. Mistake. A huge portion of that TVL is actually Mercenary Capital. This is the most dangerous type of capital, It floods in out of greed and leaves ruthlessly without saying goodbye, leaving behind Ghost Towns.

🔸 Mercenary Capital operates in a brutal 3 stage cycle:

  1. A new project launches a Liquidity Mining program with insane APR 1,000% to 10,000%. 👉 Whales deposit millions to Farm. Project TVL goes vertical. Token price pumps due to FOMO.

  2. They harvest reward tokens daily, hourly, and Dump immediately on the market to lock in profits into Stablecoins. 👉 Token price is suppressed by constant selling pressure.

  3. When APR drops or when token price drops too deep. They withdraw all principal capital to move to a new Farm with higher yields. 👉TVL crashes to zero. The project dies clinically. Latecomers are left holding heavy bags of worthless tokens.

🔸 How do you know if a project is surviving on steroids or real strength?

  • Project prints tokens recklessly to pay yields, with no revenue from transaction fees.

  • High TVL but Low Users. There is $1 billion locked, but only 50 active wallets. This proves only a few whales are Farming, with no real users.

🔹 Do not let TVL numbers fool your eyes. TVL only matters when it is Sticky Liquidity.

  • If you see a project growing hot due to Incentive Programs, remember Money that comes for Yield leaves for Yield.

  • If you play this game, make sure you arrive early and leave before the party ends. Do not be the one left washing the dishes.

Have you ever been blinded by a 500% APR figure and deposited into a Farm, only to find that when you withdrew, the token price had dropped 90%, leaving your yield unable to cover the loss on principal?

News is for reference, not investment advice. Please read carefully before making a decision.