What to do if the market fluctuates? Check out these low-risk returns options

Background: Tariff policy and Fed attitudes intensify market volatility

In April 2025, Trump's tariff policies brought drastic volatility to global financial markets. On April 2, he announced the implementation of "reciprocal tariffs" on major trading partners, setting a 10% benchmark tariff, and imposing higher tax rates on specific countries: 34% in China, 20% in the EU, and 32% in Taiwan (semiconductor products exemption). On April 5, the 10% benchmark tariff officially came into effect, and global supply chain tensions intensified. On April 9, Trump suspended high tax rates for 90 days on 75 countries that did not implement retaliation measures (until July 8), but tariffs on China were further raised to 145%, citing China's retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. The EU has announced the suspension of retaliatory tariffs on 21 billion euros of US goods until July 14 to gain room for negotiation.

These policies triggered strong market reactions. The S&P 500's market value evaporated by $5.8 trillion within four days after the tariff news was announced, the largest single-week loss since the 1950s. Bitcoin price fluctuated between 80,000 and 90,000 US dollars. Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said at the Chicago Economic Club on April 17 that tariffs may push up inflation and curb growth, but the Federal Reserve will not interfere with the market with interest rate cuts, and the policy focuses on long-term data. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan raised the probability of a U.S. recession to 20% and 45% respectively. Both corporate profits and prices may be affected, and the market prospects are in fog. At this time, what should I do if I invest? The low-risk stablecoin yield products in DeFi may be a good choice to stabilize their position during this turbulent period, and the following will introduce four stablecoin-based yield products.

This article does not constitute investment advice, and investors need to study it themselves.

Spark Saving USDC (Ethereum)

Connect your wallet through Spark official website (spark.fi), select Savings USDC product, and deposit it into USDC.

Note: Spark is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that provides the front-end interface of SparkLend, a liquidity market protocol based on blockchain. Users can participate in deposit and loan activities through this platform.

Source of income: Savings USDC's income comes from Sky Savings Rate (SSR), which is supported by the Sky Agreement through cryptocurrency mortgage fees, U.S. Treasury investments and liquidity-generated income to SparkLend. USDC earns income by redeeming USDS for 1:1 to USDS through Sky PSM, and the value of sUSDC tokens accumulates with income. Spark assumes USDC liquidity.

Risk Assessment: Low. USDC is highly stable, and Spark's multiple audits reduce the risk of smart contracts. However, it is necessary to pay attention to the potential impact of market volatility on liquidity.

Current data situation:

 Data source: Spark official website

Berachain BYUSD|HONEY (Berachain)

Visit Berachain's official website, enter BeraHub, connect to Berachain-compatible wallet, select the BYUSD/HONEY pool on the Pools page, and deposit it into BYUSD and HONEY to provide liquidity. Users receive LP tokens that can be pledged to Reward Vaults to earn BGT.

Note: Berachain is a high-performance, EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain that uses an innovative Proof of Liquidity (PoL) consensus mechanism to enhance network security and ecological vitality by incentivizing liquidity providers. This product is a BYUSD/HONEY liquidity pool, deployed on Berachain's native DEX BEX, which is Berachain's native stablecoin (multi-asset collateral, soft-anchored USD), and BYUSD is another stablecoin on the bear chain.

Source of income: Revenue mainly comes from BGT rewards (3.41% APR, based on staking weights and validator-assigned BGT emissions, updated every 5 hours) and in-pool transaction fees (0.01% APR, share of transaction fees). BGT is Berachain's non-transferred governance token, which can be burned 1:1 into BERA (irreversible) and share the expense income of core dApps such as BEX, HoneySwap and Berps (the specific ratio is determined by governance). BYUSD/HONEY Pool has a low risk of price fluctuations due to the stablecoin pair characteristics.

Risk Assessment: Low to Medium. BYUSD and HONEY are stable coins and the prices are stable; Berachain's PoL mechanism has been audited by Trail of Bits and other places, and the risk of smart contracts is low. However, BGT rewards rely on validator allocation and governance decisions, which may fluctuate due to emission adjustments.

Current data situation:

 Data source: Berachain official website

Provide Liquidity to Uniswap V4 USDC-USDT0 (Uniswap V4)

Connect the wallet through Merkl's official website (app.merkl.xyz), and deposit USDC or USDT into the "Provide Liquidity to Uniswap V4 USDC-USDT0" product to provide liquidity for Uniswap V4.

Note: Merkl is a DeFi investment aggregation platform that provides users with one-stop solutions covering liquidity pools, lending agreements and other opportunities. This product provides liquidity to the USDC/USDT pool of Uniswap V4 through Merkl. Uniswap V4 was launched in 2025 and introduced a "hooks" mechanism, allowing developers to customize pool functions, such as dynamic fee adjustment and automatic rebalancing, improving capital efficiency and return potential.

Source of income: UNI token incentives.

Risk Assessment: Low to Medium. The USDC/USDT pool is a stablecoin pair, and the price fluctuation risk is low, but it should be noted that the smart contract risk and the return may decline after the end of the incentive period.

Current data situation:

 Data source: Merkl official website, Uniswap official website

Echelon Market USDC (Aptos)

Visit the Echelon Market official website (echelon.market), connect to the Aptos compatible wallet, select the USDC pool on the Markets page, and deposit it into USDC for participation in the supply. Users obtain supply credentials and earnings accumulate in real time.

Note: Echelon Market is a decentralized cryptocurrency market based on the Aptos blockchain and is developed using the Move programming language. Users borrow or lend assets through non-custodial pools, earn interest or use leverage. This product allows users to deposit USDC into the Aptos main network fund pool, participate in supply and obtain profits. Echelon Market is integrated with the Thala protocol, which provides stablecoins and liquidity layers on Aptos to generate deposit receipt tokens such as thAPT.

Source of income: Earnings include USDC supply interest (5.35%) and Thala's thAPT reward (3.66%). thAPT is Thala's deposit certificate, minted and exchanged for APT at 1:1, and a 0.15% fee is charged when redeemed, and the fee enters the sthAPT (staking income token) prize pool.

Risk Assessment: Low to Medium. USDC is highly stable, but we need to pay attention to the impact of smart contract risks and thAPT redemption fees on returns of the Aptos ecosystem. Instant exit provides high liquidity, but market volatility may affect the value of thAPT rewards.

Current data situation:

 Data source: Echelon Market official website

Summarize

The table is arranged from large to small by TVL, for reference only and is not used as investment advice.