The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to ApeSwap

ApeSwap is an exciting and innovative cryptocurrency trading and investment platform. If you are new to the world of DeFi, then ApeSwap is a great place to start testing the waters.

Automated Market Makers (AMM) rank high among the most popular DeFi (Decentralized Finance) applications. There are plenty of AMMs out there, with new ones mushrooming all over the DeFi ecosystem. ApeSwap is one of the fastest rising stars among these, shining brighter than all the others.

From taking part in liquidity pools and earning $BANANA rewards to swapping tokens, staking, and yield farming, there’s plenty of action available on the ApeSwap platform. 

ApeSwap is constantly pushing its boundaries to come up with exciting ideas to keep its users engaged. From their Golden BANANAs to Non-Fungible Apes, the BUIDL Program, and new partnerships, ApeSwap ensures there is never a dull moment for its users.

Are you farming on ApeSwap? Then we recommend you to use Defimax.com to track your portfolio, impermanent loss and LPs.

Here’s what you’ll find in this article. If you are looking for any specific information, feel free to jump to any section of your choice.

• What is ApeSwap?
• How to Use ApeSwap
• What are BANANA Tokens?
• What are BANANA Farms?
• Liquidity Pools in ApeSwap
• Staking your LP Tokens
• Yield Farming on ApeSwap
• Swapping Tokens on ApeSwap
• The Golden Banana
• Initial Ape Offerings
• Non-Fungible Apes
• The ApeSwap BUIDL Program
• The ApeSwap Jungle: Partnerships

Now, let’s dive in!

What is ApeSwap?

ApeSwap is an automated market maker. It is built on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). A multi-purpose DeFi platform, ApeSwap can be used for yield farming, staking, and much more. The native currency of this platform is the BANANA tokens.

You may have heard of Uniswap and SushiSwap. These are automated market makers on the Ethereum network. ApeSwap functions in a similar manner, but with the added benefits offered by the BSC network.

Compared to the Ethereum blockchain, BSC has much lower fees. It is faster and more efficient. The ApeSwap interface is user-friendly and easy to navigate. All these factors make ApeSwap an affordable option for beginners who want to engage in cryptocurrency investments.

ApeSwap is an offshoot of PancakeSwap. So the basics of using these platforms are the same. PancakeSwap is another DeFi exchange on the Binance Smart Chain. You can swap BEP-20 tokens on this automated market maker. If you are unfamiliar with PancakeSwap, then check out our Beginner’s Guide to PancakeSwap.

On ApeSwap you can not only execute trades easily, the slippage is also limited. The ApeSwap user base contributes to creating liquidity pools. In return, they get rewarded in various ways.

ApeSwap is Unique!

There are many other automated market makers on the Binance smart chain. But ApeSwap is unique. ApeSwap is not dependent on Pancake Swap as it has its own decentralized exchange, as well as, its own liquidity.

The developers of this platform proudly state that it was created by DeFi Apes for DeFi Apes. Well, it’s indeed an exciting and adventurous zoo out there. You will find that ApeSwap takes Aping to an altogether new level with exciting new projects that are not offered by the other more ‘traditional’ platforms.

Last, but not least is the ApeSwap community - the global group of DeFi apes! The true owners of this zoo are the community members that joined together to build up ApeSwap into what it is today. Yes! You can be a part of this community too. Once you join in, you can offer your own suggestions for ApeSwap. You can also vote for or against other monkey suggestions.

How to Use ApeSwap

You can invest and profit from a variety of activities on the ApeSwap platform. You need $BANANA tokens to engage in these ventures. This includes liquidity pools, staking, farming, trading, initial Ape offerings, and so on. Users are rewarded with even more $BANANA tokens. 

1. Connect your Wallet to ApeSwap

ApeSwap is really easy to use. Remember that ApeSwap runs on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), So first, you need a BSC-compatible wallet such as Metamask, SafePal Wallet, etc.

If not, then you need to create one. If you need help in creating a Metamask wallet, then check out our beginner’s guide to Metamask .

If you have a BSC-compatible wallet, then you can get started straight away. Go to ApeSwap.Finance and choose what you want to do - contribute to liquidity pools, stake, or swap your tokens. 

Once you make a choice, you will be requested to unlock your wallet. You can also click directly on the ‘connect’ button on the right upper corner of the home screen. Then you’ll get a pop-up offering you various wallet options such as Binance ChainWallet, Trust Wallet, and so on.

Click on your wallet choice to connect it to the ApeSwap platform. Now you are all set to do some monkey business!

2. What are BANANA Tokens?

The native token used in ApeSwap is called BANANA. It is symbolized as ‘ $BANANA’. To participate in any of the activities on this platform, you need $BANANA tokens.

As an AMM ApeSwap depends on its user base to add to the liquidity pool. In return, they offer plenty of incentives.

ApeSwap Pools offer you both yield farming and staking opportunities to use your $BANANA tokens. You can earn $BANANA by staking your LP tokens. This is in addition to the trading fee you earn from adding to the liquidity pool.

As you earn more $BANANA from your farming, you can stake them again to get even more yield. You can choose ApeSwap’s native $BANANA staking pool or you can stake your $BANANA in various other pools that ApeSwap has partnered with.

Now let’s take a closer look at the BANANA farms.

3. What are BANANA Farms?

So, how do you get these BANANAs? Well, if you have the money to spare, go ahead and buy them outright. Once you have your initial investment in place, now it’s time to grow your investments and get even more BANANAs! But, how do you grow BANANAs? The obvious answer is a BANANA farm!

In February 2021, ApeSwap launched what they called the BANANA Frenzy. This was a unique liquidity mining and staking program aimed at encouraging and rewarding the early adopters of the platform. Thankfully, it helped ApeSwap achieve the liquidity it needed to take the DeFi world by storm. Today, ApeSwap is one of the top DeFi platforms on the Binance Smart Chain. 

When the Apeswap platform was launched, it had only 5 banana farms. But now, it boasts of over 50 farms. ApeSwap has partnered with many other AMMs to offer you a vast array of farming opportunities .

ApeSwap even encourages its users to create their own pools . Want to know more about liquidity pools in ApeSwap? Let’s check that out next!

4. Liquidity Pools in ApeSwap

First of all, if you don’t know what liquidity pools are, then check out our article on liquidity pools and liquidity providers.

Now let’s focus on ApeSwap liquidity pools . You start with adding your tokens such as $BANANA, $BUSD, etc to the ApeSwap liquidity pools. In return, you get ApeSwap’s liquidity provider tokens - the ‘APE-LP tokens’. These tokens represent your share of that particular pool. You can retrieve your funds from the liquidity pool any time you want to.

Please do keep in mind that providing liquidity can expose you to risks such as impermanent loss. Learn more on impermanent loss , if you need to.

While choosing a liquidity pool, make sure to pick one that has a good Annual Percentage Yield (APY). You can expect about 10 to 30% APY.

Depending on the platform used, DeFi liquidity pools may hold two or more types of tokens. In ApeSwap, the liquidity pools hold two tokens (in smart contracts) to form trading pairs.

1. You need to choose a pair from the given options such as BANANA-WBNB, USDT-BUSD, etc. Before joining a liquidity pool, make sure you have both the tokens in the trading pair.

2. You have to add equal quantities of both tokens to the pool. For example, if you choose the USDT-BUSD pool, and add 100 USDT, then you have to add 100 BUSD too.

3. So once you confirm you have enough of both types of tokens, then choose the trading pair from the given list. Here, I have chosen USDT-BUSD.

4. You will find options for adding liquidity or trading - in the upper right corner of the new page for the trading pair. When you click on the ‘Add Liquidity’ button, the following page appears:

5. You can fill in the num ber of tokens you are planning to add to the pool. When you add the first input, the s econd token input gets filled in automatically with the number of tokens with the same value. Please note that it’s not the same number of tokens, but the same value.

6. Now click on Unlock Wallet to proceed to the next step. Connect to your BSC-Compatible Wallet. 

7. Once you give your approval and confirm the transaction, you will get your LP tokens in your chosen wallet.

5. Staking your LP Tokens

Staking rates are not as high as for yield farming, but they are still pretty good. It’s a much easier activity for beginners who prefer to play it safe.

1. To stake your LP tokens, you need to go ‘Farms’. You can find this option in the left menu section. This leads you to the following page with your farm choices:

Note the APY or APR (annual percentage rate) while choosing your farm to stake your LP tokens. Once you stake your LP tokens, you get rewarded in BANANA tokens.

When your wallet is unlocked and you have LP tokens with you, you get the option to press: ‘Stake LP’. Once you confirm the action, you start earning your BANANA tokens.

When you are ready to reap your yield, click on the ‘Harvest’ button. You can also un-stake your LP token any time you want.

Great job! Now you are not just a liquidity provider on ApeSwap, you have also successfully staked your liquidity token to reap your BANANA rewards!

But what about yield farming? Aren’t the BANANA farms meant for yield farming?

Ok! So let’s get to that now. Staking is a safer bet than yield farming. This is because of the impermanent loss we mentioned before.

6. Yield Farming on ApeSwap

Yield farming is one of the best ways to make money on ApeSwap. Among all the activities you can do on this platform, yield farming offers the highest rates. As done for staking, you first use two tokens such as BANANA and BUSD for creating liquidity pairs. 

But you need to be careful as the risk is also higher. Impermanent losses in yield farming can get as high as 20% or more. This can be a confusing concept for beginners in this field, remember to read up on impermanent loss before venturing into these kinds of activities.

Impermanent loss can occur if one of the tokens in your liquidity pair changes in value. It's called impermanent loss as it really doesn't become actual or permanent till you withdraw your tokens from the pool. To get back the same amount you put in, both the tokens need to be at the same value at which they were ’paired’.

For example, if one token is at $20 and the other token is at $150 when you paired them together. But the first token has now risen to $50 per token while the other has remained at $150. The impermanent loss works to about 9.65%. You can use our portfolio tracking tool to check out impermanent losses.

Don’t worry, yield farming usually turns out pretty well. DeFi platforms tend to have great rates that make up for the risks you face. But it’s important that you understand the rules of the game and the potential pitfalls. Yield farming is indeed the fastest way to earn maximum $BANANAs on ApeSwap.

7. Swapping Tokens on ApeSwap

Swapping tokens is the easiest activity you can do on ApeSwap. You can earn $BANANAs for swapping tokens.

Swapping fees are quite low and the exchange happens fast. Expect a 0.3% swap fee in BNB for every token swap you do. Only 0.05% of this fee goes to the ApeSwap development wallet while the rest of it is given back to the ApeSwap community.

ApeSwap is More than Just Monkey Business

ApeSwap is much more than just a DeFi exchange or a yield farm. To build this platform into an ever-exciting DeFi jungle for the DeFi Apes, the ApeSwap team keeps coming up with unique and community-focused programs.

Initial Ape Offerings, the Golden BANANA, the BUIDL Program, Non-Fungible Apes are some of the more notable ones among these.

1. The Golden Banana ($GNANA)

ApeSwap released the Golden Banana in April 2021 to reward its most loyal community members. It is represented by the ticker symbol $GNANA

Golden Banana holders are considered the V.I.Ps in the ApeSwap ecosystem, the true ApeSwap Apes! If you are wondering if there’s any actual value beyond the fancy names, then be ready for something never seen before in the DeFi space.

Exclusive Pool Access: $GNANA-only staking pools are reserved for the most loyal apes. As a Golden Banana holder, you get access to these exclusive pools to stake your $GNANA and earn other tokens.

Passive Farming: With a 2% transfer fee, $GNANAs can be used as reflect tokens. Just by having $GNANAs in your wallets, you get a fee share proportional to your holdings.

Access to Exclusive Initial Ape Offering: $GNANA holders get access to exclusive token allocations for Initial Ape Offerings.

$GNANA is intended to be developed as the core governance token of ApeSwap. But that may take some time to become a reality.

Be aware that when you upgrade from $BANANA to $GNANA, it costs an additional 30%: (28% burn fee + 2% reflect fee).

You can swap $GNANA to BANANA when you want. $GNANA is backed by a 1:1 ratio with BANANA. But be mindful that you’ll end up losing the 30% fee you have already paid for the $GNANA, if you swap back to BANANA.

2. Initial Ape Offerings

ApeSwap uses Initial Ape Offerings (IAOs) for launching new tokens. The primary purpose of IAOs is to raise funds and get the liquidity for these tokens.

BANANA-BNB LP tokens are required for taking part in the IAOs. For this, you have to offer your BANANA and BNB tokens to the liquidity pool and get BANANA-BNB LP tokens in return. If you are wondering how to actually do this, then you need to refer back to our previous section on ‘Liquidity Pools on ApeSwap’ - the steps are outlined there. 

How to Find IAOs: Go to ApeSwap.Finance and click on IAO in the left menu bar. Scroll down to see what IAOs are available.

If you find something to your liking, then you can use your BANANA-BNB LP tokens to get the IAO tokens. Once the sale is over, you can claim your IAO tokens. You also get back unspent funds, if any.

3. Non-Fungible Apes

ApeSwap describes Non-Fungible Apes as “a cryptographically generated set of 1,000 unique, rare, immutable, digital apes. Each ape is created by hashing a string (such as “Strong Ape”) to randomly generate a set of 6 characteristics: Base, Face, Frame, Mouth, Eyes, and Top.”

Non-Fungible Apes (NFAs) are to be sold in batches of 100. The first batch of NFAs, Common Chimps, are listed at a price of just 0.25 BNB. The apes with specialized names and rare characteristics have higher prices. For example, 107 apes have sunglasses while only 32 apes have laser eyes! ApeSwap has announced that only 1,000 NFAs will ever be released

Only the first batch of NFAs will be the cheapest ever sold at those rates as they are never again expected to be priced under 1 BNB. In the April 17th, 2021 release, NFAs were available on the following marketplaces: Treasureland, Lootex, and NFTKey.

Considering their scarcity, NFAs will surely get more valuable over time. ApeSwap is also working towards bringing true utility for NFAs. More than just a cool novelty for ApeSwap collectors, ApeSwap reveals that their NFA holders may receive benefits such as airdrops, early access, and more!

4. The ApeSwap BUIDL Program

According to ApeSwap, the BUIDL Program is an initiative aimed at supporting projects on the Binance Smart Chain. This fast-track partnership program rewards the candidates for using ApeSwap. All existing projects on BSC, even the new ones can join in and participate in this program.

Their mantra is: Apply. Build. Rewards!

To officially apply to join the BUIDL Program, you need to add liquidity for your token on ApeSwap.Finance. You also need to use ApeSwap APE-LP’s on your platform. For more details, read this. You can apply for the BUIDL Program here .

If your application is accepted for the BUIDL program, your token is added to ApeSwap’s BUIDL DEX token listing.

There are a few more steps you need to complete in the second round. This includes starting your own liquidity pool on ApeSwap and having proof of a paid audit from a reputable firm. You also need to pass the ApeSwap due diligence check.

Advantages: Once you become an official ApeSwap BUIDL Partner, plenty of rewards are waiting for you. From being eligible for an ApeSwap Farm that rewards $BANANAs to being awarded $5,000 to $20,000 for collaborative marketing and business development, there are a lot of advantages to getting accepted into this program.

This is a great chance for you to grow your business with the help of experts from ApeSwap. You get official marketing support from ApeSwap, and a reimbursement of up to $5,000 on your audit expense.

Most importantly, you get access to ApeSwap’s BUIDL network. Connecting with the top BUIDL projects helps secure strategic partnerships that are guaranteed to help you become a force to be reckoned with, in the BSC ecosystem.

The ApeSwap Jungle: Partnerships with ApeSwap

ApeSwap has been growing by leaps and bounds. By partnering with leading AMMs and yield aggregators on the BSC network, Apeswap is able to offer more resources to users.

ApeSwap joined up with Beefy.Finance , a leading yield aggregator on BSC. The two ApeSwap vaults, BANANA-BNB and BANANA-BUSD

This partnership started with 2 ApeSwap vaults that support BANANA LP tokens: BANANA-BNB and BANANA-BUSD.

These enable users to earn BANANA rewards via consistent and automatic compounding. As an incentive, they also reward you with even more BANANA in addition to the default yield.

Other ApeSwap partnerships include:

• Seascape.Network
• Yieldwatch
• Value DeFi
• xBTC
• KeyFi
• Ontology and Onto Wallet
• BakerySwap
• Squirrel.Finance

This is just the tip of the iceberg. More partnerships are being added at frequent intervals. So stay tuned!

Before You Go…

The DeFi landscape is still evolving. Hype and hope seem to drive this volatile market. Investors need to be really careful where they step. Though there seems to be plenty of monkeying around, ApeSwap is here to stay. ApeSwap has been quick to climb to the top players in the DeFi space.

It is indeed commendable that ApeSwap has built up a dedicated community of users. Its partnerships with established players such as Beefy.finance have added much to its credibility. With constant innovation and creativity, ApeSwap continues to grow at an incredible speed. New pools and yield farms seem to crop up almost every day.

If you are an opportunity seeker, then ApeSwap is exactly where you need to be. So keep an eye out for this trailblazer and invest after doing your own research.