A yield above 35% sounds like a gift. But before you treat it as one, it's worth understanding exactly where that number comes from — because the source of a yield tells you almost everything about how long it might last.

What You're Looking At

The UNI-AAVE pool on Uniswap v4 (Ethereum) is currently showing a 35.8% APY with a TVL (Total Value Locked — the total amount of money deposited in the pool) of $2.1 million. That TVL figure is important context. It's not a tiny pool, but it's not a multi-billion-dollar protocol either. Smaller pools tend to attract less outside scrutiny, which means potential bugs or problems may take longer to surface.

APY (Annual Percentage Yield) is the annualised rate of return, assuming rewards are compounded. The key word is assuming — it's a snapshot, not a promise.

Where a 35% APY Can Come From

There are a few plausible drivers, and they carry very different risk profiles:

Trading fees. Uniswap pools earn fees from every swap. If UNI and AAVE are being traded heavily, some of that yield could be genuine fee income. That's the most sustainable source.

Reward-token emissions. Protocols sometimes pay extra yield in their own tokens to attract liquidity. If that's part of this APY, the rate can drop sharply — or disappear — once those emissions slow down or the reward token falls in price.

Concentration and volatility. Uniswap v4 allows concentrated liquidity, meaning providers can earn more fees within a set price range. That boosts APY — but also exposes you to impermanent loss (a reduction in your holdings compared to simply holding the tokens, caused by price movements between the two assets). UNI and AAVE are both volatile, so that risk is real.

What to Actually Check

Before treating any yield figure as income, ask: Is the APY mostly fees or emissions? Has the pool been running long enough to show a trend? What happens to your position if UNI and AAVE move sharply in opposite directions?

The comparison table lets you stack this pool against others to see how 35.8% sits relative to similar assets — that context matters more than the number alone. This article is information to help you ask better questions, not a signal to act.