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Yield and liquidity mining
A high yield is a number. It comes from fees other people pay, from a subsidy of new coins, or from a design that only works while new money arrives.
Three sources
Fees: real if the trades are real. A subsidy: the project prints tokens and calls them rewards. A ponzi-shaped loop: yesterday's depositors are paid by today's, until today stops.
Read the number
Ask what is paid, in which token, and who is diluted to create it. A reward paid in a token the team can mint is the team getting paid in attention while you hold the dilution.
If you cannot explain the yield in one sentence without the word APY, you do not know it.
Check yourself
Is a very high APY a gift?
No. It is paid by fees, by new coins, or by later depositors.
After this you can say where the yield comes from in one sentence, with no abbreviation.
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