Catalyst Yield

Catalyst Yield is an autonomous, cross-chain yield aggregator designed to simplify and optimize DeFi for everyone. Our mission is to break down the barriers between blockchain ecosystems, allowing capital to flow frictionlessly to wherever it can generate the highest return, regardless of the underlying chain.

In the current landscape, pursuing the best yield requires users to manually navigate a complex web of swaps, bridges, and different protocols across multiple chains—a process that is both time-consuming and capital-inefficient. Catalyst Yield solves this by creating a unified "set-and-forget" experience.

A user simply deposits a single, common asset (like USDC on an EVM chain) into our main vault. From there, our autonomous engine takes over. It intelligently analyzes real-time yield opportunities across a universe of blockchains (including EVM and non-EVM chains like Aptos, Solana, or Cosmos). The engine then automatically executes the most optimal strategy, which involves:

1. Swapping the initial asset for the one required by the target protocol.
2. Bridging the asset to the destination chain.
3. Deploying the capital into the highest-performing yield farm or lending pool.

The user doesn't need to manage multiple wallets, sign dozens of transactions, or pay for gas on different networks. They simply watch their yield grow from a single, intuitive dashboard, while our system handles all the complex cross-chain operations in the background.

Our hackathon MVP demonstrates the core user experience and the conceptual power of the Catalyst Yield engine. It's built with a modern, responsive frontend and a clear plan for integrating powerful backend and partner technologies.

Frontend & User Experience The frontend is a Next.js application built with React and TypeScript, providing a fast, server-rendered experience right out of the box. We chose Next.js for its performance benefits and structured routing, which is essential for a scalable application.

UI/UX: The interface is styled with Tailwind CSS for a clean, modern, and fully responsive design that works seamlessly on desktop and mobile. We've implemented a dark/light mode toggle to enhance user comfort. Icons are provided by lucide-react.

Dynamic Dashboard: The dashboard is the user's command center. It features a portfolio overview, a chart tracking historical APY, and a real-time, sortable table of the best yield strategies across different chains. This is all built with React hooks (useState, useEffect, useMemo) to create a dynamic and interactive experience.

Simulated Workflow: To demonstrate our vision for the hackathon, we've built out the complete user journey: from depositing in the vault to a visual, step-by-step status page that simulates the complex swap, bridge, and deploy process. This makes the power of the autonomous engine tangible and easy to understand.

Backend Engine & 1inch Integration The heart of Catalyst Yield is its autonomous engine. For the swap and execution layer on EVM chains, we integrate the 1inch Aggregation Protocol.

Why 1inch?: Capital efficiency is everything. When a user deposits USDC, but the best yield opportunity is in stTIA on Celestia, our engine first needs to swap USDC for ATOM (to be bridged and then swapped for TIA). Manually finding the best swap rate is nearly impossible.

Our Implementation: The Catalyst engine calls the 1inch API to find the most efficient swap path for the user's deposit on the source chain (e.g., Ethereum). By sourcing liquidity from hundreds of DEXs, 1inch ensures our users get the best possible price with minimal slippage. This is a critical first step, as it maximizes the amount of capital that gets bridged and ultimately deployed, directly increasing the user's final yield. The 1inch integration abstracts away the complexity of finding liquidity and becomes a foundational building block for our cross-chain strategy execution.

In a full-scale version, the process would be:

User deposits USDC on Ethereum.

1. Catalyst Engine queries the 1inch API to execute the optimal swap from USDC to the required bridgeable asset (e.g., ATOM).
2. The swapped asset is sent across a bridge (like Wormhole or LayerZero).
3. The asset is deployed into the target yield farm on the destination chain (e.g., Cosmos).

By leveraging 1inch, we ensure the most critical part of our on-chain strategy—the initial swap—is as efficient as possible, making Catalyst Yield a truly powerful and "catalytic" force for capital in DeFi.