It’s been 4 weeks since I started experimenting with liquidity pools on PancakeSwap.
I began with just a small test budget (~$25 total), split across three pools:

• 🟡 BNB/USDT

• ⚫🟡 BNB/ETH

• 🍰🟡 BNB/CAKE

The goal? To see what kind of real ROI I could get as a small liquidity provider (LP).
Here’s my 1-month update with numbers, rewards, and lessons learned.

💧 Current Liquidity (Week 4 Snapshot)

Pool Liquidity Assets in Pool Unclaimed Rewards Value of Rewards
🟡 BNB/USDT $8.09 8.090 USDT + 0 BNB 0.02249 USDT + 0.00002517 BNB ~$0.04
⚫🟡 BNB/ETH $8.39 0.002002 ETH + 0 BNB 0.00001034 ETH + 0.00004946 BNB ~$0.08
🍰🟡 BNB/CAKE $9.64 3.697 CAKE + 0 BNB 0.08086 CAKE + 0.0002212 BNB ~$0.42

👉 At today’s BNB price = $1020, those small BNB fractions are worth more than they look at first glance.

⚠️ The Price Range Issue

One thing I discovered over the last 2 weeks:

• My BNB/USDT and BNB/ETH pools stopped generating new rewards.

• Why? Because of the price range I initially selected when adding liquidity.

🔎 What is a Price Range?

On PancakeSwap V3 (and similar AMMs like Uniswap V3), you don’t provide liquidity across the entire price spectrum.
Instead, you choose a price range (for example: BNB between $900–$1200).

• If the current market price of BNB stays inside your range → you earn fees.

• If the price moves outside your range → your liquidity becomes “inactive” and you stop earning.

This is what happened:

• ✅ My BNB/CAKE pool was still in range, so it kept earning.

• ❌ My BNB/USDT and BNB/ETH pools went out of range, meaning my tokens are still there, but not working for me.

👉 Lesson learned: Choosing the right range is crucial. A narrower range can give higher rewards, but it’s riskier since the price can move out. A wider range gives more stability but lower yield.

Starting with today, my BNB/CAKE pool is out of range. Now I need to collect all of them, rebalance, and put new ranges.

📊 Total Rewards After 4 Weeks

• BNB/USDT: ~$0.04 (stopped earning mid-month)

• BNB/ETH: ~$0.08 (stopped earning mid-month)

• BNB/CAKE: ~$0.42 (+ reinvested ~$0.17 from last week)

🔹 Total earned in 1 month: ~$0.71
on ~$26 initial liquidity.

That’s about 2.7% ROI in a month, but importantly, almost all of it came from one pool (BNB/CAKE) because the others went inactive.

📈 ROI Breakdown by Pool

• 🟡 BNB/USDT (Stable pair): ~0.5% monthly, but inactive last 2 weeks.

• ⚫🟡 BNB/ETH (Blue-chip pair): ~1% monthly, but inactive last 2 weeks.

• 🍰🟡 BNB/CAKE (Native farm): ~4.4% monthly, still active and earning.

🎯 Observations After 1 Month

✅ Yield farming is all about being “in range” – otherwise rewards stop.
✅ BNB/CAKE clearly outperformed, but also comes with volatility risk.
✅ Stable and blue-chip pairs are safe, but not if you choose the wrong range.
✅ Even with ~$25, this experiment shows how fees + rewards compound over time (when in range!).

🔮 Next Steps

• 🔁 Adjust ranges for BNB/USDT and BNB/ETH so they stay active.

• 📊 Keep compounding rewards into BNB/CAKE.

• 🧪 Try a wider range on a stable pair (USDT/BUSD) to guarantee activity.

📝 Final Thoughts

After one month on PancakeSwap:

• Yield farming works, but it’s not passive if you set too narrow a range.

• My best results came from BNB/CAKE, which stayed in range.

• Going forward, I’ll experiment more with range width to balance rewards and consistency.

👉 If you’re new, start with wide ranges until you understand how price moves, then try narrower ones for higher yield.