Many people entering a certain leading DeFi protocol to borrow USD1 follow the same process: withdraw BNB from the exchange → collateralize → borrow. It seems straightforward, but this approach actually wastes a lot of potential gains.

The key point is that the protocol's predecessor focused on liquidity and staking schemes. In other words, if you truly want to maximize capital efficiency, the first step shouldn't be directly collateralizing BNB.

This might sound a bit abstract, so let's break down the differences:

**Directly collateralizing BNB**: Your BNB sits in the smart contract as collateral, generating no additional yield. The only return comes from borrowing USD1 and then investing it elsewhere.

**Converting to slisBNB first, then collateralizing**: This token itself represents staked rights on the BNB chain. Your collateral continuously generates staking rewards. In other words—you're able to borrow USD1 to invest, while your collateral is still appreciating automatically.

In industry terms, this is called "one stone, two birds," but essentially it’s a huge difference in capital utilization.

With the same principal of 10 BNB and borrowing the same amount of USD1, just by adding this conversion step, the annualized yield could differ by 2-3 percentage points or even more. With compound interest, this gap can become quite significant over the long term.

Since you're choosing DeFi, don’t just take shortcuts. Make every cent of your capital work to the fullest—this is the true respect for your principal.