![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/649aa439c7750d94d66dd96f/66901e2abeefa383c33261bc_Protocol%20Owned%20Liquidity%20-%20ETHCC%202024.png)
Key Takeaways
DeFi apps need to bootstrap liquidity to overcome the cold-start problem
To bootstrap sufficient liquidity, DeFi apps can offer incentives to liquidity providers (i.e., Liquidity Mining) and/or supply the liquidity themselves (i.e., Protocol-Owned Liquidity, or POL)
POL is cheaper and more stable than Liquidity Mining, but demonstrably hard to do well
Managing multiple LP positions, deciding which to maintain, in what size, and when to rebalance to maximize returns, is nearly impossible to do without sacrificing custody
Let Aera do the heavy lifting
Aera is a decentralized Treasury Management protocol developed by Gauntlet to automate and optimize the joint management of POL and Liquidity Mining programs in a non-custodial way