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Deposit Guide

This guide walks you through depositing USDC into the NectarVault and receiving LP shares. Yield accrues as share price rises — there is no claim step.

:::info Testnet only Nectar is currently deployed on Stellar testnet. The USDC here is a mock Stellar Asset Contract (SAC), not Circle USDC — it has no real-world value. Mainnet (with Circle USDC) ships in Tranche 3 after audit. :::

You'll need three things: a Freighter wallet, testnet XLM (for transaction fees), and testnet USDC. The whole process takes about five minutes.

1. Install Freighter and switch to testnet​

Install Freighter from the Chrome / Brave / Firefox extension store, create a wallet, and back up your recovery phrase.

Then open Freighter's settings and switch the network to Testnet. Nectar's frontend is locked to testnet, so a transaction signed on the wrong network will fail to submit.

warning

Your public key (starts with G…) is the address you'll deposit from. Confirm Freighter shows Test SDF Network ; September 2015 before continuing.

2. Fund your account with testnet XLM​

Soroban charges transaction fees in XLM. Fund a new testnet account from Friendbot, replacing YOUR_ADDRESS with your Freighter public key:

curl "https://friendbot.stellar.org/?addr=YOUR_ADDRESS"

Friendbot creates the account with a 10,000 XLM balance. A deposit costs a fraction of an XLM in fees, so this is more than enough.

3. Get testnet USDC​

The vault accepts exactly one asset: the testnet USDC mock SAC at the address below.

FieldValue
SymbolUSDC
NameUSD Coin
Decimals7
Contract (SAC)CD34YC6FFI2KIE2U4ZPCGQIRPH7UPG5YY2QBYNP25ATSFOQSG73J4VBW

This is a mintable mock token controlled by the deployer; it is not Circle USDC. To get a test balance, request USDC from the team in the project channels or ask the deployer to mint to your address — there is no public self-serve faucet for it yet. Once you hold a balance, it will appear in Freighter under Assets (you may need to add the asset by its contract address).

:::tip 7-decimal precision Every amount on Stellar is an integer at 7-decimal precision. 1 USDC = 10,000,000 stroops. The app handles this conversion for you — you type dollars, it submits stroops — but it matters when you read raw contract values or events. :::

4. Connect to the vault​

Open nectarnetwork.fun/vault, click Connect Wallet, choose Freighter, and approve the connection. Nectar also supports Albedo, xBull, Lobstr, Hana, and Rabet, but this guide uses Freighter.

Once connected, the Vault Overview panel reads live on-chain state via read-only simulation (no fee):

  • TVL — total USDC in the vault (total_usdc)
  • Share price — total_usdc / total_shares
  • Total profit, active deployed capital, total shares, depositor count
  • Capacity — how much more the vault can accept before hitting the deposit cap

5. Enter a deposit amount​

Switch to the Deposit tab and type an amount in USDC. Before you sign, the app pre-flights your deposit against the on-chain deposit cap and shows the shares you'll receive.

How shares are calculated​

The number of shares you receive is computed entirely on-chain by NectarVault.deposit:

  • First deposit into an empty vault mints 1 share per USDC (shares = amount).
  • Every deposit after that mints proportionally to the current share price:
shares = amount * total_shares / total_usdc

Integer division floors toward zero, so you never receive more than your proportional share — this protects existing depositors from dilution. A worked example with multiple depositors and accrued profit is in Understanding Yield.

The deposit cap​

The vault enforces a maximum total size. A deposit is rejected with DepositCapExceeded (error code 8) when:

deposit_cap > 0 && total_usdc + amount > deposit_cap

The exact cap is allowed (the check is strictly greater-than). Current testnet configuration:

ParameterValue
deposit_cap10,000,000 USDC (100000000000000 stroops)
withdraw_cooldown3600 seconds (1 hour)
max_draw_per_keeper10,000 USDC

:::warning Cap pre-flight If your deposit would push total_usdc past the cap, the app blocks it before simulation and shows the remaining capacity. Lower your amount to fit, or wait for room to open as other depositors withdraw. :::

6. Sign in Freighter​

Click Deposit. The app moves through these states: simulating → signing → submitted → confirmed.

When it reaches signing, Freighter pops up a single transaction that invokes:

NectarVault.deposit(user: Address, amount: i128) -> i128

This is one transaction, not an approve-then-deposit pair. Soroban's authorization framework lets the same signed transaction both authorize the USDC transfer (user.require_auth()) and move your USDC into the vault — there is no separate ERC-20-style allowance step. The call returns the number of shares minted.

Review the contract ID against Contract Addresses, then approve. The transaction typically confirms in about five seconds.

:::info What the contract does On deposit the vault: checks the cap, computes your shares, transfers amount USDC from you into the vault, creates or updates your Depositor record (adding shares and setting last_deposit_time to now), increments total_usdc and total_shares, and emits a deposit event carrying (amount, shares). :::

7. Verify your shares​

After confirmation the Your Position panel updates from on-chain reads:

  • Shares — your share balance from balance(user) / get_depositor(user)
  • Current value — shares * total_usdc / total_shares, in USDC
  • A link to the transaction on stellar.expert (testnet)

You can independently confirm your balance by simulating a read against the vault:

stellar contract invoke \
  --id CDZR6VDCPQFOFFKKZ2KMVB67Z54LI5OY73NHBFVI6DR6RE6TL7NN7345 \
  --source YOUR_ACCOUNT \
  --network testnet \
  --send=no \
  -- \
  balance --user YOUR_ADDRESS

The result is a two-element array [shares, usdc_value], both in 7-decimal stroops.

8. Track performance​

There's no reward to claim and no lockup beyond the withdrawal cooldown. Your position value rises automatically as keepers return liquidation profit and the share price ticks up.

tip

APY is only annualized once the share-price series spans at least seven days; shorter windows show raw cumulative return labeled "not annualized." Quiet weeks can yield near zero — yield is bursty because it comes from liquidations, not lending interest.

Note on the withdrawal cooldown​

Your last_deposit_time is set to the current ledger time on every deposit, which restarts the withdrawal cooldown. If you top up an existing position, the 1-hour cooldown clock resets from that moment. Plan deposits accordingly if you expect to withdraw soon.

What's next​