Automatic Payment Pools is a cryptocurrency training course by Andy Howard, teaching how to generate yield from decentralised finance (DeFi) liquidity pools. The promised returns are eye-catching: 57% to 126%+ annually, starting with as little as $50.
The underlying model — earning yield from DeFi liquidity pools — is real. Liquidity pools on decentralised exchanges do pay yield to liquidity providers. The risks are also real: impermanent loss, smart contract vulnerabilities, market volatility, and the genuine complexity of navigating DeFi safely are all factors the marketing doesn’t adequately address.
There’s also a specific concern worth raising before the course itself: multiple independent reviewers note that Andy Howard’s teaching methodology appears strikingly similar to Dan Ryder’s Prime DeFi programme — a more established and transparent platform that pioneered the approach Andy now teaches. Whether that represents independent parallel development or something closer to imitation is a question the review addresses directly.
First — This Is Important
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Key Takeaways
- Automatic Payment Pools teaches DeFi liquidity pool strategies — a legitimate income mechanism in the crypto space, though riskier and more complex than the marketing implies
- Creator Andy Howard operates through Awesomely.com — his background in DeFi prior to this course is not publicly documented at the level of Dan Ryder’s established Prime DeFi programme
- The 57% to 126%+ annual return claims are possible in favourable conditions but are not reliable or typical — these figures require high trading volume, low volatility, and minimal impermanent loss that cannot be consistently guaranteed
- Multiple independent reviewers document near-identical terminology, concepts, and training structure to Dan Ryder’s Prime DeFi programme — Andy has not acknowledged this connection publicly
- The course costs approximately $297 and covers five modules across around eight hours of content
- No verified community, transparent results tracking, or public methodology documentation exists at the level Prime DeFi provides
- Verdict: The DeFi model is real, but Andy’s undocumented background and the significant conceptual overlap with Prime DeFi make this course a less credible choice than more established alternatives
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What DeFi Liquidity Pools Actually Are
Before evaluating Andy’s course, understanding the underlying model matters — because the terminology is genuinely confusing and the marketing often exploits that confusion.
Decentralised finance (DeFi) operates through smart contracts on blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, and others. Decentralised exchanges — platforms like Uniswap or Curve — allow users to trade crypto without a central intermediary. To facilitate trades, these exchanges use liquidity pools: reserves of two paired tokens (say ETH and USDC) that traders draw on to execute swaps. The exchange charges a small fee on each trade. Those fees are distributed to the people who provided the liquidity — the liquidity providers.
If you deposit equal values of ETH and USDC into a liquidity pool, you earn a portion of every trade fee generated by that pair. The APY (annual percentage yield) depends on trading volume — more trades mean more fees mean higher yield. This is the legitimate income mechanism behind DeFi liquidity provision.
The risk that the marketing routinely underplays is impermanent loss — the phenomenon where, if the price ratio of the two paired tokens changes significantly while you’re providing liquidity, you can end up with less value than if you’d simply held the tokens. In volatile markets, impermanent loss can exceed the yield earned from fees, resulting in a net loss. This is not a theoretical risk. It happens regularly to DeFi participants who don’t manage it carefully.
Andy Howard’s Background and Credentials
This is where the course’s credibility case is weakest.
Andy Howard operates through Awesomely.com, a publishing platform for online courses. His publicly available background in DeFi prior to launching Automatic Payment Pools is limited. There are no independently verifiable results demonstrating his own liquidity pool portfolio performance, no public community where his methodology can be assessed in practice, and no documented history in DeFi education or practice that predates this course.
Compare this to Dan Ryder at Prime DeFi, who has been teaching liquidity pool strategies for years, has published transparent methodology walk-throughs, runs a community where investors actively vet pools together in real time, and has documented student results across a significant track record. The contrast in verifiable credibility is meaningful.
The Prime DeFi Overlap
This is the specific concern that most reviews of Automatic Payment Pools raise, and it deserves direct treatment.
Multiple independent reviewers — who are familiar with both programmes — document near-identical elements between Andy Howard’s Automatic Payment Pools and Dan Ryder’s Prime DeFi:
The “ideal correlation ratio” concept — using the correlation between paired tokens as a selection criterion for liquidity pools. The framework of identifying “high-volume, low-participation” pools to front-run institutional money. The specific terminology and analytical approach used to evaluate pool quality.
Dan Ryder has been teaching these specific strategies for years. Andy Howard has not publicly acknowledged any connection to Prime DeFi or credited Dan Ryder’s methodology. One independent reviewer described the overlap as making Automatic Payment Pools feel like “a cheaper, less thorough version of something you’ve seen before.”
Whether this represents independent parallel development, exposure to the same DeFi community knowledge, or something closer to direct imitation is not definitively provable. The overlap is specific enough that anyone considering Automatic Payment Pools should compare it directly with Prime DeFi before purchasing.
The Income Claims
The 57% to 126%+ annual return figures are not fabricated — yields in this range have existed in DeFi pools under specific conditions. But presenting them as a baseline expectation is misleading.
Those yields require: high trading volume in the specific pool (which fluctuates significantly), low price volatility between the paired tokens (which cannot be controlled), minimal impermanent loss (which depends on market conditions outside your control), and smart contract security (which is a genuine ongoing risk in DeFi, with substantial documented losses from contract exploits).
In less favourable conditions — which are common and unpredictable — the same pools that yield 100%+ annually in good periods can produce negative effective returns through impermanent loss in bad periods. The marketing presents the ceiling as though it’s the floor.
What the Course Contains
Five video modules, approximately eight hours of content total, covering: DeFi fundamentals and liquidity pool mechanics, pool selection methodology using correlation ratios and volume analysis, risk management frameworks, execution — how to actually deposit into pools and manage positions — and strategy for identifying and rotating into higher-performing pools.
The content is described by reviewers as accessible for someone new to DeFi, though basic blockchain and wallet knowledge is assumed. No original tools, research infrastructure, or community component is included — you get the educational content and implement independently.
Who This Is For
If DeFi liquidity pool investing genuinely interests you and you have the blockchain literacy and risk tolerance to participate in this space, the question isn’t whether the model is legitimate — it is. The question is which programme to use for education.
Given the undocumented background of Andy Howard, the significant conceptual overlap with Prime DeFi, and the absence of the community and transparency that Prime DeFi provides, the more credible starting point appears to be the established programme with the verifiable track record rather than the newer course that appears to borrow heavily from it.
For building online income without cryptocurrency exposure and the associated volatility risk, the how to make money online guide covers the full range of models worth considering with honest risk profiles attached to each.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Automatic Payment Pools a scam? Not an outright scam — the DeFi model is real and the course covers genuine concepts. The concerns are about Andy Howard’s undocumented background, the significant overlap with Prime DeFi’s established methodology, and income claims that present ceiling-case returns as typical.
What is a DeFi liquidity pool? A reserve of paired tokens on a decentralised exchange that facilitates trades. Liquidity providers earn a share of trading fees in proportion to their contribution. The income is real but variable and carries specific risks including impermanent loss.
Are 57% to 126% annual returns realistic? They’re possible under favourable conditions — high trading volume, low volatility, minimal impermanent loss. They are not reliable or typical. In unfavourable conditions the same pools can produce negative effective returns through impermanent loss.
What is the connection to Prime DeFi? Multiple independent reviewers document near-identical terminology, analytical frameworks, and pool selection methodology between Andy Howard’s course and Dan Ryder’s Prime DeFi programme. Andy has not acknowledged this connection publicly. Prime DeFi has a longer track record and more transparent methodology documentation.
How much does it cost? Approximately $297 for the course. No ongoing subscription — one-time purchase for five modules of video content.
What’s the safer alternative for online income? If cryptocurrency risk doesn’t suit your situation, the local lead generation model produces recurring income from digital assets without market volatility exposure.
Mark has spent 16 years testing online business programmes and tools. He focuses on honest, experience-based reviews that help people avoid scams and find real, sustainable online business models.