Curve DAO

What is Curve DAO (CRV)?

CRV is the governance token of Curve, a decentralized exchange built mainly for swapping assets that trade at similar prices, such as stablecoins and different wrapped versions of the same asset. Curve's pool design keeps slippage low for these swaps, which is why it became a core liquidity venue for decentralized finance. The CRV token launched in August 2020 and is managed by the Curve DAO.

What CRV is used for

The main use of CRV is vote-escrow. Holders lock CRV for between one week and four years and receive veCRV, which gives voting power and other benefits that scale with the amount and the lock time.

• Governance: veCRV holders vote on proposals and on gauge weights, which decide how CRV emissions are shared among liquidity pools.
• Reward boost: liquidity providers who hold veCRV can boost their CRV rewards by up to 2.5 times.
• Revenue share: veCRV holders receive a share of trading fees and of borrowing interest from crvUSD, distributed weekly.

crvUSD is Curve's over-collateralized stablecoin. Its liquidation system, LLAMMA, converts collateral gradually as loan health falls, instead of selling it all at one threshold.

CRV supply and token design

CRV started with an initial supply of about 1.273 billion tokens, around 42% of an eventual total of about 3.03 billion. New CRV is emitted to liquidity providers, with the emission rate reduced by a factor of 2^(1/4), roughly 16%, each August. The maximum is therefore fixed, but it is reached slowly over many years.

Live circulating supply is shown in the market data on this page.

CRV exists on Ethereum and several other networks. The Ethereum contract is 0xd533a949740bb3306d119cc777fa900ba034cd52, and the official token is linked from the Curve site.

Official information is on curve.finance.

What to check before using CRV

• Locked CRV cannot be withdrawn until the lock ends, and a four-year lock is a long commitment.
• Curve pools are used heavily by other protocols, so a problem in a major stablecoin or in an integrated protocol can spread to Curve liquidity.
• Voting power is concentrated in large veCRV positions, which can shape which pools receive emissions.
• Continuing emissions add new supply, which can dilute holders and pressure the market.
• CRV is often used as collateral on lending platforms, and large borrowed positions have caused liquidation stress before.
• Curve contracts have been exploited in the past, so check which pool, version and network you are using.