Curve Finance

Liquidity · Pools · CRV

NetworkLiquidityPoolsStable-Poolsve-TokenomicsMulti-Chain2 coinsVerified

Curve's stableswap invariant is optimized for trades between like-pegged assets (stablecoins, LSTs). It pioneered vote-escrow tokenomics where governance power is bought with locked CRV (veCRV).

Stableswap AMM optimized for like-pegged assets.

CRV price

$0.2062

+0.6% 24h

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Research

Components, facts, FAQ, timeline, and tokenomics in one place

Main components (6)

StableSwap AMM

Curve's core exchange invariant, combining a constant-sum and constant-product market maker so like-pegged assets (e.g. stablecoins, staked-ETH derivatives) trade with very low slippage near the peg. Introduced in Michael Egorov's 2019 StableSwap whitepaper.

Curve v2 (CryptoSwap / Tricrypto)

A generalized invariant with internal price oracles that concentrates liquidity around a dynamically adjusted price, enabling low-slippage swaps between non-pegged, volatile assets (e.g. the Tricrypto USDT/WBTC/ETH pool).

CRV token & veCRV vote-escrow

CRV is the governance and emissions token. Locking CRV for up to 4 years mints non-transferable veCRV, which grants governance voting power, boosts LP rewards up to 2.5x, and earns a share of protocol fees. veCRV pioneered the 've-tokenomics' model widely copied across DeFi.

Gauge system & CRV emissions

Liquidity gauges measure LP participation; veCRV holders vote weekly to direct CRV emissions across gauges. This created a 'gauge/bribe economy' where protocols incentivize votes to attract liquidity to their pools.

crvUSD stablecoin

Curve's native overcollateralized USD stablecoin, deployed on Ethereum mainnet on 2023-05-03. Users mint crvUSD against collateral such as ETH, wstETH, WBTC, sfrxETH and tBTC.

LLAMMA (Lending-Liquidating AMM Algorithm)

The liquidation engine behind crvUSD. Rather than liquidating collateral all at once, LLAMMA continuously converts collateral into crvUSD across price bands ('soft liquidation'), reducing the risk of abrupt, total liquidation.

Differentiator

Stableswap invariant gives minimal slippage on like-pegged trades; veCRV bribe markets (Convex/Votium) steer emissions.

Organizational structure

Units & roles

Michael Egorov
Russian-born physicist and entrepreneur who authored the 2019 StableSwap whitepaper and founded Curve. Previously co-founded NuCypher. Central figure in Curve's development and in the June 2024 personal-loan liquidation event.
Founder
Curve DAO (veCRV holders)
On-chain governance is controlled by veCRV holders, who vote on parameter changes, gauge weights, new pool deployments and treasury actions. The CRV token and DAO contracts were deployed in August 2020 via publicly reviewed code.
Governance

Similarity to traditional finance products

How Curve Finance maps onto established TradFi structures, and where it diverges.

TradFi product	Similarity to Curve Finance	Key differences
Money-market fund / FX spot desk for stable assets	Like an FX or money-market desk, Curve provides deep, low-slippage liquidity for swapping between closely-priced instruments (e.g. different USD stablecoins), earning a spread/fee on flow.	Curve is a non-custodial, permissionless smart-contract protocol with no market maker or intermediary; liquidity is pooled from users, pricing is algorithmic, and there is no KYC, settlement counterparty, or central operator.