Liquidity · Pools · CRV
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
$0.2523
-0.8% 24h
Latest data · 15 min delay
Stableswap invariant gives minimal slippage on like-pegged trades; veCRV bribe markets (Convex/Votium) steer emissions.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
~$52M (initial estimate ~$70M)
Halborn - Explained: The Vyper Bug Hack (July 2023)2023-05-03
CoinDesk - Curve Finance Deploys Native Stablecoin on Mainnet~$140M CRV liquidated, ~$10-11.5M bad debt
The Block - Curve founder loan positions liquidationHow Curve Finance maps onto established TradFi structures, and where it diverges.
Money-market fund / FX spot desk for stable assets
Curve Finance
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.
TradFi analogue
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.
Michael Egorov
Founder 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.
Curve DAO (veCRV holders)
Governance 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.
Key milestones: launches, upgrades, exploits and governance events.
StableSwap whitepaper published
ExecutedMichael Egorov published the StableSwap whitepaper introducing the hybrid constant-sum/constant-product invariant that became Curve's core AMM.
SourceCurve protocol launches
ExecutedCurve launched in early 2020, quickly becoming the leading venue for low-slippage stablecoin and wrapped-BTC swaps.
SourceCRV token and Curve DAO launch
ExecutedThe CRV governance token and DAO contracts were deployed in August 2020 (deployed on-chain by an anonymous community member from publicly reviewed code), introducing the veCRV vote-escrow model.
SourcecrvUSD whitepaper and code released
ExecutedCurve released the crvUSD whitepaper and backend repository, detailing the LLAMMA soft-liquidation design ahead of the stablecoin's launch.
SourcecrvUSD deployed on Ethereum mainnet
ExecutedCurve deployed its native overcollateralized stablecoin crvUSD on Ethereum mainnet, initially with a Frax staked-ETH derivative as collateral, with wider public access following in mid-May.
SourceCurve is a decentralized exchange (AMM) optimized for swapping like-pegged assets such as stablecoins and staked-ETH derivatives with minimal slippage and low fees. Liquidity providers earn trading fees plus CRV emissions, and the protocol also issues its own stablecoin, crvUSD.
veCRV is vote-escrowed CRV, obtained by locking CRV for between 1 week and 4 years. Longer locks give more veCRV, which grants governance voting power, boosts LP rewards up to 2.5x, and earns a share of protocol fees. veCRV is non-transferable and decays linearly over the lock period.
crvUSD is Curve's native USD-pegged stablecoin, launched on Ethereum mainnet in May 2023. It is minted against collateral (e.g. ETH, wstETH, WBTC) and uses the LLAMMA mechanism for gradual 'soft liquidations' instead of abrupt liquidation.
Yes. On 2023-07-30 several Curve pools were drained after a reentrancy-protection bug in specific versions of the Vyper compiler (0.2.15, 0.2.16, 0.3.0) broke Curve's non-reentrant locks. Losses were initially estimated near $70M and reduced to roughly $52M after whitehat recovery.
veCRV holders vote each week on 'gauge weights' that decide how CRV emissions are split across liquidity pools. Because emissions attract liquidity, third parties pay veCRV holders ('bribes' or incentives) to vote for their pool's gauge, creating a secondary marketplace around Curve governance (the 'Curve Wars').
