Yield Basis
Yield Basis is a DeFi protocol on Ethereum, built on Curve Finance by Curve's founder Michael Egorov, that uses leveraged liquidity positions to eliminate impermanent loss for LPs across wrapped BTC and ETH markets. It serves crypto holders seeking native yield without selling their core asset exposure.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2025
- Headquarters—
- Headcount—
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Yield Basis does
Yield Basis is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol built on Curve Finance cryptopools by Curve's founder Michael Egorov, launched in September 2025. It uses a leveraged liquidity position (LT) architecture to eliminate impermanent loss for liquidity providers while maintaining 1:1 price correlation with the underlying asset, currently offering four active yield-bearing markets: tBTC, WBTC, cbBTC, and WETH. Each market provides two vault options — a Yield Bearing Vault earning trading-fee APY from rebalancing activity and a Staked Vault earning YB token emissions — with Hybrid Vaults allowing depositors to supply crvUSD or scrvUSD alongside their BTC/ETH exposure to bypass capacity limits.
The protocol generates revenue through dynamic AMM trading fees (currently ~1.36%–1.58% across active markets), admin fees distributed to veYB lockers, and a 7% APR crvUSD borrowing rate. Governance is conducted via the YB DAO using veYB vote-escrowed tokens (up to 4-year locks) with gauge voting to direct emissions across markets. As of mid-2026, the protocol held ~$122–126M in TVL, processed ~$3.3B in cumulative trading volume, generated $12M in fees in Q1 2026, and accounted for the three largest BTC DEX pools in DeFi ($400M+ combined). A YB token launch was planned via Kraken's Launch platform, and the protocol has executed 50 governance proposals since inception.
Yield Basis firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Yield Basis
- Legal name
- Yield Basis (no formal registered legal entity name disclosed in source material)
- Website
- https://yieldbasis.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2025
- Operating status
- Operating
- Short description
- Yield Basis is a DeFi protocol on Ethereum, built on Curve Finance by Curve's founder Michael Egorov, that uses leveraged liquidity positions to eliminate impermanent loss for LPs across wrapped BTC and ETH markets. It serves crypto holders seeking native yield without selling their core asset exposure.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Yield Basis industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Decentralized Finance Liquidity Protocol
- NAICS
- Securities and Commodity Exchanges (523210)
- SIC
- Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Yield Aggregators & Strategy Vaults (FSADAMAF)
Keywords
Yield Basis business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Operations
Revenue model
- AMM trading fees: Dynamic AMM swap fees on Curve cryptopools backing Yield Basis markets. Fees varied by governance action between 0.91% and 5% for BTC markets, and currently around 1.36%-1.58% for active markets. Generated $12 million in fees from $1.1 billion trading volume in Q1 2026.
- Admin fees distributed to veYB lockers: Admin fees collected from each Leverage Token market and distributed to veYB holders through FeeDistributor. Approximately $450,000 distributed for week ending Dec. 25, 2025.
- crvUSD borrowing fees: Borrow rate charged against crvUSD allocations to Yield Basis markets; borrow rate was set to 7% APR by DAO proposal.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Trading APYs across 4 active yield-bearing markets (tBTC 2.33%, WBTC 3.38%, cbBTC 4.16%, WETH 16.06% FT APY 30D) |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | YB emissions (gauges) rewarding liquidity providers across markets |
| Other | Multi-year contract | veYB lock tiers (1M / 6M / 1Y / 4Y) with veYB APR 18.83% |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels4 records
Yield Basis product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Yield Basis is a DeFi protocol on Curve Finance that lets users deposit wrapped BTC (WBTC, cbBTC, tBTC) or WETH into leveraged liquidity markets to earn trading-fee APY and YB token emissions while maintaining 1:1 exposure to the underlying asset, eliminating impermanent loss. Its Hybrid Vaults module lets depositors pair the underlying asset with crvUSD/scrvUSD to bypass market capacity limits, and governance runs through veYB vote-escrowed locking with on-chain DAO proposals.
Product overview
Yield Basis is a single DeFi protocol on Ethereum, built on Curve Finance cryptopool infrastructure, that eliminates impermanent loss for liquidity providers via leveraged-liquidity positions on a per-asset basis. Its product suite is a platform-plus-modules architecture: the core YB Markets (Earn) product hosts four yield-bearing liquidity pools (tBTC, WBTC, cbBTC, WETH) where depositors choose between a Yield Bearing Vault earning trading-fee APY from rebalancing or a Staked Vault earning YB token emissions. The Hybrid Vaults module extends these markets by accepting crvUSD/scrvUSD alongside the underlying asset to bypass capacity ceilings. Governance is structured around veYB (vote-escrowed YB obtained via the Lock interface), which feeds into YB Gauges (Vote page) for directing emissions and into YB DAO Governance (Govern page) for on-chain parameter changes. YB Airdrop Claim distributes LP Season 1 rewards, and Yield Basis Analytics provides protocol-wide TVL, PPS, APY, and admin-fee dashboards.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- veYB: Vote-escrowed YB token — the governance and revenue-share token obtained by locking YB for 1 week up to 4 years; grants voting power over gauges.
- HybridVaults
Products and services
- YB Markets (Yield Basis Earn) Core yield-bearing liquidity markets on Yield Basis where users deposit wrapped BTC (WBTC, cbBTC, tBTC) or WETH and receive a YB-* LP token that maintains 1:1 price exposure to the underlying asset while earning Trading APY from market rebalancing. Each market offers a Yield Bearing Vault (trading-fee APY) and a Staked Vault (Token APR from YB emissions). Four active markets: tBTC, WBTC, cbBTC (FILLED), and WETH.
- Hybrid Vaults Capacity-extension vault module that lets depositors pair the underlying asset (WBTC, cbBTC, tBTC, or WETH) with crvUSD or scrvUSD (Curve savings vault shares, ~1.20% APY) to bypass the per-market capacity ceiling. Lowered stablecoin_fraction from 55% to 45% to improve capital efficiency.
- veYB (vote-escrowed YB) Locking primitive where users lock YB tokens for 1 week to 4 years to receive non-transferable veYB voting power. Lockers direct YB emissions via gauges and earn a share of protocol revenue through the FeeDistributor (veYB APR ~18.83%).
- YB Gauges Gauge-voting product where veYB holders direct YB token emissions across per-market liquidity gauges (one per active market). 24h YB emissions total ~106K YB across the four active gauges.
- YB DAO Governance On-chain governance system where veYB holders create and vote on executable proposals that control AMM parameters, market creation, fee switches, LTMigrator updates, gauge registration, and stablecoin allocation. 50 proposals executed since DAO inception.
- YB Airdrop Claim Vesting interface where users claim YB tokens airdropped as LP Season 1 rewards. Tokens vest linearly and become claimable over time.
- Yield Basis Analytics Protocol-wide analytics dashboard covering markets, gauges, veYB revenue, locks, PPS (Fundamental and Redemption, plain and staked+emissions), trading APY windows, admin fees, and per-market composition. Total TVL ~$122.05M; collected admin fees ~$3.96M; 8 markets total (4 active plus 4 deprecated).
Quantifiable outcome
- 3 of the largest BTC DEX pools in DeFi, totalling $400M+
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use Yield Basis
Customer profileSegments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Yield Basis technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration2 records
Feature5 records
Yield Basis partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered flagship — built by curve's founder and tightly integrated with curve cryptopools, dao, crvusd stablecoin, and governance infrastructure., core — designated token distribution venue., core — security assurance for v3 deployments. and core — hybrid vaults allow users to deposit scrvusd alongside btc to expand deposit capacity..
- Curve Financeflagship — built by curve's founder and tightly integrated with curve cryptopools, dao, crvusd stablecoin, and governance infrastructure.Yield Basis is built directly on Curve Finance. Founder Michael Egorov also founded Curve Finance. Yield Basis concentrates the largest on-chain BTC liquidity on Curve and contributed materially to Curve capturing ~44% of Ethereum DEX fees. Curve DAO approved a 60M crvUSD credit line and has governance participation over Yield Basis parameters.
- Kraken (Launch platform)core — designated token distribution venue.Token launch for YB was planned through Kraken's Launch platform, per September 2025 reporting by Blockworks.
- Chainsecuritycore — security assurance for v3 deployments.Audited Yield Basis AMM, LT, and Gauge implementations; audits informed the v3 implementation upgrades.
- Statemindcore — security assurance for v3 deployments.Audited Yield Basis AMM, LT, and Gauge implementations; audits informed the v3 implementation upgrades.
- Sherlockscore — security assurance for v3 deployments.Audited Yield Basis AMM, LT, and Gauge implementations; audits informed the v3 implementation upgrades.
- Curve Savings Vault (scrvUSD)core — hybrid vaults allow users to deposit scrvusd alongside btc to expand deposit capacity.Hybrid Vaults permit scrvUSD to be deposited alongside base assets (tBTC, WBTC, cbBTC, WETH), bypassing market capacity limits; scrvUSD APY is the yield source for the stablecoin leg of hybrid deposits.
Scale indicators11 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Yield Basis competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Convex Finance: Convex is a yield-optimization and vote-escrowed governance layer on top of Curve (similar position to veYB for Yield Basis). Both aggregate Curve LP positions, distribute emissions, and compete for the same Curve-LP capital base.
- Pendle Finance: Pendle tokenizes and trades yield separately from principal across DeFi markets. Like Yield Basis, it is building yield-infrastructure primitives for DeFi and addresses the same pool of yield-seeking BTC/ETH holders.
- Curve Finance: Yield Basis is built directly on Curve Finance cryptopools by Curve's founder Michael Egorov. They share infrastructure, governance, and a stablecoin (crvUSD); Curve is the AMM layer while Yield Basis is the leveraged-LP layer on top.
- Beefy Finance: Beefy is a multi-chain yield optimizer that auto-compounds returns across DeFi vaults. It targets the same end user (LP yield maximizers) and deploys strategies across Curve and other AMMs where Yield Basis operates.
- Yearn Finance: Yearn is the original DeFi yield aggregator and vault operator, deploying strategies across lending and AMM protocols. Yield Basis is a more specialized strategy-vault product focused on leveraged BTC/ETH LP positions.
Emerging players
- Equilibria Finance: Equilibria is a smaller Pendle-ecosystem yield-vault platform targeting BTC/ETH LP strategies. It competes for a similar niche of yield-seeking BTC/ETH capital with overlapping token-incentive mechanics.
- Stake DAO: Stake DAO is a Curve-ecosystem yield aggregator with vote-escrowed governance (veSDT), closely analogous to Yield Basis's veYB model. Both build governance-and-yield layers on top of Curve liquidity.
Broad incumbents
- Balancer: Balancer is a major AMM with boosted-yield and liquidity-mining features that competes for BTC and ETH liquidity. While not Curve-based, it serves the same BTC/ETH LP market that Yield Basis is concentrating.
- Frax Finance: Frax is a DeFi protocol suite spanning a stablecoin (frxUSD), AMM (Fraxswap), and Curve-derivative liquid staking (frxETH). It shares the Curve ecosystem with Yield Basis and competes for the same stablecoin-backed yield market.
- Sky (formerly MakerDAO): Sky/MakerDAO issues the DAI/sDAI savings product that competes with scrvUSD for stablecoin idle-balance yield - a market Yield Basis Hybrid Vaults targets directly via the crvUSD/scrvUSD integration.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Yield Basis social profiles
Digital presenceYield Basis financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Yield Basis leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Yield Basis funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Yield Basis M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Yield Basis
What does Yield Basis do?
Yield Basis is a DeFi protocol on Curve Finance that lets users deposit wrapped BTC (WBTC, cbBTC, tBTC) or WETH into leveraged liquidity markets to earn trading-fee APY and YB token emissions while maintaining 1:1 exposure to the underlying asset, eliminating impermanent loss. Its Hybrid Vaults module lets depositors pair the underlying asset with crvUSD/scrvUSD to bypass market capacity limits, and governance runs through veYB vote-escrowed locking with on-chain DAO proposals.
Is Yield Basis a public or private company?
Yield Basis is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Yield Basis founded?
Yield Basis was founded in 2025.
How does Yield Basis make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. AMM trading fees are the primary driver. The others are admin fees distributed to veYB lockers and crvUSD borrowing fees.
Who are Yield Basis's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Convex Finance, Pendle Finance, Curve Finance, Beefy Finance and Yearn Finance. Emerging players are Equilibria Finance and Stake DAO. Broad incumbents are Balancer, Frax Finance and Sky (formerly MakerDAO).
Does Yield Basis have an API?
No public API is recorded for Yield Basis.
What industry is Yield Basis in?
Yield Basis's product category is Decentralized Finance Liquidity Protocol. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSADAMAF, Yield Aggregators & Strategy Vaults. Its NAICS code is 523210 and its SIC code is 6200.