Compound
Compound is a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol operated by Compound Labs, Inc., enabling permissionless supply and borrow of crypto assets across 28 markets on 10 blockchains. The protocol is governed by COMP token holders and serves retail lenders, DeFi traders, developer integrators, and institutional allocators via custody partners.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2017
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Compound does
Compound is a decentralized finance (DeFi) lending and borrowing protocol operated by Compound Labs, Inc., a US-incorporated corporation headquartered in San Francisco. The protocol enables permissionless supply and borrowing of crypto assets across 28 markets deployed on 10 blockchain networks — Ethereum mainnet alongside Layer-2 and alternative-L1 deployments on Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Polygon, Mantle, Linea, Scroll, Unichain, and Ronin. Its users comprise self-custodied retail lenders and borrowers seeking yield on idle crypto holdings, active DeFi traders executing leveraged positions and arbitrage strategies, developer teams integrating Compound as a money-market primitive, and institutional allocators accessing the protocol indirectly through qualified custodians including Coinbase Custody, Anchorage, Fireblocks, and Bitgo.
The protocol operates two production codebases: Compound II (V2), the original Ethereum-pooled market design using cTokens, and Compound III (V3), the current flagship offering isolated, gas-efficient lending markets where each collateral asset is deployed as a separate market with its own risk parameters, reducing cross-asset contagion relative to pooled architectures. Interest rates are set algorithmically via per-market utilization curves without human pricing intervention; the codebase is formally verified and audited by multiple independent security firms, with a publicly listed $1,000,000 Immunefi bug bounty. Compound integrates with over 25 channel partners spanning custodians, hardware and software wallets, major exchanges, and aggregator interfaces, and the entire ecosystem is governed by the COMP ERC-20 token via the Tally dashboard and comp.xyz forum.
Monetization flows through the protocol's reserve factor — a configurable portion of borrower interest that accrues to on-chain protocol reserves rather than directly to a corporate entity, with parameters set via COMP token governance. The protocol does not have a conventional SaaS revenue stream; rather, Compound Labs raised $4 million in equity funding in June 2023 specifically to develop regulated financial products on blockchain rails. Pricing is usage-based with no subscription: borrowers pay per-market variable APYs (e.g., 0.12% on USDC, 0.13% on USDT, 0.16% on ETH on Compound III Ethereum) and lenders earn supply APYs as a fraction of borrow APYs after the reserve factor.
Compound firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Compound
- Legal name
- Compound Labs, Inc.
- Website
- https://compound.finance
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2017
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Compound is a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol operated by Compound Labs, Inc., enabling permissionless supply and borrow of crypto assets across 28 markets on 10 blockchains. The protocol is governed by COMP token holders and serves retail lenders, DeFi traders, developer integrators, and institutional allocators via custody partners.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Compound industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Decentralized Finance Lending Protocol
- NAICS
- Securities and Commodity Exchanges (523210)
- SIC
- Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Decentralized Lending Protocols (DeFi Money Markets) (FSADAFAB)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Lending Protocol Infrastructure (Oracles, Rate Models, Vaults) (FSADAFAN)
Keywords
Where Compound is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Compound business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Protocol Reserve Factor (Interest Spread): Compound protocol retains a configurable reserve factor — a portion of interest paid by borrowers — which accrues to protocol reserves rather than directly to a corporate entity. Distribution parameters are set via COMP governance. As a decentralized protocol, Compound does not have a conventional SaaS revenue stream; monetization flows are governed on-chain.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Algorithmically set per-market supply and borrow interest rates, no flat subscription fee |
Go-to-market motion4 records
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels7 records
Compound product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Compound operates a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol on Ethereum, deployed across 10 EVM-compatible networks (Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Polygon, Mantle, Linea, Scroll, Unichain, Ronin). Users supply crypto assets (USDC, USDT, ETH, WBTC, wstETH, USDS, and others) to earn algorithmically-set variable interest, or borrow against on-chain collateral via smart contracts without intermediaries. The protocol is community-governed through the COMP ERC-20 token and is offered through two production versions—Compound II (V2) on Ethereum mainnet and Compound III (V3) deployed across multiple chains with isolated-market architecture.
Product overview
Compound is a decentralized finance (DeFi) lending and borrowing protocol offered as a platform-plus-modules architecture built on Ethereum and deployed across multiple EVM-compatible chains. Its current flagship is Compound III (V3), which provides isolated lending markets across 28 markets on chains including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Polygon, Mantle, Linea, Unichain, Scroll, and Ronin, while the legacy Compound II (V2) continues to operate on Ethereum mainnet under the cToken pooled-market model. The ecosystem is governed by the COMP ERC-20 token through the Compound Governance Dashboard (on Tally), which oversees all protocol changes. Users access the protocol through the Compound App (app.compound.finance) for supply/borrow/rewards activity, supported by a wide range of community-built interfaces, wallets, custodians, and tax tools listed on the homepage.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Compound II: Compound II is the V2 protocol version of Compound — the original Ethereum-based lending and borrowing protocol with algorithmic interest rates.
- Compound III
Products and services
- Compound III (V3) Current flagship version of the protocol offering isolated, gas-efficient lending and borrowing markets deployed across 10 EVM-compatible chains (Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Polygon, Mantle, Linea, Scroll, Unichain, Ronin) with 28 active markets supporting USDC, USDT, ETH, WBTC, wstETH, USDS, USDe, AERO, WRON, and other collateral assets.
- Compound II (V2) Original pooled-market version of the Compound protocol, still live on Ethereum mainnet, providing lending markets for ETH, USDC, USDT, and other assets using the cToken model.
- COMP Governance Token ERC-20 asset that empowers community governance of the Compound protocol; holders and their delegates debate, propose, and vote on all changes to the protocol and receive daily COMP distributions (approximately 1,467 COMP daily, 4,504,930 COMP total distributed) when supplying or borrowing in enabled markets.
- Compound App (Markets Interface)
Companies that use Compound
Customer profileSegments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Compound technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration25 records
Feature5 records
Compound partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
17 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.
- Coinbase CustodyflagshipInstitutional-grade custody provider offering secure custody for COMP and cTokens, with native support for Compound governance. Listed as a primary institutional integration on Compound's homepage.
- AnchoragecoreQualified custodian providing safe crypto custody with trading, staking, and Compound governance support. Featured in Compound's institutional integration section.
- FireblockscoreInstitutional custody and operations platform allowing safe movement of assets between exchanges, wallets, and Compound.
- BitgocoreFull-service crypto custodian supporting both cTokens and COMP, enabling institutional access to Compound markets.
- LedgercoreHardware wallet integration allowing users to access Compound directly from Ledger's secure environment via its "Lend" product.
- OKXcoreMajor cryptocurrency exchange integrating Compound so users can earn interest and borrow assets through OKX Web3 Earn.
- PoolTogetherminorNo-loss lottery protocol built on top of Compound, using interest earned in Compound markets as prize funds.
- BinancecoreWorld's largest crypto exchange offers DeFi staking products powered by Compound.
- Crypto.comcoreCrypto.com DeFi wallet has a native integration that lets users interact with Compound.
- TokentaxminorCryptocurrency tax and accounting software used by Compound users to track protocol activity.
- CointrackerminorPortfolio tracker and tax calculator that supports importing Compound activity.
- Compound AcademyminorEducation platform elevating user knowledge of Compound III.
- Aave LabsflagshipCo-author and lead of the cross-protocol "DeFi United" recovery coalition formed after the April 2026 Kelp DAO rsETH bridge exploit. Compound proposed contributing 1,900–3,000 ETH (up to $6.9M) to the rsETH recovery fund; the two protocols also co-authored the Arbitrum DAO AIP to release 30,765.67 ETH from the Security Council.
- KelpDAOflagshipCo-signer on the joint Arbitrum DAO proposal and DeFi United recovery coalition following the Kelp DAO rsETH exploit; Aave, KelpDAO and Certora hold the 2-of-3 Gnosis Safe that would custody the recovered ETH.
- LayerZerocoreCross-chain interoperability protocol co-signing the DeFi United recovery proposal after the LayerZero-bridged rsETH exploit.
- EtherFicoreLiquid restaking protocol co-signing the DeFi United recovery proposal; also pledged ether toward the recovery fund subject to governance vote.
- Certora
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Compound competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Aave: Aave is the largest decentralized lending and borrowing protocol on Ethereum, offering algorithmic, pool-based money markets with variable and stable rates. It is Compound's closest direct competitor in product, customer base (DeFi lenders/borrowers), and multi-chain footprint, and is consistently cited alongside Compound as the top DeFi lending benchmark.
- MakerDAO (Sky): MakerDAO/Sky operates a CDP-based lending protocol allowing users to mint DAI/USDS against crypto collateral. It directly competes with Compound for crypto-collateralized borrowing demand and is grouped with Compound as a surviving blue-chip DeFi protocol in industry analyses.
- Spark (Sky Lending): Spark, built by the Sky/MakerDAO ecosystem, is a direct lending competitor that targets sDAI/USDS depositors and DAI borrowers. It overlaps with Compound's stablecoin lending market and is part of the same DeFi United coalition post the April 2026 rsETH exploit.
- Liquity: Liquity is a decentralized borrowing protocol that lets users draw interest-free loans against ETH collateral. It competes with Compound's ETH borrowing market and is consistently grouped with Compound, Aave, and MakerDAO as a reference DeFi lending protocol.
Emerging players
- Morpho: Morpho is an emerging lending optimizer that builds directly on top of Compound (via Compound Blue) and Aave markets to improve lender/borrower spreads. It overlaps with Compound on customer base and is partially additive (routing volume through Compound) but also a potential disintermediation risk.
- Silo Finance: Silo Finance is a fully isolated lending primitive on Ethereum that mirrors Compound III's isolated-market design philosophy. It targets the same DeFi lending segment and competes for new asset listings and integrations, particularly on Ethereum mainnet.
- Euler: Euler is an Ethereum-based permissionless lending protocol with a modular, isolated-market architecture. It is comparable to Compound III on product design (isolated markets, multi-chain deployment via Euler V2) and competes for both lenders and integrator relationships.
- Radiant: Radiant is a cross-chain money market protocol (Arbitrum, BNB Chain, Ethereum) that pools lending liquidity across chains. It is comparable to Compound on product (lend/borrow against crypto) and competes for the same multi-chain DeFi user base.
Broad incumbents
- Curve Finance: Curve is a blue-chip DeFi DEX and stablecoin liquidity protocol. While not a direct lending competitor, it shares the same Ethereum DeFi user base, COMP-style governance token model, and is consistently cited alongside Compound as a surviving top-tier DeFi protocol.
- Yearn Finance: Yearn is a yield-aggregator protocol that historically routes deposits through Compound markets to generate yield. It is adjacent rather than directly competitive, but is part of the same DeFi lending ecosystem and shares blue-chip protocol status.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Compound social profiles
Digital presenceCompound financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Compound leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Compound funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds5 records
Investors27 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Compound M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments2 records
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Compound
What does Compound do?
Compound operates a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol on Ethereum, deployed across 10 EVM-compatible networks (Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Polygon, Mantle, Linea, Scroll, Unichain, Ronin). Users supply crypto assets (USDC, USDT, ETH, WBTC, wstETH, USDS, and others) to earn algorithmically-set variable interest, or borrow against on-chain collateral via smart contracts without intermediaries. The protocol is community-governed through the COMP ERC-20 token and is offered through two production versions—Compound II (V2) on Ethereum mainnet and Compound III (V3) deployed across multiple chains with isolated-market architecture.
Is Compound a public or private company?
Compound is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Compound founded?
Compound was founded in 2017. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Compound based?
Compound is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Compound make money?
One revenue line is on record: protocol Reserve Factor (Interest Spread).
Who are Compound's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Aave, MakerDAO (Sky), Spark (Sky Lending) and Liquity. Emerging players are Morpho, Silo Finance, Euler and Radiant. Broad incumbents are Curve Finance and Yearn Finance.
Does Compound have an API?
No public API is recorded for Compound.
What industry is Compound in?
Compound's product category is Decentralized Finance Lending Protocol. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSADAFAB, Decentralized Lending Protocols (DeFi Money Markets), with a secondary code of FSADAFAN, Lending Protocol Infrastructure (Oracles, Rate Models, Vaults). Its NAICS code is 523210 and its SIC code is 6200.