About

Curve Finance operates as a decentralized exchange and automated market maker, primarily on the Ethereum blockchain and compatible EVM sidechains/L2s. It specializes in efficient trading of stablecoins and volatile assets. Curve has also introduced its own over-collateralized USD stablecoin, crvUSD, powered by a unique liquidation mechanism. The platform offers APIs for various Curve pool properties and supports permissionless deployment of liquidity pools.

History

The Curve protocol was built around stablecoin liquidity in order to provide steadier interest returns without having to hold a very volatile asset. Since its inception, Curve has been a top DEX by volume, offering traders ample liquidity at low fees and slippage. Currently, Curve has over 33 different liquidity pools that provide varying and changing returns depending on the weights of assets in the pool and their performance.

Curve Finance began with the publication of Michael Egorov’s StableSwap Whitepaper in November 2019. The StableSwap whitepaper details the foundations of what eventually became Curve Finance protocol, which launched two months later in January 2020.

A key part of Curve’s infrastructure is the CurveDAO. The CurveDAO is an Aragon-based Decentralized Autonomous Organization that controls Curve Finance. Votes are weighted by both the number of votes and the time of the vote – earlier time-locked votes are worth more. The DAO is governed by CRV (an ERC-20 token), Curve's native governance token which launched in August of 2020. The launch of the CRV token led to a surge of volume and helped Curve hit over $1 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL) for the first time.

Curve aims to help liquidity providers maximize return while also minimizing trader fees, reducing price slippage, mitigate risk, and provide ample liquidity. It accomplishes this via unique tech and partnerships with other popular DeFi applications like Compound and Yearn Finance.