Curve Finance has introduced Yield Basis as a $60 million initiative to turn CRV into an income-generating asset. The plan would pre-mint 60 million crvUSD to fund three Bitcoin-focused pools and aims to create a steadier revenue stream for veCRV holders while attracting professional traders. A DAO vote expected around Sept. 18, 2025 will shape crvUSD’s path and Curve’s systemic exposure.
Context and influence of Yield Basis
The proposal aims to move beyond reliance on rare airdrops by providing a regular source of income for veCRV participants. According to the presentation, liquidity in the Bitcoin pools is intended to support trading and drive demand for crvUSD, positioning the stablecoin as a central element in Curve’s revenue model.
Yield Basis includes mechanisms to lessen impermanent loss common to AMMs, seeking to reduce risk for participants while deepening liquidity. The plan also foresees pre-accumulating 60 million crvUSD outside the circulating supply, similar to how some PegKeepers operate, according to its supporters.
Design, risks and community debate
Yield Basis would allocate $10 million to each of three pools — wBTC, cbBTC, and tBTC, funded by the pre-minted crvUSD. The DAO is set to vote around Sept. 18, 2025, and the outcome will determine both the program’s launch and the level of systemic exposure taken on by crvUSD and Curve.
Critics highlight the risk of minting a large amount of uncollateralized crvUSD, a concern reflected in Curve’s DeFiScan rating (“Stage 0”), which notes the DAO’s ability to issue crvUSD and control key contracts. Mitigations proposed include pool-specific credit lines with limits and a DAO-managed kill-switch, aiming to constrain risk while enabling market operations.
Security discussions draw on lessons from the June 2025 Resupply exploit, informing calls for additional protections. Community suggestions include a first loss vault as a buffer, a risk fee to compensate the DAO for systemic exposure, full telemetry dashboards, and a staged rollout starting with the wBTC pool to narrow the initial attack surface.
The design envisions Yield Basis as a separate protocol with its own token (YB). Under this structure, crvUSD would bear systemic exposure while a portion of YB emissions flows to Curve to incentivize liquidity in crvUSD/USDC and crvUSD/USDT pairs, raising questions about incentives and how risk is distributed among participants.
- Pre-mint 60 million crvUSD to seed liquidity.
- $10M per pool across wBTC, cbBTC, and tBTC.
- Key risk: uncollateralized crvUSD minting and protocol changes.
- Risk mitigations proposed: first loss vault, risk fee, telemetry, and staged deployment.
- Governance: DAO vote scheduled around Sept. 18, 2025.
Approval could increase crvUSD’s usefulness and attract professional capital, but Curve’s systemic exposure may widen if safeguards are not enacted. Calls for insurance-like buffers, risk fees, and operational limits suggest a negotiation is likely before the vote. The DAO will decide in September whether to adopt Yield Basis as proposed or with stronger risk controls. The resolution will signal Curve’s balance between growing demand for crvUSD and keeping systemic risk in check.
