Curve DAO

Curve DAO generated $398.0M in gross revenue from Jan 2020 to Mar 2026 (2276 days), with $177.6M retained as net revenue. $131.4M accrued to CRV token holders. Its primary token utilities include Staking Rewards, Staking Access, Other, and Vote Escrow.

This averages $$174.9K in daily gross revenue across the tracked period.

CRV accrues value through 2 mechanisms: Direct Revenue Share and Other.

• Direct Revenue Share: 50% of all trading fees and 80% of crvUSD interest fees are collected, converted to crvUSD, and distributed weekly to veCRV holders proportional to their voting power. Users must hold veCRV (locked CRV) to be eligible.
• Other: In June 2025, Curve DAO voted to allocate 10% of ongoing DAO revenue to a newly established Treasury reserve under direct DAO governance control, retaining protocol revenue on the balance sheet rather than distributing 100% to veCRV holders.

No, Curve DAO does not currently burn CRV tokens. The protocol does not employ a buy-back-and-burn or direct token burn mechanism.

CRV serves 4 primary functions within the Curve DAO ecosystem: Staking Rewards, Staking Access, Other, and Vote Escrow. The protocol generates fees from user activity, with a portion distributed back to CRV holders. Value flows back to token holders through Direct Revenue Share and Other.

Token utilities:

• Staking Rewards: veCRV holders earn a share of 50% of all trading fees and 80% of crvUSD interest fees, distributed weekly in crvUSD proportional to their voting power balance.
• Staking Access: Locking CRV into veCRV is required to unlock features including governance voting, gauge weight voting to direct emissions, boosting CRV rewards up to 2.5x, and creating governance proposals (requires 2,500 veCRV minimum).
• Other: veCRV holders can boost their CRV liquidity mining rewards by up to 2.5x based on their veCRV balance relative to their liquidity position, using a continuous formula rather than discrete tiers.
• Vote Escrow: CRV is locked for 1 week to 4 years to receive veCRV voting power; longer locks grant more weight (1 CRV locked 4 years = 1 veCRV, 1 year = 0.25 veCRV), with linear decay over time. veCRV holders vote on governance proposals and weekly gauge weight allocations.

Value accrual mechanisms:

• Direct Revenue Share: 50% of all trading fees and 80% of crvUSD interest fees are collected, converted to crvUSD, and distributed weekly to veCRV holders proportional to their voting power. Users must hold veCRV (locked CRV) to be eligible.
• Other: In June 2025, Curve DAO voted to allocate 10% of ongoing DAO revenue to a newly established Treasury reserve under direct DAO governance control, retaining protocol revenue on the balance sheet rather than distributing 100% to veCRV holders.

Read our deep dive: Curve DAO tokenomics analysis.

In 2026, Curve DAO generated $15.1M in gross revenue. Of that, $2.0M was distributed to token holders, $215.8K was retained as protocol revenue (treasury), $12.9M went to supply-side participants (e.g. liquidity providers).

Year-by-year revenue breakdown:

• 2026: $15.1M gross revenue — $2.0M to holders, $215.8K to protocol, $12.9M to supply-side
• 2025: $47.4M gross revenue — $13.6M to holders, $199.0K to protocol, $33.5M to supply-side
• 2024: $65.2M gross revenue — $27.0M to holders, $38.2M to supply-side

Curve DAO's gross revenue has decreased by 33.9% over the past 90 days compared to the prior 90-day period, from $23.6M to $15.6M.

• Recent 90d daily average: $175.4K/day
• Prior 90d daily average: $262.4K/day