CRV
Curve · Stableswap DEX + crvUSD
Score qualifies for T3; held by Value engine 1.5 (needs 2).
Key facts
- Circulating 1.58B, 52%
- Locked or unvested 847.4M, 28%
- Not yet issued 601.9M, 20%
- Max 3.03B
Market data: CoinGecko, Oct 24, 2026. Scores reviewed Oct 23, 2026.
Assessment
Curve runs the oldest fee plumbing in DeFi: half of pool fees and ~80% of crvUSD mint interest are paid to veCRV, but that is only ~$5.5-6.5M a year at the Jul 2026 run-rate. Emissions of ~97.2M CRV a year (~4.0%) are hard-coded under a 3.03B cap and cut 15.9% every August. Insiders took ~47% of CRV issued with no public sale, though their vesting ended in 2024. Pools are immutable and DAO changes pass a 7-day veCRV vote; a Jul 30, 2023 exploit drained ~$70M. Scale holds it back: emissions run ~5-6x distributions, and part of crvUSD interest rests on a 300M credit line to the founder's Yield Basis.
How value reaches holders
Running since 2020: 50% of all pool fees (the DAO-set admin fee) and ~80% of crvUSD mint interest are converted to crvUSD and paid pro-rata to veCRV every Thursday, permissionlessly; claims never expire. ~$5.5-6.5M/yr at the Jul 2026 run-rate ($105K/week) vs ~$33M/yr of emissions (Epoch 6: 97.2M CRV/yr after the hard-coded Aug 2026 cut of 15.9%). 850.8M CRV locked (~55% of circulating)
Score anatomy
Demand
15 / 45: the stronger of two routes, plus adoptionWhy would anyone hold it: does value reach the token, and is the network or product used today?
Plumbing at 50%+, or 100% via contract but governance-revocable
$5-25M/yr
veCRV locks are excluded; CRV collateral sits mainly in Curve's own LlamaLend (~$2.9M crvUSD borrowed against it), and third-party venues hold ~$0.3M.
Trading onlymedium confidenceHow this is scored
Curve volume $69B TTM (2% share), -37% YoY and 30d -79% YoY; fees $59M TTM (+6%) held up by crvUSD interest; niche next to Uniswap
Niche: real but small use, far behind its category leadersmedium confidenceHow this is scored
Two routes, the stronger counts
Soundness
22 / 40Can a long-term holder trust the rules: supply, float, distribution and control?
~97.2M CRV/yr (~4.0% of 2.43B) under the coded 3.03B cap, cut 15.9% every August; the rate is hard-coded in the token and no admin can change it.
1-3%/yr on a published curve, or 3-7%/yr under a hard cap with halvingshigh confidenceHow this is scored
Team and investor vesting ended in 2024; non-circulating CRV is user veCRV locks, and new supply comes only from emissions, scored under supply.
Fully vested, no scheduled unlockshigh confidenceHow this is scored
Shareholders (team and investors) 30%, employees 3%, community reserve 5% of the cap: 1.15B, ~47% of the ~2.43B CRV issued; 5% early-user airdrop and LP emissions; no public sale
Insiders received 25-50%, or one organization directs 10-30%high confidenceHow this is scored
Curve pools are immutable and DAO changes pass a 7-day on-chain veCRV vote via the ownership agent; the Emergency DAO can only kill gauges or young pools; Ethereum base (5); no core exploit since Jul 2023
Attack cost $100M-1B with the top entity under 35%, or contracts immutable or upgradeable only by on-chain vote with a 7+ day exit window on a base layer scoring 4+medium confidenceHow this is scored
Durability
7 / 15Is it big, proven and reachable by institutions?
$568.6M market cap (band 3), $71.3M/day median volume (band 4), no flags.
Mid-cap: $250M-1B market cap and $10M/day+How this is scored
6.2 years old (Aug 2020), but the Jul 30, 2023 Vyper reentrancy exploit drained ~$70M from Curve pools: a $50M+ exploit inside 5 years.
3-5 years, or a rollback, coordinated chain-wide halt or restart, or a $50M+ exploit in the last 5 yearshigh confidenceHow this is scored
Valour Curve DAO ETP in Europe; no US spot filing found; spot on major exchanges.
OTC trust, non-US product, or a pending US filinghigh confidenceHow this is scored
What would move it up
To reach T3 Mixed, one gate is still open:
- Value engine 1.5needs 2(open)
- Score 44gate 40(met)
- Adoption 2gate 2(met)
- Supply 3gate 1(met)
Tier outlook · next trigger Jul 30, 2028
Stable
- Revenue reaches the $25-100M band only if veCRV distributions pass $25M a year (~$5.5-6.5M at the Jul 2026 run-rate)
- Revenue and the crvUSD peg both depend on repayment of the 300M crvUSD credit line to Yield Basis
- Supply eases with the next hard-coded 15.9% emission cut in Aug 2027
- Track record rises once the Jul 30, 2023 exploit leaves the 5-year window on Jul 30, 2028
Compare with
How the ranking works and how CRV compares: see the full ranking. This entry as JSON:
GET https://tokens.10102.io/api/v1/tokenomics?symbol=CRV