Curve Finance
Curve Finance is a decentralized exchange where users swap crypto assets through automated liquidity pools. Curve Finance is known for pools designed for stablecoins and other assets with closely related values, and also offers lending through Llamalend.
Traders use Curve Finance to exchange tokens, while liquidity providers deposit assets that make those swaps possible and can earn trading fees. The pools let users trade through smart contracts instead of matching each transaction with an individual counterparty. Prices can move away from their expected relationship, and smart contract failures or losses remain possible.
StableSwap: pools for assets of the same value
Curve launched in 2020 as StableSwap, which its designer described as a fully autonomous market maker for stablecoins with very low price fluctuation, as quoted by BTC-ECHO. A constant product pool such as those of Uniswap moves the price with every trade. A StableSwap pool keeps the price nearly flat while its reserves are balanced. For two dollar stablecoins, or two euro tokens, a swap of a large amount stays close to one to one.
That makes Curve a settlement venue for stablecoin conversions, the payments use described on the decentralized exchange page. The Swiss franc stablecoin Frankencoin trades on Curve and Uniswap, and the euro stablecoins page covers the euro tokens a treasurer can hold.
crvUSD, Llamalend and veCRV
Curve also issues its own dollar stablecoin. crvUSD is overcollateralized: a borrower deposits crypto collateral and mints crvUSD against it, and a mechanism called LLAMMA sells collateral gradually as its price falls, which avoids a single hard liquidation, as The Block reported on the whitepaper. The contracts went live on Ethereum in 2023, according to Decrypt. Llamalend applies the same design to lending markets for other assets.
Holders of the governance token CRV can lock it as veCRV, which gives voting rights over the protocol and over which pools receive CRV rewards. Under MiCA, a dollar stablecoin offered to EU clients by an issuer needs a license as a bank or e-money institution; the e-money tokens page explains the rule and MakerDAO and Sky covers another crypto-backed dollar.
The July 2023 exploit
The joint report of the EBA and ESMA on recent developments in crypto-assets lists the attack on Curve Finance in July 2023, in which 73.5 million dollars were stolen. For a firm that routes payments through a DEX, the case is a reminder to assess the contracts of each pool it uses and to cap the amount held in one pool. The DeFi risks page covers the controls.
Upcoming DeFi and stablecoin events in Germany
Curve and the Finance Loop network
Finance Loop has a long-term partnership with BTC-ECHO, the Bitcoin and blockchain media platform in the DACH region whose academy explains Curve. Decentralized exchanges were the subject of the DEX vs CEX panel at the German Blockchain & AI Week 2025 in Berlin, which Finance Loop supported.
Payments & Digital Money
Investment & Digital Assets
What is Curve Finance?
Curve Finance is a decentralized exchange and lending protocol on Ethereum and other chains. Pools from Curve Finance are designed for swaps between assets of similar value, such as stablecoins of the same currency.
How is Curve different from Uniswap?
Uniswap prices most pools with the constant product formula, so the price moves with every trade. StableSwap pools from Curve keep the price nearly flat while the reserves are balanced, which suits stablecoin swaps. The Uniswap page describes its pools.
What is crvUSD?
crvUSD is the overcollateralized dollar stablecoin from Curve, which borrowers mint against crypto collateral, and the LLAMMA mechanism sells collateral gradually when its price falls.
What is veCRV?
veCRV is CRV locked for voting, allowing holders to vote on protocol changes and on which pools receive CRV rewards.
Curve Finance and Finance Loop
Finance Loop covers Curve in its Payments & Digital Money track, where stablecoins are converted and settled, and in Investment & Digital Assets. Finance Loop works with BTC-ECHO on crypto assets, DeFi and Web3 in the German-speaking countries.
Finance Loop is a professional network supporting the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.