Curve Finance
DEX on Ethereum and EVM chains with Stableswap and Cryptoswap AMMs, plus the crvUSD stablecoin and Llamalend.
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Curve Finance key facts
| Category | Decentralized exchange |
|---|---|
| Chains | Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains |
| Platforms | Web, API |
| Custody | Non-custodial |
| Fees | Stableswap 0.005% to 0.02%; Cryptoswap about 0.05% to 0.4% |
| Security audits | Trail of Bits, MixBytes, Quantstamp, ChainSecurity, StateMind |
| Chains | Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains |
| Token | CRV (lock as veCRV for votes and fee share) |
| US availability | Available: terms restrict only sanctioned jurisdictions |
CRV token
- Price
- $0.2571 -0.3% 24h
- Market cap
- $407.7M
- Fully diluted value
- $625.7M
- 30-day change
- -27.9%
Market data: CoinGecko, updated Nov 10, 2026. Educational content, not financial advice.
What is Curve Finance?
Curve Finance is a decentralized exchange built on Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains. It runs Stableswap pools for pegged assets and Cryptoswap pools for volatile ones. Most Stableswap pools charge 0.005% to 0.02% per trade; Cryptoswap pools range from about 0.05% to 0.4%.
How Curve Finance works
Curve does not match buyers and sellers.
You trade against pools that hold two or more tokens, supplied by liquidity providers, and the Swap Router picks the path. In the docs' example, a 2,000 USDC to crvUSD swap routes through two pools, USDC to USDT and then USDT to crvUSD. Stableswap pools price pegged assets, Cryptoswap and Tricrypto pools price volatile pairs, and FXSwap pools recenter using an oracle. Cryptoswap and all new Stableswap pools use dynamic fees.
Stableswap-NG pools set a base fee with a maximum of 1%, plus an off-peg multiplier that raises the fee when a pool drifts from balance. Twocrypto-NG pools carry a hardcoded 50% admin fee. The code documentation states that 50% of pool fees go to veCRV holders, who lock CRV to vote on gauge weights and emissions.
How to start with Curve Finance
- Go to Curve Swap, click Connect Wallet and pick a network; Ethereum is the default.
- Choose the token to sell and the token to buy, enter an amount and review the quote, which already includes trading fees, the route and your slippage limit (0.03% in the docs' stablecoin example).
- The first time you sell a token you sign an Approve transaction, then a separate Swap transaction.
- Every transaction costs gas on the chosen network.
Curve Finance fees and limits
- Most Stableswap pools charge between 0.005% and 0.02%, and Strategic Reserve pools around 0.001%.
- Cryptoswap pools, which hold volatile assets, charge from about 0.05% up to around 0.4% to cover impermanent loss and rebalancing.
Every swap pays the pool's own fee, and the quote on Curve Swap already includes it. Most current and all new pools use dynamic fees that rise when a swap would push an imbalanced pool further off balance. The admin share of pool fees is collected by a FeeCollector contract, converted through CowSwap orders on Ethereum and Gnosis Chain, and paid to veCRV holders in crvUSD. Network gas comes on top of the pool fee.
Risks to know before using Curve Finance
- Curve pool contracts are immutable and non-custodial, so they cannot be upgraded or paused in an emergency; the early freeze function was deprecated.
- The DAO needs a one-week vote with 51% approval to act.
- A 5-of-9 Emergency Admin multisig can cancel DAO parameter changes and halt CRV emissions to a pool, but cannot touch user funds.
- The risk disclaimer names Trail of Bits, MixBytes, QuantStamp and ChainSecurity as auditors.
- For LPs the main risks listed are a permanent depeg of a pool asset, which leaves LPs holding mostly the failed token, and unvetted tokens in permissionless factory pools.
- Pools that hold lending receipt tokens also carry the risk of the underlying lending protocol.
- Cryptoswap V2 pools only rebalance when earned fees cover the cost, but impermanent loss can still occur when fees fall short of it.
Curve Finance usage
From DefiLlama (TVL) (fees users paid), updated Nov 10, 2026.
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Where Curve Finance ranks on DappAtlas
Listed next to Curve Finance
Curve Finance pros and cons
- Most Stableswap pools charge 0.005% to 0.02%
- Audits by Trail of Bits, MixBytes, Quantstamp and ChainSecurity
- Dynamic fees raise the fee on swaps that unbalance a pool
- Cryptoswap pool fees can reach about 0.4%
- Some pool types are not supported on sidechains or Layer 2 networks
- Pool-by-pool fees make costs harder to compare
Curve Finance FAQ
What is Curve Finance?
Curve Finance is a decentralized exchange built on Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains. It runs Stableswap pools for pegged assets and Cryptoswap pools for volatile ones. Most Stableswap pools charge 0.005% to 0.02% per trade; Cryptoswap pools range from about 0.05% to 0.4%.
How much value is locked in Curve Finance?
$1.3B according to DefiLlama on Nov 10, 2026. It is deployed on 32 chains: Ethereum, Etherlink, Fraxtal, Monad, Base, Arbitrum and others.
How much does Curve Finance cost?
Stableswap 0.005% to 0.02%; Cryptoswap about 0.05% to 0.4%, according to Curve Finance’s own page (checked Sep 26, 2026).
How much do users pay Curve Finance in fees?
$6.3M over the last 30 days, according to DefiLlama on Nov 10, 2026.
Does Curve Finance have a token?
Yes, CRV. Its market cap was $407.7M on CoinGecko on Nov 10, 2026. Educational content, not financial advice.
Is Curve Finance available in the US?
Available: terms restrict only sanctioned jurisdictions, according to Curve Finance’s own page (checked Sep 26, 2026).
Does Curve Finance hold my funds?
No. Curve Finance is non-custodial: you keep your funds in your own wallet and sign each transaction.
Sources
- Curve Finance: official site
- Curve Finance: DEX overview
- Curve Finance: Security Audits
- Curve Finance: What is Curve?
- Curve: Documentation index
- Curve: Legal
- Curve: How to swap
- Curve: Documentation full text (pool contracts and risk disclaimers)
- Curve: Fee collection, burning and distribution
- CoinGecko
- DefiLlama
How this page works
Sources: Curve Finance: official site, Curve Finance: DEX overview, Curve Finance: Security Audits. Data as of Oct 1, 2026.
Not affiliated with any project listed. Educational content, not financial advice.