Swap crvUSD at the Best Rate

What is crvUSD?

crvUSD is a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by the smart contracts of Curve, the exchange protocol best known for its stableswap pools. It is not backed by bank deposits: every crvUSD in circulation was minted by a borrower who locked crypto collateral worth more than the debt into a Curve mint market, and it is burned when the loan is repaid.

The system went live in May 2023, with the token contract deployed on Ethereum on 14 May 2023. Minting happens only on Ethereum; versions on other networks, including the Arbitrum token this page lists, are carried over each chain's official bridge and documented by Curve.

How crvUSD works

Each collateral type has its own market with two core contracts. The Controller records debt and lets borrowers open, adjust and repay loans. LLAMMA, the market's automated market maker, holds the collateral and performs the protocol's signature trick: it spreads collateral across price bands and lets arbitrage convert it gradually into crvUSD as the price falls, then back into collateral if the price recovers. Curve calls this soft liquidation and de-liquidation; a position is hard liquidated only if its health keeps deteriorating.

The peg has two supports. PegKeeper contracts hold an allocation of crvUSD that they deposit into or withdraw from stableswap pools as the market price strays from a dollar, and the interest rate borrowers pay adjusts automatically with the peg deviation and the PegKeepers' debt, tightening supply when crvUSD trades weak and easing when it trades strong.

crvUSD supply and tokenomics

crvUSD has no fixed supply and no emission schedule: the amount outstanding equals the debt borrowers currently carry. Each market has a governance-set debt ceiling, and adding a new collateral type requires a DAO vote, so what backs the stablecoin is a running series of on-chain decisions. Collateral has centered on ETH, liquid staking tokens such as wstETH, and wrapped bitcoin variants.

Borrower interest is protocol revenue. Since late 2024 a governance-set share of it can flow to scrvUSD, a savings vault that pays crvUSD depositors, with the remainder accruing to the Curve DAO.

Who builds crvUSD

Curve was created by Michael Egorov, a physicist by training, and launched in January 2020. crvUSD is the protocol's own stablecoin: its design paper was published by the Curve team in late 2022, the contracts are written mostly in Vyper, and the code is public on GitHub. Control over live parameters sits with the Curve DAO rather than with the company or founder.

How crvUSD is governed

crvUSD is governed by the Curve DAO. Voting power comes from veCRV, which is CRV locked for up to four years, and passing votes execute on-chain. The DAO approves each collateral market, sets debt ceilings and rate policy parameters, allocates PegKeeper budgets, and directs protocol fees.

That makes crvUSD's backing a governed portfolio rather than a fixed rule: what can be borrowed against, and how much, changes as proposals pass. The debates are public on Curve's governance forum before anything reaches a vote.

What people use crvUSD for

crvUSD works as a borrowing instrument and as dollar liquidity inside DeFi. Borrowers mint it to raise dollars without selling their ETH or bitcoin exposure, traders use it as a quote asset in Curve pools, and holders can deposit it into scrvUSD for a share of protocol revenue or supply it to Curve's lending markets.

crvUSD risks and considerations

Soft liquidation is gentler than a forced sale but not free. While a position sits in its liquidation range, LLAMMA's rebalancing realizes losses on every price swing, and a position whose health runs out is still hard liquidated. Borrowers need to monitor positions rather than assume the mechanism protects them.

The peg leans on pools that pair crvUSD with centralized stablecoins, so stress in those assets transmits into the mechanism, as happened across DeFi when USDC broke its peg in March 2023. Parameters can change by DAO vote, the contracts carry smart contract risk despite audits, and bridged crvUSD adds the bridge's own risk on top.