Curve DAO Token Review: Beginners Guide to Understanding CRV Before Investing In It

The AMM (automated market makers) are making a significant impact in the crypto environment. They are seriously showing their capabilities in the area of stable coin trading. Liquidity platforms like PancakeSwap, Balancer, and Uniswap enable whosoever wants to become a market maker and earn rewards in return.

Curve DAO Token is a DeFi aggregator that allows individuals to affix their valued assets to various liquidity pools and earn rewards. It is an AMM protocol used to swap stable coins at a cheaper rate and slippage.

The ideology of Curve DAO Token is to profer a solution to the high cost of swapping assets in the Ethereum blockchain. The protocol is not up to one year old but is now the 3^rd largest DeFi platform. This is because it has a high volume of locked value.

Curve DAO Token has a token known as CRV. It serves as the governance value. The token market value at the time of launching was a bit higher than that of Bitcoin. Other useful information regarding this aggregator (Curve DAO Token) is in this review.

What is Curve DAO Token?

Curve DAO Token is a ‘decentralized’ liquidity aggregator that enables users to add assets to various liquidity pools and gain fees in return. It is designed on the Ethereum blockchain to provide reliable trading services among cryptos with similar value.

Curve DAO Token can also be described as an AMM (automatic market maker) protocol just like UniSwap for exchanging stable coins.

The protocol focuses on the stable coin to enable trades at a very low slippage with little or no impediment loss on liquidity providers. Since CRV is an AMM protocol, it uses Algorithm for its pricing and not an order book. This pricing formula is very useful for easy swap between tokens with a relative price range.

CRV can be seen as a chain of ‘asset’ pools containing cryptos of similar value. These pools are currently seven in number. Three involve stable coins, while the rest are wrapped Bitcoin (like sBTC, renBTC, and wBTC) of different versions.

The pools give a very high interest rate on funds deposited to the liquidity providers. It has currently offered an interest rate of over 300% yearly for the Bitcoin USD pool.

This high yield is attributed to the Yearn finance. It uses the curve DAO Token during transactions to swap stable coins automatically to the highest yielding curve DAO Token pools.

Some stable coins that are popular and available in Curve DAO Token are sUSD, DAI, BUSD, USDT, TUSD, USDC, and others. The team released the protocol’s governance (CRV) token recently. This development made Curve DAO Token become a DAO ( decentralized autonomous organization.

Curve DAO Token is cautious of the potential risk associated with using their platform, unlike other DeFi protocols. The founder, Michael, has stressed the necessity of reviewing the code constantly to avoid any issues. They have already audited the DEX code 2 times. The curve DAO Token (CRV) has been audited 3 times.

The curve DAO Token primes to give a ransom of up to USD 50,000 to individuals that find any code error in their CRV, DAO, or DEX code.

Who Created Curve DAO Token?

Michael Egorov is the founder of Curve DAO Token. He is a Russian physicist and an experienced cryptocurrency veteran. Egorov started first by becoming a Bitcoin investor in 2013 during the pick period. He has been working around the DeFi network since 2018 and then launched Curve DAO Token in January 2020.

Michael continued using Bitcoin as a means of money transfer even after losing out on his first investment. He also mined Litecoin a little within that same period.

The protocol, ever since then, has become a successful platform leading in the DeFi environment. Michael said that Curve DAO Token exchange is created for Bitcoin and stable coin tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.

The CRV founder Michael first instituted a company known as NuCypher in 2016. This is a new technological company (fintech) with a specialization in encryption.

The NuCypher later transformed into a crypto/blockchain project in the 2018 ICO and made over USD 30 million. It further made USD 20 million in 2019 from private funding though its token (NU) is yet to be in the major exchanges lists.

A team of 5 members, including the founder, worked on the project. They reside in Switzerland. The remaining four persons a developers and social media marketers.

Michael explained that the major reason for the diversion to a decentralized independent organization is to overcome all legal issues the project team may face.

CRV is simply a blockchain protocol that focuses on providing a platform for swapping few but specific assets that are Ethereum-based. It can be referred to as an AMM because it uses Market-Making algorithms to enhance its market liquidity.

This feature is not seen in the traditional DEXs. The protocol provides a decentralized trading environment that allows users to trade different altcoins and earn profits on their cryptos.

Michael also presented the white paper for the protocol on November 10^th, 2019, before its launch in 2020. The platform was initially referred to as StableAwap.

It is designed to give stable coins Defi services using the AMM managed by smart contractors. The Curve DAO Token team decided to issue their peculiar governance token (CRV) in May 2020.

This feature solves the challenging conditions that may lead to market stagnation, as experienced when MakerDao reviewed their stability fee downward to 5,5%.

This situation made many using Compound (with an 11% interest rate then) remain there because they collected loans from DAI. They couldn’t convert from DAI to USDC because the conversion cost was high.

How Does Curve DAO Token Work?

Curve DAO Token as an AMM that facilitates automatic and permissionless trading of digital assets. It uses liquidity pools and does not permit trading between buyers and sellers.

A liquidity pool is like a shared bag of tokens with token prices calculated by a maths formula. The tokes in the liquidity pools are supplied by users.

Manipulating the maths formula aids in optimizing liquidity pools for various purposes. Users who possess ERC-20 tokens with an internet connection can supply tokens to the AMM liquidity pool. And then become a liquidity provider by doing such.

A liquidity provider is rewarded for supplying the pool with tokens. These rewards (fees) are paid by individuals or users interacting with the pool.

The Curve DAO Token protocol reduces spillage to the lowest minimum. This is well explained using the example below;

1 USDT should be equal to 1 USDC, which should be approximately equal to 1 BUSD etc. (for the stable coins),

Then to convert a hundred million dollars (100 million )of USDT to USDC, you will convert it first to BUSD. There is certainly going to be an amount of slippage. The CRV’s formula is prepared to reduce this slippage to the lowest minimum.

The remarkable thing here is that the curve’s formula will not be effective if the stable coins are not of a similar price range. The system is not designed to fix things outside its control. The formula only works well so long as the price of the tokens is maintained(stable).

The CRV Token Explained

The native token of Curve DAO Token, CRV, is an ERC-20 token that runs the Curve DAO Token decentralized exchange (DEX). The introduction of the token was made in 2020. CRV is a governance token for the exchange and is used in rewarding liquidity providers. So the holders can influence the direction of the CRV exchange.

Holding of CRV empowers the holders with the voting power on decisions on the DEX. When the holders lock their CRV tokens, they will be able to influence some operation on the DEX. Some of their influences include changing some fee structures and voting for the addition of new yield pools.

The holders can also present burning schedules for the CRV token. So the greater the number of CRV tokens a holder has, the greater his voting power.

Also, voting power on the Curve DAO Token decentralized exchange is dependent on the length of time a holder has the CRV in his possession. As the holding period increases, the voting power also increases. This also gives the CRV its value as a digital asset.

Curve DAO Token ICO

CRV has no ICO; rather, its measure of measure is on stake drop. The mining of CRV tokens is through stake drop and Apy mining. The token experienced an amazing release in August 2020 after the deployment of its smart contract.

There was a pre-mining of above 80,000 CRV tokens by 0xChad, which was made public through Twitter. The pre-mining was done through the use of a code on the Github of Curve DAO Token. By reviewing the code, the CRV DAO accepted the token launch.

CRV has a total supply of about 3 billion tokens. 5% of the tokens go to the issuance of addresses for providing liquidity to the DEX.

The project’s DAO reserves get another 5% of the tokens. Aa 3% of the supply is for the employees in the CRV decentralized exchange. Then 30% of the supply of the token goes to the shareholders.

The 62% of tokens remaining are for CRV future and current liquidity providers. By distributing 766,000 CRV tokens daily, the distribution schedule will make a reduction of 2.25% per annual. This implies that the issuance of the remaining CRV tokens will last for the next 300 years.

CRV Price Analysis

The uniqueness of Curve DAO Token distinguishes it from its peers in the decentralized exchange space. The protocol exclusively fills the stable coin swaps niche. Following its airdrop in August 2020 with a vesting period of 4 years, CRV has to stake payoffs that are complex and time-locked.

This was due to the accrued total fee by the Curve DAO Token protocol. A closer analysis of both the CRV protocol and its token shows an increase in interest. You can notice it on the total value locked (TVL), token stats for on-chain, and volume.

CRV initially traded on Uniswap at $1,275 after its launch. As of this time, CRV tokens have a low ratio in Uniswap pools when you compare them to other digital assets.

Image Credit: CoinMarketCap

However, with more addition of cryptocurrencies to the pool, the CRV price plummeted. This drop in price for CRV tokens has continued to the end of August 2020. At the time of writing this article, the price of CRV tokens is making some fluctuation around $2.

The CRV Wallet

CRV as an ‘ERC-20’ token has a storage ability. One can safeguard it using any wallet supporting  ‘Ethereum based’ assets. 

A CRV wallet can be described as an online application or a physical device that gives crypto users a personalized key to store their coins and tokens with. This wallet can be either a Soft or Hard wallet as explained below;

1. The software wallet: They are phone applications that use hot storage linked to the net to store investments. They provide freeways for storing various types of cryptocurrency investments. They can store only a few amounts of crypto.
2. The hardware wallets: They use USB-like devices and store tokens and coins offline. They are sometimes called cold storage. They are more expensive than the software wallet and provides high security.

Examples of CRV crypto wallets are the Exodus wallet (mobile and desktop), Atomic Wallet (mobile and desktop), Ledger (hardware), Trezor (hardware), and probably the Web 3.0 browser wallet (like Metamask).

The Web 3.0 wallet is most convenient for users who plan to vote with their CRV token. It aids interaction between the CRV DEX and its DAO.

How To Buy The CRV Token

The following steps outline below is recommended for beginners who wish to acquire the Curve DAO Token CRV.

• Open an account online: Opening an online account with a broker is the easiest way to buy not just CRV but other types of cryptos. The broker must support the Curve DAO trading. This will allow you to buy, trade, and sell tokens and coins using his platform. Cryptocurrency brokers are similar to stockbrokers. They charge a low fee known as commission for each trade made via their platform.

Below are the important questions one should answer before choosing a broker or opening an account.

1. Does the exchange support other assets of interest?
2. Can your chosen exchange open an account for you in your local area?
3. Is there availability of educational resources and trading tools?

• Buy a Wallet: This is strictly for those who do not want to become active traders. They can safeguard their tokens in a private wallet as long as they want. Crypto wallets store tokens longer than exchange wallets.
• Make your purchase: After opening the trading platform on the account opened, look for CRV, the symbol for the CRV token. Then note down the market price (the current market price). This is the equivalent of what to pay for each token to be invested using the market order.

Then place an order, the crypto broker takes care of the rest (fills the order according to the buyer’s specification). They may allow the order to be open for 90days if not filled before canceling it.

How To Provide Liquidity On Curve

Depositing liquidity in a pool allows one to see other cryptos within the pool. If the number of cryptos in that pool is 5, the stake is shared across the five of them. There are always constant variations in the ratio of the tokens.

The following steps are adopted in adding liquidity to the Curve  finance platform:

1, Open Curve.fi and connect a ‘web 3.0’ wallet. Then add a wallet of your choice (like Trezor, Ledger, etc.)

2. Choose a pool by clicking on the icon (top left) on the website. Select the pool to offer liquidity to.
3. Input the amount of the crypto of choice to deposit in the boxes. Chose among the tick options found below the crypto list as desired.
4. Deposit when ready. The connected ‘web 3.0’ wallet will prompt you to accept the transaction. Crosscheck the amount to be taken as a gas fee.
5. You can then confirm the transaction and allow it to run.
6. Immediately, the allotted LP (liquidity provider) tokens will be sent to you. This is the IOU attached to stake tokens in CRV.
7. Visit ‘curve.fi/iearn/deposit’ to check the token quantity.

Where To Buy CRV Token

Binance remains one of the renowned exchanges where you can buy CRV DAO tokens. Binance made a listing of CRV tokens within 24 hours after the launching of the token. The CRV tokens have been trading on the Binance exchange ever since then.

Conclusion of Curve DAO Token Review

This Curve DAO Token review has shown an in-depth insight into one of the Defi protocols in the market. The curve enables its user to complete different kinds of transactions without digging holes into the pocket.

Also, the smart contracts on Curve are simple to understand and implement. In addition, they’re Sufficient and secured even more than others in the decentralized finance space.

Curve DAO Token also reduces impermanent loss risks that characterized the Defi protocols. However, it’s best to diversify your portfolio when investing in crypto.

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