What is Yearn Finance?

Yearn Finance (often written yearn.finance, or just Yearn) is a decentralized finance protocol that puts deposited crypto to work for you. You deposit one asset, such as USDC or ETH, into a Yearn vault, and the vault's smart contracts move it into other DeFi protocols to earn a yield. Instead of watching rates and moving funds between lending markets and liquidity pools yourself, you hold one vault token that tracks your share of the vault.

YFI is Yearn's governance token. It is not needed to use a vault, and holding it earns nothing on its own. YFI holders stake it to vote on how Yearn is run and to receive a share of the protocol's revenue. Yearn started on Ethereum in 2020 and Ethereum is still its home, with vaults on a few other networks as well.

Yearn Finance at a glance

How do Yearn vaults work?

A Yearn vault, also called a yVault, accepts one asset and runs one or more strategies on it. When you deposit, the vault gives you a vault token in return. On version 2 vaults the token carries a "yv" prefix (yvUSDC, for example); version 3 vaults use the ERC-4626 tokenized vault standard, which Yearn contributors helped write, so other DeFi apps can read and use the vault token directly.

Strategies: each strategy is a smart contract that deploys the vault's funds somewhere that pays a return, such as lending markets, liquidity pools or other yield sources. Version 2 vaults can run up to 20 strategies at once, and version 3 vaults can be single-strategy or spread across several.

Compounding: when a strategy harvests its rewards, they are sold for more of the vault's asset and added back in. The value of each vault token rises against the asset, so your share grows without you claiming anything.

Withdrawals: you return the vault token and receive the underlying asset, plus whatever the vault has earned or minus whatever it has lost. Yearn does not state a lockup for its vaults.

This is automated yield farming: the work of finding and compounding returns is done by contracts and by the people who write and monitor the strategies, not by each depositor. For the practical side, connecting a wallet and making a deposit, see our guide in the last section.

What fees do Yearn vaults charge?

Each vault can charge two fees, both taken by the vault rather than paid as a separate transaction. A performance fee is a cut of the yield earned, deducted when a strategy harvests. A management fee is a flat yearly percentage of the deposit. Until the YIP-69 governance proposal, the standard was 2% management and 20% performance; fees are now set per vault. On 6 October 2026 most Ethereum vaults in Yearn's app showed 0% management and 10% performance, and some charged nothing. Yearn's app shows each vault's fees before you deposit, and every transaction on Ethereum also costs a network fee paid in ETH (how gas works).

What is YFI used for?

YFI's job is governance. Changes to Yearn, from fee levels to how the treasury is spent, are put forward as Yearn Improvement Proposals (YIPs) and decided by YFI holders, in the same spirit as a DAO.

stYFI: since 2026, holders take part by staking YFI one for one as stYFI. The YIP-88 "Governance Overhaul", approved in October 2025, replaced the earlier veYFI system, which asked holders to lock YFI for up to four years and paired it with a separate dYFI reward token. stYFI holders vote on proposals and receive a share of protocol revenue, paid in a Yearn USDC vault token. Unstaking starts a 14-day cooldown during which the position stops voting and earning. A second option, stYFIx, delegates the voting so the holder can stay passive.

Staking happens on Yearn's own site, not in a wallet app, and revenue paid to stakers changes with how much the vaults earn. Yearn does not promise a rate.

How many YFI are there?

36,666 YFI have been minted, and none since 2021. The first 30,000 were handed out in July 2020 to people who supplied liquidity to two pools over about a week, with nothing reserved for Andre Cronje or a team, which is why YFI is often called a "fair launch". In February 2021 holders voted for YIP-57, which minted 6,666 more: about a third went to contributors on vesting schedules and two thirds to the treasury.

YFI has no built-in issuance, but it is not strictly capped either: control of minting passed from Andre Cronje to a multisig, and a community poll to give up minting for good was never followed by a binding proposal. Any new minting would need a governance vote. The live circulating supply is shown in the market data on this page.

A short history of Yearn Finance

Who runs Yearn?

No company owns Yearn. It is run by independent contributors organised in teams, paid from a treasury that YFI governance controls. Day-to-day operations sit with a 6-of-9 multisig, a shared account that needs six of nine signers to approve a change; Yearn's documentation notes it is not behind a time lock. Andre Cronje, who created Yearn, stepped back from the project in March 2022.

Which networks does Yearn run on?

Ethereum is Yearn's home: YFI, its governance and most of its vaults live there. On 6 October 2026 the network filter in Yearn's app listed Ethereum, Katana (a DeFi network incubated by Polygon and GSR, where Yearn runs vaults), Base and OP Mainnet. Earlier versions also ran on Fantom and other networks, and Yearn lists bridged versions of YFI on Polygon, Optimism, Base and Fantom, each with its own contract address. Always check the network and contract before you receive YFI or deposit into a vault.

Is Yearn Finance safe?

Yearn has been running since 2020, its vault code is public, and its version 3 contracts were audited by firms including ChainSecurity, yAudit and Statemind. Each strategy is given a risk score, and each vault shows a risk level from 1 to 4. But audits reduce risk rather than remove it. Yearn products have been exploited before, including in February 2021, April 2023 and November 2025, and the two most recent hit older or separate contracts rather than the main vaults. Read our guide to common DApp risks before connecting a wallet to any DeFi app.

Risks to know

Smart-contract risk: a vault is only as safe as its contracts and every protocol its strategies use. A bug or exploit in any of them can lose depositors' funds.

Strategy risk: returns are not fixed. Rates change with the markets a vault uses, and a strategy can lose money, for example if a stablecoin it holds loses its peg.

Governance and token risk: YFI's price can move sharply in either direction, minting is controlled by governance rather than ruled out in code, and the revenue paid to stakers depends on vault income.

Phishing and lookalikes: fake Yearn sites and tokens with similar names exist. Type yearn.fi yourself and check the YFI contract address before you send or receive. This page explains how Yearn Finance works and is not financial advice.

Hold YFI and use Yearn with Bitcoin.com

YFI is an ERC-20 token, so it is held in a self-custody wallet that supports Ethereum, and Yearn's app connects to that wallet rather than holding your funds. Our YFI wallet guide covers how a self-custody wallet holds YFI, connects to Yearn's vaults and checks approvals before you sign. Every Yearn transaction on Ethereum needs a little ETH for the network fee: you can buy ETH with a card or bank transfer, and follow its market on the Ethereum price page.