Curve Finance founder raises $5 million for Yield Basis at $50 million valuation

Curve Finance raises $5 million for Yield Basis, which has faced huge demand from investors and completed a round in just two weeks.

Michael Egorov, founder of Curve Finance, recently raised $5 million in funding for his latest startup Yield Basis at a valuation of $50 million. The project, which aims to help tokenized Bitcoin and Ethereum holders mitigate impermanent loss while earning yield, has attracted a lot of investor interest, with the round being oversubscribed 15 times.

According to The Block, Yield Basis is selling 10% of its total token supply (100 million of a total of 1 billion YB tokens) to investors. Notably, the fundraising process began in January 2025 and was completed in just two weeks. Investors will face a six-month cliff period, followed by a two-year linear vesting plan.

Yield Basis, which Egorov confirmed is currently in the "production test" stage, is being audited and tested before its official launch. While the liquidity pool is expected to be deployed first, a full rollout (including the project’s native token, YB) will take more time.

What is Yield Basis?

Impermanent loss has long been a challenge for liquidity providers in decentralized finance (DeFi), where asset price volatility can lead to losses despite earning trading fees. Yield Basis aims to address this by modifying the mechanics of automated market makers (AMMs).

The platform introduces a 2x leverage mechanism that allows liquidity providers to borrow CRV USD — Curve Finance’s stablecoin — to double their liquidity positions in pools like BTC/USD. This leverage helps stabilize liquidity ratios, potentially eliminating impermanent loss while doubling trading fee revenue.

However, leveraging liquidity also comes with borrowing and rebalancing costs, which Yield Basis addresses by concentrating liquidity where trading activity is highest. By integrating Curve’s CryptoSwap AMM and leveraging borrowing fees, Yield Basis aims to offset these costs and maintain profitability.

Yield Basis is initially targeting tokenized Bitcoin and Ethereum holders seeking high-yield opportunities. Historical backtesting shows that the platform has an average APR of 20.5% between 2019 and 2024, peaking at 60% during the 2021 bull run.

According to the announcement, if successful, Yield Basis could scale up to handle tens of billions of dollars in liquidity. While the strategy works well for blue-chip cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, Egorov acknowledged that more volatile assets like memecoins may not benefit from the model.