Real Yield

Yield paid to token holders or stakers from actual protocol revenue (trading fees, lending interest, liquidation rewards) rather than from new token emissions. Denominated in underlying assets (USDC, ETH) rather than the protocol's own token. Structurally sustainable because it captures real economic activity. GMX, Synthetix, dYdX, Curve, Frax are leading real-yield protocols. Outperformed pure governance tokens through 2024-2025.