Convex Finance
A yield booster built on top of Curve — it pools users' CRV to capture Curve's maximum rewards and became a central player in the 'Curve Wars'.
Overview
Convex Finance is a DeFi protocol built on top of Curve, the leading exchange for stablecoins and other pegged assets. Launched in 2021, Convex lets Curve liquidity providers and CRV holders earn boosted rewards without locking CRV themselves or managing the complexity of Curve's vote-escrow system. Curve pays its highest rewards to liquidity providers who lock CRV as veCRV, but locking is illiquid (up to four years) and the maximum 2.5x boost requires a large veCRV position. Convex solves this by pooling everyone's CRV: users deposit CRV and receive liquid cvxCRV in return, while Convex permanently locks the underlying CRV as veCRV and applies its large, shared boost to all deposited Curve LP positions.
Convex's own token, CVX, can be vote-locked as vlCVX for 16-week periods. vlCVX holders collectively decide how Convex's enormous veCRV voting power is cast on Curve's gauge weights — that is, which pools receive CRV emissions. This made Convex a kingmaker in the 'Curve Wars', the competition among stablecoin and DeFi projects to attract Curve liquidity, and it spawned a secondary market in which projects pay ('bribe') vlCVX voters to steer emissions toward their pools.
Convex takes a performance fee of roughly 17% on the CRV rewards it harvests, split among cvxCRV stakers, vlCVX lockers, and the callers who trigger reward harvests. The protocol was launched by a pseudonymous team.
Convex became the dominant aggregator of Curve's governance power, at times controlling a majority of all veCRV. That made it one of the clearest real-world examples of 'governance as a market' — where control over a protocol's emissions is itself a valuable, tradeable asset. For ordinary users, Convex turned Curve's complex, illiquid vote-escrow rewards into a simple deposit-and-earn product.
How It Works
The Basics
Deposit Curve LP tokens into Convex and it stakes them on Curve using its pooled veCRV boost, so you earn boosted CRV plus CVX rewards without locking anything yourself. Deposit CRV and receive cvxCRV — a liquid claim on Convex's ever-growing veCRV position — that earns a share of Curve fees and rewards.
Pros & Cons
- Gives users Curve's maximum boost without locking CRV or running a large veCRV position
- cvxCRV keeps otherwise-locked CRV liquid and yield-bearing
- vlCVX confers outsized influence over Curve emissions — valuable to protocols competing for liquidity
- Simple deposit-and-earn experience over a complex underlying system
- Established since 2021 with deep integrations across the Curve ecosystem
- Entirely dependent on Curve — Convex's relevance rises and falls with Curve
- Converting CRV to cvxCRV is effectively one-way; cvxCRV can trade below CRV on secondary markets
- Concentrating Curve governance in one protocol raises centralization concerns
- Launched and run by a pseudonymous team
- The incentive and 'bribe' markets around vlCVX add complexity and additional risk
Use Cases
- Earning boosted Curve rewards on LP positions without locking CRV
- Converting CRV into liquid, yield-bearing cvxCRV
- Vote-locking CVX as vlCVX to influence Curve gauge weights and earn incentives
- Protocols acquiring vlCVX to steer Curve emissions toward their own pools
Price Chart
Historical USD price from CoinGecko. Educational reference — not investment advice.
Live Market Data
- Market Cap Rank
- #177
- Market Cap
- $194.39M
- 24h Volume
- $3.94M
- Fully Diluted Val
- $208.57M
- All-Time High
- $60.09-96.53%January 2022
- All-Time Low
- $1.04July 2026
- 24h Range
- $2.04 – $2.11
Market data from CoinGecko, refreshed every 15 minutes. Educational reference only — not investment advice.
Project Health
Dev activity via CoinGecko, TVL/audit status via DefiLlama; official links are the project’s own. Presence here is not an endorsement.
Holder Distribution
Top holders often include protocol, bridge, exchange, and staking contracts — not individual investors.
Source: Blockscout, as of Sep 2, 2026. View all holders on Blockscout
Where CVX trades
The most active markets for CVX by 24h volume. Informational only — these are not affiliate links or endorsements.
Data via CoinGecko. Always verify you are on an exchange’s official domain before trading.
Technical Details
- Launch Year
- 2021
- Founder
- Pseudonymous team
- Max Supply
- 100000000
- Blockchain
- Ethereum (ERC-20)
- Website
- www.convexfinance.com/
References & further reading
- primary
- context