This is a comprehensive guide to understanding what is yyCRV and its relationship to the underlying yCRV LP tokens. In addition, we’ll talk about how to buy yyCRV or create this wrapped token yourself by using the yearn and curve ecosystems. We will also discuss why yyCRV is becoming a standard “yield maximized stablecoin” that is sometimes being referred to simply as yUSD instead of yyCRV for this reason.
Before we dive in, this is a post on yyCRV. If you are unfamiliar, make sure you read our guide on what is yCRV first. Also, we only talk about yCRV and yyCRV here, not CRV which is a native governance token of Curve Finance.
Recap of Basics: yTokens and LP Tokens on Curve’s y Pool
Quick recap of the basics – Yearn created yTokens, which are stablecoins that automatically seek the highest yield from various lending protocols. Curve then created a stablecoin pool, “Y” pool, consisting of yDAI, yUSDC, yUSDT, and yTUSD. If you contribute liquidity to this pool, then you get the liquidity provider (LP) tokens from Curve called yCRV.
Therefore, by the time you come to yCRV, you have already combined stablecoin protocols like Maker for DAI, Yearn’s yield maximizing yTokens, and Curve’s AMM and LP tokens. Remember also that yCRV retains its value as long as all the stablecoins in the y Pool are close to their $1 value. If say one of the crashes, then yCRV token will be worth much less.
If you want to learn more about the full history, read our guide on yCRV.
y-Vaults and Depositing yCRV into y-Vaults
Yearn is an entire ecosystem of DeFi products. That is one reason we are bullish on YFI. In addition to the yTokens above, Yearn has also built what is called a “y-Vault” for various crypto assets.
When you deposit an asset into a y-Vault, you get more of that asset back. How? You simply yield farm the most profitable strategy out there as a collective.
For example, the current strategy of the y-Vault for yCRV is to farm for CRV, the native governance token of Curve Finance. Then the vault will automatically sell the CRV for more yCRV. Therefore, if you deposit $1000 into the y-Vault for yCRV today, you can withdraw around $1100 a month from now.
What is yyCRV
yyCRV is the token that you get when you deposit yCRV into Yearn’s y-Vault. This token gives your proportional rights to the vault, so you can withdraw all your yCRV (the underlying token of the vault) at will.
This token is liquid, so you can find yyCRV in your wallet when you check on MetaMask or Etherscan. This fact is very important because you can now buy, sell, trade, or spend your yyCRV.
Since the underlying assets of yyCRV are stablecoins, it is sometimes pitched as yUSD to be easier to people new to the space. This is the right marketing. The hope is that yUSD or yyCRV will replace market pairs against DAI or USDC and will become the standard. This way, traders and investors get exposure not just to a single stablecoin but to a yield-maximized stablecoin that also yield farms the best DeFi farms!
How to get yyCRV (create yyCRV)
If you want to get yyCRV starting from a stablecoin, you can simply follow these steps:
- Go to Curve finance and enter the “Y” pool. Then go to Deposit. This is the direct link. You now have the option to deposit any stablecoin from DAI, USDC, USDT, and TUSD.
- Behind the scenes, Curve converts the stablecoin that you supplied into all the other assets in the pool. Once your transaction succeeds, you will be issued Curve Y Pool’s LP tokens, yCRV.
- Once you have yCRV in your wallet, head over to Yearn’s y-Vault and look for the yCRV vault (it is labeled as yDAI/yUSDC/yUSDT/yTUSD showing the underlying assets). Then deposit your yCRV into this vault.
Congratulations! You should now have yyCRV in your Ethereum wallet.
How to Buy yyCRV
Since yyCRV is an ERC20 token, it can trade on decentralized exchanges like Uniswap, Mooniswap and others. Some exchanges have provided liquidity to this pair so you can simply buy yyCRV with ETH or another token that you might hold.
The simplest way to do that is to go to 1inch and select which token you’d like to exchange for yyCRV (e.g. ETH or non-ETH tokens like YFI, LINK, SNX, LEND, etc.)
Note that yyCRV tends to have fragmented liquidity – for example Balancer, CREAM etc. have better liquidity than Uniswap, so it is best to go through an aggregator like 1inch, otherwise you’ll end up paying more.