Curve Founder Proposes 17M CRV Grant for Research and Development Team

Summary: Michael Egorov, the founder of Curve Finance, has put forth a proposal for a grant of 17.45 million CRV tokens. This funding aims to boost the ecosystem’s growth, support research, and develop the lending protocol, potentially allocating around $6.6 million for these advancements.

Key Takeaways

Proposed Grant: Michael Egorov suggests a 17.45 million CRV token grant, valued at about $6.6 million.
Supports Development: The grant will facilitate tech enhancements and sustainability for the Curve team.
Future Goals: Swiss Stake AG aims for significant advancements in Curve's technology by 2026, including launching a new lending system.
Focus on Self-Sustainability: The funding will assist Swiss Stake AG in achieving self-sustainability through diverse revenue streams.

Curve Finance’s founder, Michael Egorov, has proposed a grant of 17.45 million CRV tokens to foster the growth of the Curve ecosystem, advance research, and support technical development for its lending protocol. As of current market prices, this grant is valued at roughly $6.6 million and is intended for Swiss Stake AG, the firm responsible for Curve, following a previous grant issued in late 2024.

In his proposal made public on the Curve DAO governance forum last Sunday, Egorov highlighted that the funds would be directed towards enhancing technology and security for the lending protocol and ensuring the continued involvement of the contributor team.

“This grant will specifically fund software research and development, infrastructure upgrades, security improvements, and ecosystem support, thus allowing the 25-member team at Swiss Stake AG to persist in their valuable contributions to Curve,” stated Egorov.

Additionally, the founder outlined a comprehensive list of objectives that Swiss Stake AG aims to pursue with Curve in 2026. These goals include launching and scaling a new version of their lending system, Llamalend, creating an on-chain foreign currency swap, and enhancing Curve’s user interface.

“This proposal seeks to secure ongoing funding for the development and maintenance of Curve's smart contract ecosystem and software repositories, support additional integrations and cross-chain functionality, and strengthen the governance and operational framework of Curve DAO,” Egorov articulated.

Source: Curve Finance

Should the proposal receive approval, Swiss Stake AG will be allowed to stake a portion of the obtained CRV to generate extra yield for its initiatives but must strictly adhere to the expenditure outlined in the proposal. They have committed to providing bi-annual reports regarding the use of the grant funds.

Curve founder proposes 17M CRV grant to fund research, dev team

Swiss Stake AG Aims for Self-Sustainability

In the outlined proposal, Egorov noted that while Swiss Stake AG has generated several income streams through CRV, it largely relies on community support to sustain its operations. The proposed funding will be instrumental in maintaining the team as they work towards building the Curve ecosystem and achieving self-sustainability.

“Swiss Stake AG has established ancillary income streams, primarily through Curve Lite deployments across other networks. We have also accrued system fees by staking veCRV through various wrapper protocols (such as Convex, StakeDAO, and Yearn) as a minority participant,” he explained.

“Despite these revenues, the company does not yet achieve sustainability at this stage,” the founder added.

Established in early 2020, Curve Finance currently has a total value locked of approximately $2.2 billion, according to DefiLlama data, making it the 21st-largest DeFi protocol in the market.

Magazine: Have your stake and earn fees too: Tushar Aggarwal on double dipping in DeFi.