Michael Egorov: Yield Basis - Bringing Real Yield to Bitcoin

Sep 10, 2025

Michael Egorov, co-founder of Curve Finance and a DeFi pioneer, discusses his innovative Yield Basis protocol aimed at tackling impermanent loss in liquidity provision. He explains how this solution could create sustainable yields for Bitcoin without the risks of traditional AMM strategies. The conversation covers market dynamics, alternative tokenomics, and the expansive potential of Yield Basis across cryptocurrencies. Michael emphasizes the ability to achieve substantial APR on Bitcoin while navigating the challenges of decentralized finance.

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INSIGHT

Why Impermanent Loss Harms LP Returns

Impermanent loss makes AMM LPs often underperform buy-and-hold because AMM pricing follows a square-root function of volatile asset price.
Michael Egorov explains this mismatch as the core reason liquidity provision can leave LPs with less value than passive holders.

INSIGHT

Square The Price To Kill Impermanent Loss

Yield Basis removes impermanent loss by applying 2x compounding leverage to Curve crypto-pool liquidity so price becomes proportional to the square of asset price.
That transformation cancels the square-root nonlinearity that creates impermanent loss and preserves fee income.

INSIGHT

Why Curve Pools Work Better For Re-leveraging

Curve Crypto pools outperform Uniswap v2 because they use concentrated liquidity management that increases fee capture while keeping similar impermanent loss.
Leveraging Curve pools removes impermanent loss yet still yields a positive net return because Curve earns fees faster than Uniswap v2.

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