crvUSD (CRVUSD)

What crvUSD is

crvUSD is Curve's own stablecoin, minted by borrowers against collateral rather than issued against a bank balance. Curve's documentation describes it as "a collateralized-debt-position (CDP) stablecoin pegged to the US Dollar." What separates it from other over-collateralized stablecoins is how it handles a falling collateral price: instead of waiting for a threshold and then selling everything, it converts collateral gradually through a purpose-built automated market maker (source: Curve documentation, read September 2026).

That market maker is LLAMMA. Two supporting systems sit around it: PegKeeper contracts that push crvUSD back toward a dollar by adding or removing supply, and a monetary policy that sets the borrow rate from how much PegKeeper debt is outstanding.

The result is a crypto backed stablecoin where a borrower's position is unwound in slices as the market moves against it, and where the interest rate responds to the peg rather than to a governance vote each time.

For where to buy crvUSD from your country or state, see the availability tables on this page and the venues listed at Exchanges.

How it works

A borrower deposits collateral and chooses how finely to spread it. Curve's documentation says users pick between "a minimum of 4" and "a maximum of 50" bands when creating a loan, that collateral "distributes equally across these bands," and that together they "form the total liquidation range." Each band is a narrow price range, in the manner of concentrated liquidity on a Uniswap V3-style curve.

Soft-liquidation is what happens inside those bands. The documentation puts the rule directly: "if the price of the collateral goes down, the LLAMMA starts selling the collateral asset for the borrowable (crvUSD) asset because the asset price of the collateral is going down." As the price falls through each band, more of the collateral in that band converts. The documentation's example is that if 0.5 ETH sits in a band and the price reaches that band's bottom, "the entire band will be soft-liquidated into crvUSD." If the price recovers, the process runs in reverse and the crvUSD is bought back into collateral.

The liquidation range has a defined starting point. The documentation gives it as starting_price = debt / (collateral · LTV), with the loan-to-value ratio itself "determined by the number of bands (N) and the band width factor (A)." Outside that range nothing converts.

Health is a separate measure from the range, and conflating the two is the most common mistake borrowers make. The documentation is explicit: "the liquidation range does not reflect prices where a loan is hard-liquidated. It really only depends on the health of the loan." Health falls as interest accrues and as soft-liquidation losses build. A hard liquidation becomes possible only when health "falls below 0%," at which point another user can repay the debt and take the collateral.

PegKeepers work on the other side of the system, on the price of crvUSD itself rather than on any loan. The documentation describes them as contracts "designed to maintain the stability of the crvUSD peg" whose actions "are restricted to only two actions: depositing and withdrawing from liquidity pools." When crvUSD trades above a dollar, a PegKeeper deposits pre-minted crvUSD into its linked pool, adding supply and pressing the price down. When crvUSD trades below, it withdraws by burning the LP tokens it earlier acquired.

PegKeeper debt is counted plainly: "PegKeeper debt is accumulated by depositing into the linked liquidity pool. If the contract deposited 100 crvUSD, debt is equal to 100."

Supply and tokenomics

crvUSD has no fixed supply. It is minted when someone borrows and burned when the debt is repaid, so the outstanding amount is the sum of open loans plus whatever PegKeepers currently hold in their pools.

The interest rate is the lever, and it is wired to the peg rather than set by hand. The documentation explains the link through the DebtFraction: "A higher debt accumulated by PegKeepers increases the DebtFraction, which, in turn, leads to a lower interest rate." Read that as feedback. Lots of PegKeeper debt means crvUSD has been trading above a dollar and supply has been added, so borrowing is made cheaper to bring more supply in. Little PegKeeper debt means the opposite.

PegKeeperV2 added two guards the documentation describes directly. The first is spam prevention: it uses oracle price verification so "actions to stabilize the peg are only taken when the price is within an accepted deviation," which stops a manipulated pool price from triggering a response. The second is depeg protection, through a worst_price_threshold variable and "ratio limits" that prevent one PegKeeper from accumulating excessive debt during instability.

History

crvUSD's design starts from a complaint about how liquidations normally work. In a conventional CDP system, a position sits untouched until it crosses a threshold, then a large chunk is sold at once into whatever liquidity exists at that moment. The borrower takes a penalty, the market takes an impact, and in a fast move both are worse than they need to be.

LLAMMA replaces the threshold with a range. Because collateral is spread across bands and converts band by band, the position is unwound continuously rather than in one block, and it can un-convert if the price comes back. Soft-liquidation still costs the borrower money, through the spread paid to arbitrageurs who trade against the bands, but it is a gradual cost rather than a cliff.

The peg machinery was built alongside it because a CDP stablecoin has no redemption window at par. PegKeepers, and the monetary policy that reads their debt, supply the missing feedback loop: they can add or remove supply and change the price of borrowing without a vote.

PegKeeperV2 followed from experience with the first version, adding oracle checks and ratio limits so that the stabilizing mechanism could not itself be gamed or over-extended during a depeg.

Risks and what to watch

Oracle risk is the sharpest dependency. Every band boundary, every health calculation and PegKeeperV2's own deviation check reads a price feed. A manipulated or stale feed can convert collateral that should not have converted, or block a stabilizing action that should have run.

Band choice is a real decision, not a default. Fewer bands mean a narrower liquidation range and a higher loan-to-value; more bands mean a wider range and a lower one. The documentation ties the LTV directly to the number of bands and the band width factor, so the same collateral supports different amounts of debt depending on the setting.

Peg risk sits with the PegKeepers and their pools. Their capacity to hold the peg depends on the liquidity in the linked pools and on the ratio limits that cap their debt. A depeg under stress is a question of how much they can absorb, not of whether the mechanism exists.

smart contract risk applies across a system with several interacting parts, and crvUSD is deployed on multiple networks, each deployment carrying the risk of its own contracts and bridges.

Frequently asked questions

What is soft-liquidation?

The gradual conversion of collateral into crvUSD as the collateral price falls through a loan's bands. It reverses if the price recovers. It is distinct from hard-liquidation, which happens only when loan health falls below 0%.

At what price does a crvUSD loan get liquidated?

There is no single price. Curve's documentation states the liquidation range "does not reflect prices where a loan is hard-liquidated. It really only depends on the health of the loan," and health also falls as interest accrues.

What do PegKeepers do?

They deposit crvUSD into a linked liquidity pool when crvUSD trades above a dollar and withdraw when it trades below. Their outstanding debt feeds the DebtFraction, and a higher DebtFraction lowers the borrow rate.

Is crvUSD backed by dollars in a bank?

No. It is a collateralized-debt-position stablecoin: each unit is created by a borrower posting crypto collateral, and it is burned when that debt is repaid.

Where can you buy crvUSD?

Availability depends on your country or US state. See where to buy crvUSD for the exchanges serving your jurisdiction, and Exchanges to compare fees, kyc requirements and supported payment methods.