Curve (CRV) is the token of Curve Finance, one of DeFi's most important decentralized exchanges — specialized in swapping 'like-for-like' assets such as stablecoins (different dollar tokens) and pegged assets with very low slippage and fees. Because so much of DeFi runs on stablecoins, Curve became core plumbing that other protocols build on top of. It's known for pioneering the 'veCRV' model: users lock their CRV for up to four years to earn a share of trading fees, boosted rewards, and voting power over where CRV incentives flow — a design widely copied across DeFi. Curve also issues its own stablecoin, crvUSD. CRV is used for rewards, fees and that governance-locking system.
Where it stands today: Curve remains the dominant stablecoin DEX, capturing a large share of Ethereum's DEX trading fees. Its crvUSD stablecoin and its lending platform (LlamaLend) are growing and now generate real revenue that flows to locked-CRV holders. It cut CRV inflation in 2025 to reduce sell pressure, and its 2026 roadmap pushes into tokenized real-world assets and new yield products. But it carries scars: Curve suffered major exploits in the past (a serious 2023 incident), and its founder's large leveraged CRV positions have historically been a source of forced-selling risk. So today it's an entrenched, revenue-generating DeFi backbone whose token has struggled to hold value despite the protocol's importance.