The divergence between fees and volume points to a shift in how Curve is being used. Swap counts more than doubled week-over-week to 552,000 transactions, suggesting a large number of smaller trades rather than fewer, larger ones. The result is a protocol generating more income per dollar of volume, even as overall liquidity shrinks and average transaction size appears to be contracting.

Pool Highlights and Where Yields Stand

The highest-yielding pool this week is frxUSD/USP on Ethereum, offering 159.2% APY on an unboosted basis. That figure is well above Curve's historical norms and likely reflects heavy token incentive emissions from the underlying projects rather than fee income alone. Frax Finance, which issues frxUSD, has been one of Curve's longest-standing liquidity partners.

The second-highest yielding pool, frxUSD/AZND, is offering 31.8% APY. More moderate yields are available elsewhere on the platform. The ynUSDx/scrvUSD pool is offering 22.9% APY. The frxETH/evaETH pool sits at 25.2%, though readers should note that this is an Ethereum liquid staking derivative pool rather than a stablecoin pair; it carries impermanent loss risk and is materially more volatile than USD-pegged alternatives. For users seeking lower risk exposure, the savings version of Curve's native stablecoin, scrvUSD, is currently yielding 3.9%, up 2.7 percentage points from the previous week. The base borrowing rate for crvUSD (Curve's dollar-pegged stablecoin) has risen to 5.3%.

The top pools by raw volume are stablecoin pairs. The sUSDS/USDT pool handled $349.8 million in swaps this week, followed by PYUSD/USDS at $293.3 million and the long-running DAI/USDC/USDT pool at $112.1 million.

crvUSD and a Depleted Safety Buffer

crvUSD's circulating supply has fallen to $54.9 million, down 16.6% on the week, continuing a broader contraction from the $361 million peak reached in 2025. At the same time, the share of crvUSD deposited into the savings contract has risen to 38.5%, reflecting a preference among users for yield-earning stasis over active deployment of their crvUSD holdings.

One metric deserves particular attention. The protocol's Peg Stability Reserves (PSR) for crvUSD have fallen to zero, a decline of $23.4 million from a recent prior level. PSRs function as a buffer that allows crvUSD to be minted or redeemed at its dollar peg during periods of stress. Their depletion does not indicate an immediate crisis, but it removes a layer of cushion. Anyone holding crvUSD as a stable asset should treat this as a monitoring flag.

Llamalend Cleanup and the V2 Pipeline

Curve's isolated lending product, LlamaLend, saw its TVL fall 12.8% to $166 million this week. LlamaRisk, an independent risk management group contracted by the Curve DAO (the protocol's decentralised governing body), is currently cleaning up stale, inactive LlamaLend markets on Layer 2 networks ahead of a planned V2 release.

The V2 system is being developed in collaboration with Swiss Stake AG under a 17.45 million CRV grant proposal submitted to the DAO by Curve founder Michael Egorov. It is expected to introduce borrowing against LP tokens and yield-bearing assets, multi-asset collateral pairs, tighter risk controls, and DAO-controlled administrative fees. That last feature represents a meaningful governance change, particularly for veCRV holders. The upgrade is currently awaiting security audits.

On the governance front, the Curve DAO is currently voting on parameter adjustments to the TricryptoUSDT pool. The proposed changes are projected to generate approximately 50% more fees and yield for liquidity providers, making this one of the more consequential active proposals for income-focused participants this week.

A separate governance matter involves roughly $700,000 in underbacked loans still sitting in LlamaLend's CRV-long market, a residual from the liquidation of Egorov's own positions during a prior market crash. Egorov has proposed a mechanism to resolve this through a pool of vault tokens representing claims on underwater positions, allowing outside capital to buy in at a discount. "I propose a method to clean up underbacked loans...permissionlessly," Egorov wrote in April. "Curve DAO invited to vote for pool; Market participants to study the opportunity; Arb traders to make bots."

What This Means for Users in Africa and South Asia

For users in Nigeria, Pakistan, Kenya, and India, the weekly numbers carry practical weight. Sub-Saharan Africa processed roughly $22 billion in stablecoin transactions between mid-2024 and mid-2025, with stablecoins accounting for 43% of on-chain transaction volume in the region. Traditional cross-border payments in Africa can cost 8 to 15% in fees; stablecoin-based alternatives typically run 0.1 to 1%. Protocols like Curve sit at the infrastructure layer of that cost reduction.

Pakistan's Virtual Assets Bill 2026, passed earlier this year, formally licensed crypto exchanges and lifted a seven-year ban on banks servicing crypto providers. That regulatory clarity broadens the path for Pakistani users to move funds into non-custodial wallets and access DeFi protocols like Curve. South Africa has now licensed more than 300 crypto asset service providers (a figure sourced from December 2025 that is likely higher today), and Kenya is conducting a nationwide DeFi regulatory consultation.

Curve's FXSwap roadmap adds further relevance for these markets. The protocol has already piloted on-chain foreign exchange pairs including CHF, BRZ, and IDR, and has identified INR, NGN, and PKR as future target pairs. If those pairs reach production, users in India, Nigeria, and Pakistan would gain access to on-chain FX settlement at a fraction of traditional remittance costs.

The week's contraction in TVL and volume is consistent with a cautious, risk-off posture among Curve users. For new users considering entry, the 3pool (DAI/USDC/USDT) remains the most liquid and most-tested starting point on the protocol. Higher-yield pools carry correspondingly higher risk, and the current absence of peg stability reserves for crvUSD is worth watching before committing capital to crvUSD-denominated strategies.

The veCRV APR (the return to users who lock CRV tokens to earn protocol revenue and participate in governance) has risen to 4.643%, with holders receiving $166,000 in distributions this week, up 59% from the prior period. CRV is trading near $0.24 with a market capitalisation of approximately $358 million, ranked 104th by CoinMarketCap.