Event Timeline
About Yield Basis
Yield Basis is Michael Egorov's second act. Having built Curve Finance, he launched a protocol aimed at producing sustainable Bitcoin yield while removing impermanent loss, the problem that makes providing liquidity against a volatile asset a losing trade more often than people expect. It arrived with deep Curve ties, including a 10% allocation set aside specifically for licensing Curve technology.
The airdrop criterion is unlike anything else in this archive. YB went to veCRV holders, meaning people who had locked CRV for governance power, but not to all of them. Eligibility was restricted to those who had voted Yes on three specific Curve proposals, numbers 1206, 1213 and 1222. Voting No, abstaining or simply not turning up meant no allocation.
That deserves stating plainly rather than dressed up. Rewarding governance participation is defensible and rare. Rewarding one side of a vote is a different thing, because it attaches a financial incentive to a particular outcome in a system that is supposed to weigh arguments. Anyone assessing future Curve votes involving related protocols should know this precedent exists.
Airdrop Stats
How it worked to get the Yield Basis airdrop
Hold veCRV
Eligibility started with locked CRV. veCRV is Curve's vote escrowed token, so this required committing CRV for a fixed term rather than simply holding it.
Vote on the right proposals
Three specific Curve proposals counted: #1206, #1213 and #1222. A veCRV holder who had not participated in these votes did not qualify.
Vote Yes
The criterion was voting Yes. Holders who voted against these proposals were not included, which makes this an allocation contingent on the direction of the vote rather than on participation.
Receive from 15 October
YB emissions and the airdrop began together on 15 October 2025 when the protocol went live, so the distribution ran alongside the start of liquidity mining rather than as a separate claim.
Was the Yield Basis airdrop worth it?
- It paid for voting a particular way. Only veCRV holders who voted Yes on proposals #1206, #1213 and #1222 qualified. Rewarding turnout is one thing; rewarding an outcome attaches money to a governance decision, and that is worth flagging regardless of the protocol's merits.
- The eligible pool was narrow by design. Holding veCRV already requires locking CRV for a term. Adding three specific votes on top made this one of the most restrictive criteria in this archive.
- Nobody published the size. No source gives the airdrop's token amount or share of supply. The 30% figure in circulation is community incentives via liquidity mining, a separate mechanism.
- The Curve relationship is structural, not incidental. 10% of supply is allocated to licensing Curve technology, so the two protocols are financially entangled beyond a shared founder.
- The reported allocation does not add up. The published categories total 90% of supply. The remaining 10% is unaccounted for in the sources available.
Yield Basis Official Links
Official channels, documentation and community for this airdrop:
This airdrop has concluded. It is kept for research rather than participation.
