Definition
Curve is a decentralized finance concept built around a specialized automated market maker model designed to facilitate low-slippage swaps between assets that track similar values, such as stablecoins or closely related tokens. Instead of relying on traditional order books, it uses a mathematical pricing curve that concentrates liquidity around a narrow price range, making trades between like-valued assets more capital-efficient.
As a DeFi primitive, Curve is closely associated with liquidity pools where users deposit pairs or baskets of correlated assets that are then priced according to the protocol’s curve formula. This design contrasts with more general-purpose AMM models by prioritizing stability and depth of liquidity for specific asset types rather than broad flexibility across highly volatile pairs.
Context and Usage
Within decentralized finance, Curve is often referenced in relation to liquidity pool mechanics and the broader AMM landscape, alongside other protocols that enable on-chain trading and derivatives such as GMX and dYdX. Its curve-based pricing model has influenced how liquidity is structured for stable and correlated assets, shaping expectations around slippage, capital efficiency, and fee generation in this segment of DeFi.
The concept is also tied to liquidity mining practices, where additional token incentives may be layered on top of Curve-style pools to attract more deposits and deepen available liquidity. As a result, Curve has become a reference point when discussing specialized AMM designs, the behavior of liquidity providers in stable-asset pools, and the trade-offs between concentrated efficiency and general-purpose flexibility in DeFi markets.