Definition
Real yield is a decentralized finance (DeFi) concept describing returns that come from sustainable, on-chain economic activity rather than primarily from token emissions or dilution. In a real yield model, protocols share a portion of their actual revenue or fees with participants, often in a widely used base asset such as ETH, BTC, or stablecoins. This contrasts with models that rely heavily on issuing new governance tokens to attract capital, which can erode value if emissions outpace real usage. Real yield focuses on aligning rewards with verifiable demand for a protocol’s products or services.
Protocols associated with real yield typically generate income from trading fees, borrowing costs, or other on-chain services and pass part of this income to token holders, stakers, or liquidity providers. Examples in the DeFi ecosystem include platforms like GMX and restaking frameworks such as EigenLayer, where rewards are closely tied to protocol-level fees or payments. Real yield is often discussed alongside Yield Farming, Liquidity Mining, and Staking, but it emphasizes that returns should be backed by enduring cash flows rather than short-lived incentive programs.
Context and Usage
The term real yield emerged as a response to earlier DeFi phases dominated by aggressive Yield Farming and Liquidity Mining campaigns that distributed large amounts of new tokens to attract liquidity. In those models, nominal percentage returns could be high, but they were frequently driven by inflationary rewards rather than sustainable protocol revenue. Real yield reframes returns as a share of genuine economic output, making the source and durability of rewards a central part of how DeFi income streams are described.
In practice, real yield is used as a qualitative label rather than a strictly defined metric, and different protocols may apply it with varying standards. It is commonly associated with Staking arrangements where stakers receive a portion of protocol fees, or with platforms like GMX that distribute trading fees to token holders, and EigenLayer where rewards are tied to restaking services and associated payments. Within DeFi discourse, calling a protocol “real yield” signals that its reward structure is intended to be more closely linked to actual user activity and on-chain revenue than to temporary incentive schemes.