Curve turns five, marking a half-decade since DeFi’s strangest token launch

Key Points

1. Curve Finance's CRV token was unexpectedly launched by an anonymous Twitter account (@0xc4ad) in 2020, preempting the official team's deployment.

2. Founder Michael Egorov remains uncertain about the identity of @0xc4ad, calling it one of DeFi's enduring mysteries.

3. Curve Finance has grown from a stablecoin-focused AMM DEX to a foundational layer in DeFi's liquidity infrastructure.

4. Egorov noted that while stablecoin swap market sizing was planned, Curve's central role in DeFi was somewhat surprising.

5. The fifth anniversary coincides with a CRV inflation drop, and Egorov is now focused on Yield Basis, an interest-rate derivatives protocol.