Curve doesn’t just need traders to operate, however. Crucially, it also requires a group of users who will lock up cryptocurrencies so they can be traded by others.

Curve keeps these coins in certain ratios to one another, so that as their amounts fluctuate, they become cheaper or more expensive, thus attracting traders to buy or sell them.

In order to attract users to lock their coins in the first place, Curve offers them a return on their coins, as well as a proportion of the fee from trades.

This return is generated when Curve supplies the locked funds to protocols like Compound or yEarn, which in turn lend the coins out to users.