Curve Finance Processed Record $34.6 Billion Trading Volume in Q1

While the DeFi sector has suffered a broad downturn so far this year, veteran stablecoin-focused decentralized exchange (DEX) Curve Finance has managed to buck the trend.

In Q1 2025, Curve recorded $34.6 billion in trading volume — a 13.3% increase year-over-year and a new all-time high for the platform. The number of transactions jumped to 5.5 million, up from 5.2 million in Q4 2024 and sharply higher than the 1.8 million recorded in Q1 2024.

According to DeFiLlama, Curve reached $2.1 billion in total value locked (TVL) in Q1; currently, Curve boasts a TVL of $1.8 billion and a market cap of $606 million. Meanwhile, the number of unique addresses interacting with Curve contracts has grown to 5.5 million.

This momentum highlights Curve’s resilience amid a declining crypto market, where total market capitalization has dropped around 30% since December 2024, settling at $2.58 trillion as of April 7. Curve’s own CRV token is down 60% since the beginning of the year, despite the impressive performance of the underlying protocol.

“Curve is doubling down on its position as a leading player in DeFi — where capital goes to stay efficient,” a Curve Finance team member told The Defiant. “With real-world assets (RWAs) flowing on-chain and stablecoin issuance set to grow 10x in the coming year, we are positioning ourselves to support and propel stablecoin adoption.”

Boosting crvUSD

To maintain the momentum built in Q1, the team’s strategy for the coming months includes boosting crvUSD, Curve’s native stablecoin, by introducing new utility and markets for crvUSD minting. Currently, crvUSD has a market capitalization of around $121 million, according to CoinGecko.

Curve also aims to enhance its user experience to make the DEX more accessible for newcomers and expand Curve-Lite across multiple chains in preparation for a growing cross-chain ecosystem.

The team further noted that several improvements will be coming to Llamalend, with the end goal being to streamline access to all lending markets through a single user-friendly interface. “The playbook is simple: more utility, better UX and a focus on innovation,” the team member said.

Looking Ahead

Looking to the future, the team member told The Defiant that Curve aims to evolve from a high-efficiency decentralized exchange (DEX) into "foundational DeFi infrastructure — the kind that powers not just protocols, but entire ecosystems.”

The team emphasized that one of the biggest challenges facing both Curve and the DeFi sector as a whole isn’t technical, but human. “Early DeFi users were tinkerers and explorers: they embraced complexity, unpacked mechanisms, and often became builders themselves,” they explained.

“Today, as the user base grows and diversifies, most newcomers don’t have the time — or perhaps the desire — to study liquidation curves, bonding curves, and lending mechanics for weeks,” they added.

Curve's current challenge is to make its infrastructure accessible without requiring users to understand the underlying complexities — much like people use smartphones without knowing how transistors function.

"The goal is to abstract complexity, simplify interfaces, and offer a seamless experience that’s just as accessible to institutions as it is to individuals,” they concluded. “DeFi won’t scale through education alone — it will scale through design and innovation.”