yearn

Yearn is a verb meaning to have a strong desire or longing for something, often accompanied by tenderness or melancholy. The term has Old English roots and has been part of English usage since the early medieval period. In everyday language, people yearn for distant places, lost opportunities, or personal fulfillment. The word is frequently used in poetry and prose to convey a sense of ache beyond simple desire.

Yearn Finance, commonly known as Yearn or yearn.finance, is a decentralized finance protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain. It provides automated yield optimization by routing deposits to a variety of lending and yield-generating opportunities across DeFi protocols. The project organizes investment strategies into Vaults, where users deposit assets and the protocol automatically selects and manages strategies to maximize returns. A set of Strategies governs how funds are deployed, harvesting interest, lending, borrowing, or moving capital across protocols such as Aave, Compound, and others.

Yearn's governance is driven by the YFI token, which was distributed to the community and is used to vote on protocol upgrades and parameter changes. Founded by Andre Cronje in 2020, Yearn quickly became a leading DeFi yield aggregator. The token distribution was notable for its lack of pre-mine or reserved allocations, which contributed to its community-driven ethos. Since its early iterations, Yearn has undergone multiple upgrades (including major version updates) that improved risk controls, flexibility, and user experience.

As a non-custodial protocol, users retain control of their funds through their own wallets, while Yearn handles automated management. The project remains integrated with a broad ecosystem of DeFi services and is often used in combination with other protocols to optimize returns.