Compound 

COMP Price

What is the Compound (COMP) lending protocol?

Compound is a decentralized lending protocol on Ethereum where suppliers deposit crypto into algorithmic money markets and earn interest, while borrowers post collateral to take loans. Interest rates adjust automatically with each market's utilization. Suppliers receive cTokens that accrue interest over time. COMP is the protocol's ERC-20 governance token: holders propose and vote on changes, including listed assets and reward rates. Compound Labs built the protocol, which progressed from Compound v2 to the Compound III (Comet) deployments.

How does the Compound lending protocol work?

Suppliers deposit supported assets into a market pool and receive cTokens, which appreciate as interest accrues. Borrowers post collateral and can withdraw other assets up to a collateral-factor limit. Rates on both sides are set algorithmically: when demand to borrow rises, rates rise and draw in more supply. Smart contracts manage every position, with no counterparty negotiating terms. The Compound III (Comet) deployment applies this model per market, with a single borrowable asset per market.

Is COMP only a governance token?

COMP is Compound's governance token. Holders can submit protocol proposals, vote on them, and delegate voting power to other addresses. Decisions made through COMP include which assets are listed in markets and how protocol rewards are distributed. The token carries no claim on protocol fees or revenue - COMP's value rests on governance participation over the 10,000,000 token supply.

What is COMP's maximum supply?

Per DropsTab data, COMP's maximum supply is capped at 10,000,000 tokens, equal to its total supply. The cap is fixed, and no emission exists beyond it. COMP launched as an ERC-20 contract on Ethereum, verifiable on Etherscan at contract 0xc00e94cb662c3520282e6f5717214004a7f26888. Bridge contracts extend COMP to Polygon, Arbitrum One, Avalanche, BSC, Gnosis Chain, Near and other networks.

How is COMP's token supply distributed?

Roughly 42% of the 10,000,000 COMP went to platform users through liquidity mining. Founders and the team hold about 22.26%, investors and shareholders roughly 24%, and around 8% is reserved for community and governance incentives. Compound's June 2020 distribution announcement detailed the remaining share across employees, future employees, users and advisors. Insider allocations (team plus investors) together account for close to half of total supply.

What does COMP's vesting schedule mean for investors?

Team and investor allocations were locked under a four-year release schedule that started with the June 2020 COMP distribution and ended in June 2024. With that schedule complete, no large scheduled cliff unlocks remain. New COMP now enters circulation mainly through governance-approved protocol incentives, so scheduled-unlock sell pressure on COMP is minimal. The remaining variable is the reward rate set through COMP holders' votes.

Who backed Compound and how much did it raise?

Per DropsTab fundraising data, Compound Labs raised $33.2M across two disclosed rounds. The $8.2M seed closed in May 2018, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain Capital and Bain Capital Ventures, with Coinbase Ventures participating in what reports describe as its first investment. The $25M Series A was led by a16z with Paradigm, Polychain Capital and Bain Capital Ventures joining.

What does Compound's fundraising signal about the project?

The backer list carries weight: a16z, Paradigm, Polychain and Bain Capital Ventures are established crypto venture firms, and Coinbase Ventures' seed participation signaled early exchange interest in Compound. Insider concentration of roughly 22-24% of supply among a small VC group is a concentration risk: a few holders carry material voting power and token exposure simultaneously.

Where can COMP crypto be traded?

Per DropsTab data, COMP trades on 55+ spot venues, including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, Bybit, KuCoin, Gate, Bitget and Upbit, and 13+ derivatives venues list COMP perpetuals, including Binance Futures, Bybit, OKX, Deribit and Hyperliquid. Decentralized liquidity is deep on Ethereum through Uniswap (v2, v3 and v4), Sushiswap and Balancer, with pools on Arbitrum, Polygon and BSC via PancakeSwap. Quote assets center on USDT, USD and USDC. Liquidity at the top venues is deep; smaller long-tail venues carry thin books.

Did Compound run liquidity mining or an airdrop?

Compound introduced COMP liquidity mining in June 2020, the first large-scale liquidity mining program in DeFi. Suppliers and borrowers on the protocol earned COMP automatically, split 50/50 between the two sides, shifting distribution toward active users. A separate Coinbase Earn education campaign also ran historically, paying small COMP amounts for completed lessons. Ongoing COMP rewards on the protocol operate through governance votes rather than a fixed campaign schedule.