Venus Protocol is a decentralized lending market where users supply crypto to earn interest and borrow against it. It launched on BNB Chain in 2020 1. Its design merges Compound-style money markets with a Maker-style stablecoin called VAI 111. XVS token holders govern it through on-chain proposals 10. The main product, the Core Pool, held about $1.23 billion across eight networks according to DefiLlama on October 23, 2026 14. Venus has a long incident record, including oracle-manipulation losses in 2021, 2022, 2025 and March 2026 15.
Venus describes itself as a community-governed protocol and does not name a company or headquarters in its documentation. Changes go through Venus Improvement Proposals (VIPs). Voting power comes from XVS locked in the XVS Vault. Successful proposals are queued in a timelock and can then be executed by anyone 10.
There are three routes. Normal proposals wait 48 hours after passing, Fast-track 6 hours and Critical 1 hour. Submitting any proposal requires 1,000,000 XVS of delegated voting power, and passing requires 1,500,000 votes in favor 10. These are on-chain settings that governance can change. The short Critical route lets Venus react quickly to attacks, as it did in September 2025 18. It also means parameters can change with little notice.
Supplying. You connect a wallet to app.venus.io, enable an asset and supply it. You receive vTokens, which represent your deposit plus accrued interest. You can redeem them as long as the market has liquidity 23. Each market has a supply cap set by governance 3.
Borrowing. Supplied assets marked as collateral give you borrowing power. The collateral factor sets how much you can borrow against each asset. If your debt rises above the liquidation threshold, liquidators can repay part of it and seize collateral at a discount, the liquidation incentive 4. The Core Pool now sets thresholds and incentives per market rather than globally 4.
E-Mode. On the BNB Chain Core Pool only, users can opt into groups of correlated assets, such as stablecoins or ETH variants. Inside a group, borrowing limits are higher and the liquidation penalty lower 5.
VAI. Users can also mint Venus' own stablecoin, VAI, against their collateral. Repayments carry a stability fee. That fee rises when VAI trades below $1, which encourages repayment and supports the peg 11.
Costs. Using Venus requires network gas 2. Borrowers pay variable interest set by each market's rate model. A share of that interest goes to protocol reserves rather than to suppliers. Rates and reserve factors differ by market and change with governance votes, so check the market page before borrowing.
Interest reserves are routed through a ProtocolShareReserve contract. On eligible deployments, reserve income is split 40% to the Treasury, 40% to Venus Prime and 20% to the Risk Fund. Liquidation and other revenue is split 60/20/20 9. The split changed on July 1, 2026 (VIP-638). XVS Vault stakers on BNB Chain no longer receive a direct revenue share. That portion now funds Venus Prime 9. Since May 2026, revenue reaches each destination through buyback contracts run by an off-chain operator 9.
Venus Prime is a non-transferable token given to qualifying XVS stakers. Eligibility is ordered by a time-weighted score, and supply is capped at 500 tokens by default 12. Holders receive boosted rewards in the USDT, USDC, BTC, ETH and BNB markets, funded from protocol revenue 12.
The Risk Fund can cover shortfalls, but the docs state plainly that it is "not a per-user insurance policy" and does not guarantee repayment of every loss 8.
Venus prices collateral through a Resilient Oracle. For each asset, governance can assign a main, a pivot and a fallback source, drawn from Chainlink, RedStone, Binance, Atlas, APRO and others 6. The docs caution that not every asset has more than one source configured 6.
Protection Mode adds a second defense for whitelisted low-liquidity tokens. If a price jumps suspiciously, borrowing power is calculated using the recent low for collateral and the recent high for debt. Liquidations keep using the live price 7. This responds directly to the manipulation attacks described below.
Venus has fully deprecated its standalone Isolated Pools on BNB Chain, Ethereum and Arbitrum, and removed them from the app 13. Remaining positions can sometimes be closed by calling the contracts through a block explorer. Some markets have repay or redeem paused 13. The docs warn users to verify contract addresses and never share keys with anyone claiming to be support 13.
Hacks in DefiLlama’s public database are also scored as the security record on the Venus rating page.
For CoinPulse's separate assessment, see CoinPulse's Venus Core Pool rating and evidence and the lending ratings. For comparable designs, see our Compound and Aave profiles.
EarningWhat is yield farming and how does it work?Yield farming lets you earn rewards by lending or supplying crypto to DeFi protocols. Here is how it works, plus the risks to weigh first.8 min read·
SecurityWhat Is a Rug Pull, and How to Spot OneA rug pull is when a project's team abandons it and drains investor funds. Learn the main types, the warning signs, and how to check a token before you buy.7 min read·
RegulationBitcoin ETF Outflows Weigh on Market as Interactive Brokers Launches Ethereum StakingSpot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $65.4 million in net outflows as hawkish Federal Reserve comments pressured prices. Meanwhile, Interactive Brokers rolled out Ethereum staking for eligible US clients.4 min read·
MarketsCFTC Opens Retail Crypto Leverage Rulemaking as Bitcoin Holds Near $84KThe CFTC has begun a rulemaking on leveraged retail crypto trading, while Bitcoin hovers near $84,000 and traders wait for U.S. inflation data and the Fed’s October meeting.4 min read·
MarketsUS Moves $1B in Seized Bitcoin as Senate Scrutiny of Tether GrowsU.S.-linked wallets shifted 12,267 BTC from a Bitfinex hack seizure address without any exchange deposit, while Senator Richard Blumenthal pressed Cantor Fitzgerald over its Tether partnership.3 min read·
