DeFi protocol Yearn Finance (YFI)

The US-based crypto fund now owns over 1% of the entire token supply of DeFi protocol Yearn Finance (YFI).

Crypto fund Polychain Capital has picked up a further 141 YFI — the token that powers Yearn Finance — in a move yesterday that expanded on its investment in the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol. The firm purchased 329 YFI just last week, according to Messari researcher Mason Nystrom, and the token’s prices have jumped by more than 100% since then.

Yearn Finance has emerged as the quintessential DeFi project in the past few months, with the token boasting no pre-sale to venture capital firms or investors and its creator, Andre Cronje, holding no tokens at the time of issuance. This led to a positive narrative for the token among crypto circles.

That, combined with usability on the Yearn Finance protocol for usecases ranging from token swaps and automated investment management, to credit lending and loans, has propelled YFI into one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrencies of all time. Its launch in July saw YFI go from nearly $30 (excluding the free distribution to some early users of yEarn) to upwards of $42,000 in September — a 55,295% increase as per data on price tracker CoinGecko.