FAQ

Each answer starts from a symptom or a common question, gives the short answer, and links the page that explains it in depth. If something seems wrong with your position, start with the first question.

"Why can I withdraw less than I deposited?"

Check these three independent causes. One withdrawal can have more than one.

1. Temporary Redemption Discount (TRD). Fundamental Value is the value of one share on the vault's books, and Redemption Value is what a withdrawal returns now. If a share's Redemption Value is below its Fundamental Value, a TRD applies. Arbitrage reduces it over a time that is not fixed.
2. Watermark (staked only). If staked / ideal_staked < 1, the staked side is below its watermark, the level that its value must regain after losses. Until later gains close that gap, your staked shares can redeem for less than you deposited. LT, the market's vault contract, charges no admin fee until gains repay that loss.
3. PPS drag. If the rebalancing cost exceeded fee income over your holding period, Fundamental Value, the price per share (PPS), grew less than expected. It recovers only when later fee income is larger than the later rebalancing cost.

Compare amounts in the asset, for example cbBTC. A lower USD value alone comes from the BTC or ETH price. The following table shows how to check each cause and whether waiting helps:

Cause	Applies to	How to check	Does waiting help?
TRD	Staked and unstaked	My TRD is negative, or Redemption is below Fundamental Amount in Earn > My Markets (not shown on deprecated markets)	Often. It narrows as price_scale recenters, in no fixed time. Part of it can close by Fundamental Value stepping down.
Watermark shortfall	Staked	On the PLAIN PPS VS WATERMARK PPS chart, the plain PPS is below the watermark PPS, or the staked Fundamental Amount is below the amount you staked	No. Only later gains close it. LT charges no admin fee until then.
PPS drag	Unstaked	FUNDAMENTAL PPS on the PLAIN view of the PRICES chart in Analytics is below its value on your deposit date	No. It is already in the PPS. It recovers only when later fees exceed later costs.

For how TRD forms and closes, read Fundamental Value, Redemption Value, and TRD. For how a staked position closes the gap to its watermark, read Watermark and recovery.

"What's the difference between Fundamental Value and Redemption Value?"

Fundamental Value (LT.pricePerShare()) is the vault's oracle-priced accounting value per share. Redemption Value (LT.preview_withdraw(shares)) is what a withdrawal returns now, from the live state of the Curve Cryptoswap pool. The signed gap between them is TRD. For how to compute TRD and when to act on it, read Fundamental Value, Redemption Value, and TRD.

"I staked. Should I unstake?"

It depends on why you staked. Staking gives up fee growth for YB emissions and adds watermark risk. After losses, your staked shares can redeem for less than your deposit until later gains close the gap to the watermark. Stay staked if you trust YB emissions to compensate for the risk of a watermark shortfall. For a breakeven example, read Staked and unstaked economics.

"When does TRD clear?"

The time is not fixed: it depends on the price path and on arbitrage volume. Before you exit, check the TRD column of the markets table on Analytics. For what sets how fast the gap closes, read Fundamental Value, Redemption Value, and TRD.

"Does YB have a cap?"

Yes. YB has a maximum supply of 1,000,000,000 YB. Ownership is renounced, so no new minter can be granted. The GaugeController holds the minter role and mints only through emit(), which is bound by the reserve. Verify the full minter set from the token's RoleMinterChanged events. For the supply structure and how to check it onchain, read Supply structure in YB token.

"Is there impermanent loss?"

The underlying Curve Cryptoswap pool still has impermanent loss (IL), the shortfall of an LP position against holding the deposited assets. Unstaked yb-LP keeps full price exposure to BTC or ETH, up and down, because your claim is on the leveraged position that offsets that IL. The 2× leverage offsets the concave $\sqrt{p}$ shape of the LP value curve. As a result, you get the profit and loss of holding, plus fees reduced by borrow interest and rebalancing cost.

Staked yb-LP can also have a watermark shortfall, a separate effect that occurs when the rebalancing cost exceeds fee income for a period. For why 2× is the leverage that offsets IL, read Compounding leverage.

"Why doesn't a staked position earn Fundamental Value growth?"

LT splits each fee gain between unstaked holders and admin fees. A staked position gets a share of a gain only while it is below its watermark, and only up to the remaining gap. So staked positions do not accrue the Fundamental Value growth that unstaked yb-LP earns, and YB emissions are their only economic return. Their rate is the Emissions APR (shown as Token APR in the app).

The Analytics charts labeled STAKED + EMISSIONS show the staked side's value plus accrued emissions. Do not add unstaked Fundamental Value growth to that value, because the staker does not earn it. For how LT splits each fee gain, read Fees and veYB revenue.

"Does YieldBasis use an external price feed?"

Only a pool that runs the oracle-report policy does. There, signed Pyth Lazer (Pyth Pro) USD price reports of the asset set the pool's swap fee and steer its price_scale target. The LP oracle itself reads only the Curve pool's price_scale and virtual_price, and Curve's crvUSD/USD aggregator.

The oracle-report policy is the pool policy YBOraclizedPolicy, and price_scale is the pool's internal price. For how the LP oracle builds its price from these inputs, read Oracle design.

Questions about pool policies

A pool policy is a contract that the Curve pool calls to set its swap fee, its price_scale target, or both. A pool that runs YBTwocryptoPolicy keeps its own fee curve, because that policy sets only the price_scale target. To see which policy a pool runs, call POLICY() on the pool or read the table in Contract addresses.

For how each policy works, read Pool policies. For who can change or kill a policy, read Pool policies in Roles and permissions.

"Why did my swap pay the fallback fee?"

On a pool that runs the oracle-report policy, while the policy is not killed, a swap can pay less than the fallback fee only when both of these conditions are true:

• The swap is a corrective swap with a positive edge.
• The swap uses a signed price report younger than the relax time.

You get the lower fee when you deliver the report with deliver_oracle_report and swap in the same transaction. If nobody delivers price reports, every swap pays the fallback fee.

The fallback fee is the oracle-report policy's highest fee, which a swap pays when no discount applies. A corrective swap moves the pool price toward the report price without passing it. Its edge is its gain at the report price before fees. The relax time is the report age at which the discount ends.

For the fee formula and a worked example, read Swap fee in Pool policies.

"Why did my deposit revert with 'LT deviation'?"

On a pool that runs the oracle-report policy, the policy runs the LT deviation check: it compares the debt in a yb-LP deposit with the market's debt ratio. If the gap exceeds the tolerance (ratio_tolerance), the deposit reverts. The check also applies to deposits through a Hybrid Vault and to migrations into the market. Get a fresh preview from the app, then deposit again.

For how the check works, read LT deviation check in Pool policies.

"Does a pool policy change my withdrawal?"

On a pool that runs the oracle-report policy, yes, a little. A normal withdrawal removes liquidity in imbalanced form. The pool charges half of the fallback fee on the imbalanced part, and preview_withdraw includes that fee. On a pool that runs YBTwocryptoPolicy, the pool's own fee applies. If the policy contract reverts, a normal withdrawal reverts too, but emergency_withdraw stays available.

"How do I read the analytics page?"

Before you exit, check the TRD column of the markets table. Do not add unstaked Fundamental Value growth to the staked charts, because they already include emissions. For what each panel shows and how a reading can mislead, read Analytics.

Related

• Glossary: definitions of the terms in these answers.
• Risk disclaimer: the risks behind these symptoms.