DeFi Yield Aggregators Compared: Yearn, Beefy, Convex

DeFi Yield Aggregator Overview

A yield aggregator automates the process of finding, entering, and compounding DeFi yield positions. Instead of manually moving funds between lending protocols, liquidity pools, and staking contracts, users deposit into vaults that execute optimized strategies on their behalf. The aggregator harvests rewards, sells them for the underlying asset, and reinvests: auto-compounding that turns a base APR into a higher effective APY.

Five protocols dominate the aggregator landscape: Yearn Finance (the original vault pioneer), Beefy Finance (multichain scale), Convex Finance (Curve ecosystem optimizer), Sommelier (ML-driven strategies), and Harvest Finance (Morpho-focused routing). Each differs in fee structure, chain coverage, strategy philosophy, and risk profile.

Protocol Comparison at a Glance

The following table summarizes the core differences across all five aggregators. TVL figures are approximate as of mid-2026 and fluctuate with market conditions.

Fee Structures Explained

Fees directly reduce your net yield, making them one of the most important comparison dimensions. Aggregator fee models vary significantly.

Yearn Finance uses a traditional 2/20 structure on legacy V2 vaults: a 2% annual management fee on total assets plus a 20% performance fee on gains. V3 factory-deployed vaults reduce the performance fee to 10%, and single-asset vaults charge no management fee. As of February 2026, 90% of protocol revenue flows to stYFI stakers.

Beefy Finance charges no management fee. Its performance fee tops out at 9.5% of harvest rewards, with most vaults at 4.5%. The fee splits between BIFI tokenholders, the protocol treasury, the vault strategist, and the harvest caller. Displayed APYs already account for all fees, so the rate you see is the rate you earn.

Convex Finance charges no direct deposit or withdrawal fees. Instead, it takes a cut of CRV and FXS rewards earned through its boosted positions: roughly 17% total, distributed across cvxCRV stakers, vlCVX holders, and the treasury.

Sommelier charges approximately 1% annually on TVL plus 10-20% on profits above a high-watermark. Fees are auctioned for SOMM tokens and distributed to SOMM stakers.

Harvest Finance keeps fees minimal: a 0.03% transaction fee and a 5% performance fee on gains, with the performance fee directed to FARM token holders.

Chain Coverage and Multichain Strategy

Chain availability determines which yield opportunities you can access. Beefy leads by a wide margin with deployments on over 40 networks, including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, Fantom, Base, Sonic, and Gnosis. This breadth lets Beefy capture yield across emerging chains where early incentives often produce the highest returns.

Yearn concentrates on Ethereum and select L2s (Arbitrum, Optimism), plus Fantom. Its V3 architecture supports permissionless vault deployment, which could accelerate multichain expansion. Convex mirrors Curve's chain presence: Ethereum mainnet remains dominant, with growing deployments on Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, and Fraxtal.

Sommelier takes a unique approach as a Cosmos SDK appchain that communicates with Ethereum via a Gravity Bridge fork and uses Axelar for cross-chain messaging. Harvest supports five chains with a focus on Morpho V2 integrations across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, and zkSync Era.

None of these aggregators currently operate on Bitcoin natively. Bitcoin DeFi yield remains nascent compared to the Ethereum ecosystem, though platforms like Spark are building infrastructure for Bitcoin-native financial products. For a comparison of Bitcoin-specific yield sources, see the Bitcoin DeFi yield comparison.

Auto-Compounding Mechanics

The core value proposition of yield aggregators is automated compounding. Each protocol implements this differently.

Yearn uses Keep3r bots to trigger harvest() calls on its strategies. The bot network monitors gas costs against expected yield and only harvests when profitable. V3's modular architecture allows individual strategies within a vault to be swapped without migrating the entire capital base.

Beefy runs a keeper network that triggers harvests multiple times daily on each vault. The cycle is straightforward: harvest reward tokens, swap to the underlying LP or single asset, redeposit into the position. Because Beefy operates across 40+ chains, its keepers must manage gas economics across very different fee environments.

Convex does not auto-compound in the traditional sense. Instead, it aggregates users' Curve LP positions to collectively earn boosted CRV rewards (up to 2.5x) through its massive veCRV position. Users claim rewards manually or stake cvxCRV for continuous yield distribution. The value comes from governance leverage rather than harvest-and-reinvest loops.

Sommelier's cellars use off-chain computation: machine learning models run externally and submit rebalancing instructions to a validator set, which then executes on-chain. This allows strategies to react to complex market signals that fully on-chain logic cannot efficiently process.

Harvest's Autopilot vaults dynamically route deposits across curated Morpho V2 markets. Rather than a single fixed strategy, Autopilot reallocates to the best-performing markets without user intervention. Withdrawals are available anytime with no lockup.

Security and Audit History

Smart contract risk is the primary danger in yield aggregation. Every protocol in this comparison has experienced either a direct exploit or a third-party incident that affected its users.

Yearn has the most extensive audit coverage, with four major firms reviewing its codebase. The November 2025 incident affected a legacy stableswap pool, not the core V2/V3 vault infrastructure, and approximately $2.39M was recovered. Beefy's protocol contracts have not been directly exploited, though its vaults inherit the protocol risk of every underlying strategy they interact with: the Sonne Finance incident illustrates how upstream exploits propagate to aggregator users.

Harvest's 2020 flash loan exploit was a defining early DeFi security event. The protocol has since overhauled its security practices, with Halborn completing the most recent audit in January 2025. Sommelier's audits uncovered vulnerabilities in its staking contract and incentive distribution, all patched prior to deployment.

The Convex-Curve Relationship

Convex Finance occupies a unique niche: rather than building independent vault strategies, it optimizes returns within the Curve ecosystem. Convex holds approximately 53% of all veCRV (vote-escrowed CRV), making it the single largest influence on Curve's gauge weight distribution.

The mechanism works as follows: Curve LPs who stake through Convex automatically receive boosted CRV rewards (up to 2.5x) without individually locking CRV for four years. CVX holders who vote-lock for 16 weeks receive vlCVX, which controls how Convex directs its veCRV voting power. Protocols routinely pay "bribes" to vlCVX holders to direct gauge emissions toward their preferred liquidity pools. This governance layer has made CVX a proxy for Curve governance power.

For users, the practical effect is simple: deposit Curve LP tokens into Convex and earn higher CRV rewards plus CVX incentives, without managing veCRV locks. The tradeoff is concentration risk: Convex's performance is tightly coupled to Curve's continued relevance and CRV token economics.

Automated Strategies vs Manual Yield Farming

Manual yield farming gives you full control over position entry, exit, and compounding frequency. The tradeoffs are real:

• Gas costs for frequent compounding erode returns on smaller positions (Yearn estimates ~$720/day in gas for hourly harvests at $30/call)
• Monitoring multiple protocols across chains requires constant attention
• Optimal strategy rotation demands expertise in protocol mechanics and risk assessment
• Manual farmers retain full custody and avoid aggregator smart contract risk

Automated strategies solve the gas and monitoring problems but introduce additional smart contract layers. Each vault is a dependency on both the aggregator's contracts and every underlying protocol in the strategy. A single smart contract vulnerability in any layer of the stack can result in partial or total loss of deposited funds.

The breakeven point depends on position size and compounding frequency. For sub-$10,000 positions on Ethereum mainnet, aggregator gas optimization typically delivers better net returns than manual compounding. For larger positions on low-fee L2s, the advantage narrows.

Bitcoin DeFi Yield Sources

Bitcoin's yield landscape differs fundamentally from Ethereum's. Native Bitcoin has no built-in staking mechanism, so yield sources rely on lending, providing liquidity, or wrapping BTC to deploy on other chains.

Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and its successors allow BTC holders to access Ethereum DeFi yields, but bridging introduces custodial trust assumptions and bridge security risks. Babylon's restaking protocol offers a non-custodial alternative for BTC holders to earn yield by securing proof-of-stake networks, though it operates outside the yield aggregator paradigm entirely.

The emergence of Bitcoin L2s and protocols like Spark is expanding what's possible for Bitcoin-native DeFi. As the BtcFi landscape develops, yield aggregation on Bitcoin could follow a path similar to Ethereum's: starting with basic lending and expanding toward automated vault strategies. For current Bitcoin yield opportunities, see our Bitcoin DeFi yield comparison.

How to Choose a Yield Aggregator

If you want the widest selection of vaults across the most chains: Beefy Finance is the clear choice with 1,500+ strategies on 40+ networks. Its zero management fee and low 4.5% performance fee make it cost-effective for smaller positions.

If you primarily farm Curve and Frax pools: Convex Finance delivers boosted returns that no other aggregator can match, thanks to its 53% veCRV position. Depositing Curve LP through Convex is the most capital-efficient way to earn CRV rewards.

If you value battle-tested infrastructure and curated strategies: Yearn Finance's V3 vaults offer modular, audited strategies with a long track record. The higher fee structure (up to 2/20 on legacy vaults) reflects active strategy management by professional contributors.

If you want ML-driven dynamic allocation: Sommelier's off-chain computation model can capture opportunities that fully on-chain strategies miss. The tradeoff is higher complexity, lower TVL (indicating less market validation), and dependence on the Cosmos validator set for execution.

If you want simple stablecoin auto-routing: Harvest Finance's Autopilot vaults on Base and Ethereum offer one-click allocation to curated Morpho V2 markets with dynamic rebalancing and no lockups.

Stablecoin Yield Comparison Across Aggregators

Stablecoin yields are the most common entry point for aggregator users. Rates fluctuate with market conditions, but the following ranges reflect typical 2025-2026 performance. For a broader view of stablecoin yield sources, see the stablecoin yield comparison tool and the stablecoin yield landscape research.

Higher yields typically correlate with higher risk: newer chains with incentive programs, smaller liquidity pools, and less-audited protocols. Harvest's wider APY range (up to 12% in favorable periods) reflects its focus on Morpho markets where utilization and incentive dynamics create more volatility in rates. Yearn's narrower range reflects its conservative, multi-strategy approach that prioritizes stability over peak returns.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a DeFi yield aggregator?

A yield aggregator is a protocol that pools user deposits and deploys them across DeFi strategies automatically. It handles reward harvesting, token swaps, and reinvestment (auto-compounding) to maximize returns while splitting gas costs across all depositors. Users deposit a single asset and the aggregator manages the underlying strategy complexity.

Are DeFi yield aggregators safe?

Yield aggregators introduce multiple layers of smart contract risk: the aggregator's own contracts plus every protocol in its underlying strategies. All five aggregators in this comparison have either experienced a direct exploit (Harvest: $34M in 2020) or been affected by upstream vulnerabilities (Beefy via Sonne Finance, Yearn via legacy pool). Audits reduce but do not eliminate risk. Never deposit more than you can afford to lose.

What fees do DeFi yield aggregators charge?

Fee structures vary widely. Beefy and Convex charge no management fees, with performance fees of 4.5% and ~17% respectively. Yearn charges up to 2% management plus 10-20% performance on gains. Harvest takes 5% of profits. Sommelier charges ~1% annual plus 10-20% performance. Always check whether displayed APYs are pre-fee or post-fee: Beefy shows post-fee rates, while others may show gross yields.

Which yield aggregator has the highest TVL?

Convex Finance leads with approximately $1.28 billion in TVL as of mid-2026, reflecting its dominant position in the Curve ecosystem. Yearn and Beefy each hold $250-300M. Sommelier and Harvest are smaller at ~$70M and ~$23M respectively. Higher TVL generally indicates more market trust but does not guarantee safety or better returns.

Can I use yield aggregators with Bitcoin?

Not directly on the Bitcoin network. Current yield aggregators operate on Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains. Bitcoin holders can access these platforms by wrapping BTC (WBTC, tBTC) and bridging to Ethereum, but this introduces bridge and custody risk. Bitcoin-native DeFi is still developing through L2s and protocols like Spark. For a comparison of current Bitcoin yield options, see our Bitcoin DeFi yield comparison.

What is the difference between APR and APY in yield aggregators?

APR is the simple annual rate without compounding. APY includes the effect of compounding: reinvesting rewards back into the position. A vault with 10% APR compounded daily produces roughly 10.52% APY. The more frequently an aggregator compounds, the greater the gap between APR and APY. This difference is the core value that aggregators provide.

How does Convex boost Curve yields?

Convex aggregates CRV from users and locks it as veCRV, which earns a boost of up to 2.5x on Curve LP rewards. Individual LPs would need to lock large amounts of CRV for four years to achieve the same boost. Convex holds ~53% of all veCRV, making it the largest single influence on Curve gauge emissions. Users deposit Curve LP tokens into Convex and earn boosted CRV plus CVX token incentives without managing veCRV locks themselves.

This tool is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. TVL figures, APY ranges, and fee structures are approximate and based on publicly available data as of mid-2026. DeFi yields are highly variable and past performance does not indicate future returns. Smart contract risk is inherent in all DeFi protocols. Always verify current data on each protocol's official documentation and audit reports before depositing funds.