Kraken & Legion Launch Yield Basis (YB): A New BTC-Native Yield Protocol

Kraken is teaming up with Legion to launch Yield Basis (YB), a BTC-yield protocol founded by Michael Egorov, that aims to deliver return on BTC exposure while minimizing AMM (automated market maker) curvature risk. The public token sale kicks off on Kraken’s new platform, Kraken Launch, with a reputation-based component via Legion. Up to 20% of the allocation is reserved for users with high Legion Scores, which reflect verified on-chain, social, and developer activity, while the rest will be available first-come, first-served on both Kraken and Legion.

YB builds on architecture similar to Curve’s liquidity pools, with a re-leverage mechanism that keeps LPs’ risk exposure aligned with the underlying BTC asset (on Ethereum) while capturing trading fees. Participants will choose whether to take fees denominated in real BTC or forego them in favour of YB emissions. Tokenomics split includes allocations for liquidity incentives, team, ecosystem reserves, investors, Curve licensing, and protocol development.

This marks the debut project for Kraken Launch and showcases a merit-based token distribution strategy aimed at more active community members. YB is expected to list shortly after the sale concludes, offering secondary market liquidity via Kraken. For yield-hungry BTC holders and DeFi users, Yield Basis could offer a novel way to earn upside with more advanced engineering of risk and incentive alignment.