What is a referral code and its link?
A referral code is a short name you claim on the Refer page, and its link, recoup.fi/r/CODE, lets a new borrower bind your code to their wallet before their first borrow.
- Claim a code. On app.recoup.fi/refer, connect your wallet, press CLAIM YOUR CODE and confirm one transaction. A code is 3 to 16 characters, and once claimed it is yours permanently, recorded in Recoup's referral registry on Base. The registry holds no money: it records which code referred which wallet.
- Share the link. Your link is recoup.fi/r/ followed by your code. Whoever opens it has your code held in their browser.
- The referred wallet binds it. On the Borrow screen, before its first borrow, the new borrower presses APPLY CODE and confirms one transaction. A code can also be typed in by hand there.
- A binding is permanent. Each wallet can bind one code, once, and it can never be changed or removed. A wallet cannot bind its own code.
What does each side earn?
The referrer gets 20% of Recoup's share of the protocol fee the referred loan generates, for 52 weeks, and the referred borrower gets 10% of it back as a USDC rebate, for 12 weeks.
Both together never come to more than 30% of Recoup's share. They come out of Recoup's own share of the fee, so the 55 / 25 / 10% split to borrowers, lenders and the insurance fund is untouched, and so is DexFi's part of the fee. Both periods run from the start of the referral: the later of Recoup's first fee-paying harvest and the moment the referred loan's debt first reaches $100.
An example: $100 of harvested yield
- The harvest splits as it always does: $55 to the borrower's debt, $25 to lenders, $10 to insurance and $10 as the protocol fee.
- The $10 fee is $8 to Recoup and $2 to DexFi.
- For the first 12 weeks, Recoup's $8 becomes $1.60 to the referrer and $0.80 to the referred borrower, and Recoup keeps $5.60.
- From week 13 to week 52, the referrer still gets $1.60 and Recoup keeps $6.40.
- After week 52, Recoup keeps all $8.
$100 is a round number to show the proportions, not an amount anyone has earned.
When does a referral earn?
Only when the code was bound before the referred wallet's first borrow, the referred loan's debt is at least $100, and Recoup has received a fee from it. The referrer's share also waits until the referrer has held a loan of their own from one harvest to the next.
1. Bind before the first borrow
A binding counts only if it comes before the referred wallet's first borrow, of any size. A wallet that binds after it has borrowed earns nothing for either side, and because a binding is permanent it cannot be redone.
Why: without it, every existing borrower could bind a code the day codes open and divert the rewards onto loans nobody referred.
2. A referred loan of at least $100
A referred loan earns only while its debt is at least $100. Below that nothing accrues for either of you, and its weeks keep counting. The 12 and 52 weeks run on while it is below.
Why: it stops dust farming, where many tiny loans are opened only to collect rewards that cost more to track and pay than they are worth.
3. The referrer's own loan
Your own share starts once you have held a loan of at least $100 from one harvest right through to the next. Anything your referrals earned you before that is forfeited, not paid later. The rule is met at the end of the first full harvest-to-harvest stretch across which your loan was at least $100 the whole time, and once met it is not checked again. The referred borrower's rebate does not wait for it.
Why: two wallets belonging to one person pass every on-chain check, so nothing on the chain can tell a real referral from someone referring themselves. The rule makes the referrer a real borrower, and forfeiting rather than paying later means nobody can open a loan late and collect a backlog.
4. Recoup's own codes
A code held by one of Recoup's own wallets, such as a thank-you code Recoup gives out, is exempt from rule 3, because Recoup does not borrow. Its referrer share goes to Recoup's own wallet, and the referred borrower's rebate works as it does with any code.
When does the referrer's share start?
At the end of the first full harvest-to-harvest stretch across which the referrer's own loan was at least $100 the whole time; what the referral earned the referrer before then is forfeited.
An example, not a schedule. Say Recoup's first fee-paying harvest has already happened, and harvests land a week apart, on 27 Oct, 3 Nov, 10 Nov, 17 Nov and so on.
- 25 Oct. A friend opens your link, applies your code on Borrow and then borrows $1,000, their first borrow. The referral starts here: their rebate runs for 12 weeks, to 17 Jan, and your share for 52 weeks. You have no loan of your own yet.
- 27 Oct. A harvest. Your friend's rebate counts. Your share is worked out too, but your own loan rule is not met yet, so it is forfeited.
- 1 Nov. You borrow $500 against bonds of your own.
- 3 Nov. A harvest. Your loan was open for only part of 27 Oct to 3 Nov, so that stretch does not count.
- 10 Nov. A harvest. Your loan was at least $100 from 3 Nov right through to 10 Nov, so your share starts now. What your share earned from 25 Oct to 10 Nov, 16 days, is forfeited.
- 20 Nov. You repay your own loan in full. Your share carries on: the rule is met once and not checked again.
Your share ends 52 weeks after 25 Oct, on 24 Oct the following year. The 16 forfeited days come out of those 52 weeks; they are not added at the end.
How do earnings become claimable?
After a harvest that leaves something new owed, a claim round is posted to the claim contract; it waits 72 hours, then anyone can activate it, and each wallet claims its own USDC once its total reaches $10.
- A round after a harvest. When a harvest leaves something new owed, Recoup builds a round, sends the claim contract the USDC it covers, and posts the round there.
- A 72-hour wait. A posted round cannot be claimed for 72 hours, and Recoup can revoke it in that time if it is wrong. Once the wait is over, anyone can activate it.
- Totals, never paid twice. Each round holds every wallet's total since the start, and a claim pays that total minus what the wallet was already paid.
- A $10 minimum. Rewards become claimable once your total reaches $10. Below that they are carried forward until it does.
- Paid to your own wallet. A claim is always paid to the wallet the rewards belong to, whoever sends it. The referred borrower's rebate arrives as ordinary USDC, which can be used to repay the loan.
Claims open once the distributor contract is live on Base; until then nothing is claimable, and what has accrued stays counted.
Where does the money come from?
Only from protocol fees Recoup has actually received from harvested yield, never from emissions or a token.
There is no sign-up bounty: a referred loan whose bonds pay no yield generates no fee, and pays nobody anything. Recoup computes every figure with a script that reads only Recoup's own on-chain events and applies the rules on this page; the same events always give the same figures, and the script refuses to publish if its rebuild disagrees with what the contracts hold.
Can someone refer themselves?
Yes: one person with a second wallet can bind their own code to it, and nothing on the chain can tell that from a real referral. The rules above are why it earns little.
The pair still has to meet every rule: the second wallet binds before its first borrow and keeps at least $100 of debt, and the first holds a loan of its own across a full harvest stretch, forfeiting whatever came before. What the pair gets is part of the fee the second wallet's own loan paid: on every $100 of harvested yield, at most $2.40 for the first 12 weeks, then $1.60 to week 52, and nothing after. It cannot be paid out of anyone's principal or for opening wallets, because the only money in the programme is fees Recoup received.