What is DexFi?
DexFi is a decentralised finance (DeFi) project that runs an on-chain treasury: a pool of crypto assets it invests to earn a return.
"On-chain" means the treasury's holdings sit in public blockchain addresses that anyone can inspect, rather than in a bank account only the fund can see. DexFi describes itself as having worked in DeFi since 2021 (DexFi docs). It is a separate project from Recoup: Recoup did not build DexFi, does not run its treasury and cannot change its contracts.
Be careful with the name. Several unrelated sites use "DexFi" or something close to it. The documentation DexFi publishes is at docs.dexfi.com.
What are DexFi Treasury Bonds?
A DexFi Treasury Bond is a token that represents a share of the DexFi treasury and earns a share of its profits, paid in USDC on a weekly cycle.
In DexFi's own words, a bond lets you "own a share of the DexFi Treasury", and the treasury's returns are split between bond holders and the treasury itself (DexFi docs: Treasury Bonds). USDC is a stablecoin, a token designed to stay worth one US dollar, so the payout arrives in something that holds its value rather than in a volatile coin.
What the contracts themselves show, read directly from the chain:
- One kind of token, many copies. Bonds live in a single contract on Base (0x969C6eCF…) as one interchangeable token type, so holding bonds means holding a balance, like holding shares.
- You buy them with ETH. A new bond is minted when DexFi's own signing service approves the purchase.
- They pay weekly. The payout is claimed from DexFi's staking contract, usually on Thursdays, with the occasional skipped or catch-up week.
- They do not move freely. A bond transfer only succeeds if an address on DexFi's whitelist is involved, so you cannot send one to any wallet you like.
Are DexFi Treasury Bonds the same as US Treasury bonds?
No. DexFi Treasury Bonds have nothing to do with US government debt.
"Treasury" here means DexFi's own treasury, its investment fund. A US Treasury bond is a loan to the US government. Tokenised US Treasuries also exist in crypto, and they are a different thing again. A DexFi bond is exposed to how DexFi's fund performs, which can rise or fall, and it carries none of the backing of a government bond.
What is a bond worth?
Recoup values each bond at its NAV, net asset value: roughly, the fund's value divided by the number of bonds.
Part of DexFi's treasury Recoup can price itself from the chain. For the rest it takes DexFi's own figure and knocks 20% off it, because it cannot verify that part independently. Recoup posts the result on-chain about once a day, and every loan and liquidation calculation uses it. The verification guide shows where to read each post.
One thing matters for anyone holding bonds: a large part of the treasury has been a leveraged long-ETH position, meaning it is built to gain more than ETH when ETH rises and to lose more when ETH falls. Bond value therefore tends to move with the ETH price, and sharply.
Can I get my money back out of a bond?
Yes, but not instantly and not at full value: DexFi redeems bonds by hand, at 90% of NAV, and Recoup plans on it taking 48 hours or more after you ask.
Getting in and getting out are not mirror images. Buying a bond is a single transaction; getting out means asking DexFi and accepting a 10% cut. DexFi's docs (Treasury Bonds) say redemption is at 90% of a bond's value and processed within about two business days, and that it can take longer depending on conditions. Recoup plans on 48 hours or more, done by hand. This is one reason a loan against bonds can be useful: it turns bonds into spendable USDC without redeeming them.
Is DexFi safe?
DexFi carries real risks that sit outside Recoup's control, and anyone holding or borrowing against its bonds should know them.
- One key controls the contracts. The bond and staking contracts are owned by a single wallet with no multisig (a wallet needing several independent signatures) and no timelock (a built-in delay before a change takes effect). That owner can pause minting, change the whitelist, upgrade the staking contract and rewrite how rewards are counted.
- Audit coverage is partial. DexFi has published audits, but the bond contract itself is not among the code they cover.
- The fund can lose value. The treasury's ETH exposure is leveraged, and part of it sits in positions that cannot be priced from the chain alone.
- The payout can shrink or stop. The weekly distribution comes from the fund's profits, so it varies, and nothing guarantees it.
None of this means DexFi will fail. It means the value of a bond, and the yield it pays, depend on a third party whose decisions Recoup cannot override.
Can I borrow against my DexFi bonds?
Yes. Recoup lets you deposit DexFi Treasury Bonds as collateral and borrow USDC against them, up to 25% of their value, and then uses the bonds' weekly payout to pay the loan down for you.
Collateral is what you lock up so that you can borrow. Your bonds keep earning while they are locked, and most of what they earn goes straight against your debt, so the balance falls week by week without you making a payment. There is no interest rate, so the debt never grows on its own; only borrowing more adds to it. The self-repaying loans guide explains the mechanism.
Can I try it now?
Recoup runs on Base Sepolia, a test network, where you can open a position with test bonds that have no real value.
Nothing on the test network moves real money. The external audit of the lender pool is complete (33Labs, September 2026; the report), and the public lender pool has not launched.