Vaults
A vault puts your money to work in one market on an onchain exchange. It earns from the trading there, and an agent looks after it for you.
What a vault is
A vault supplies money to one pool: a market on an onchain exchange where people trade two tokens, such as NVDA and USDG. Every trade in the pool pays a small fee, and part of those fees goes to the vault.
Everyone who deposits in a vault shares the same position in that pool. What the vault earns is split among them, by the size of their stake.
Your vault shares
When you deposit, you get vault shares: a token in your own wallet that stands for your slice of the vault. Each vault has its own, named after its pair, such as auNVDA-USDG.
- Your number of shares stays the same. What each share is worth grows as the vault adds its earnings back in, and it moves with the prices of the vault's two tokens.
- Only you can move them. Not Aurum, and not the agent.
- You can cash them in at any time, all of them or part. There's no lock-up.
Which vaults there are
Each vault is one pair of tokens, in one pool, on one exchange. The exchange decides what the vault earns:
| Exchange | What its vaults earn |
|---|---|
| up33 | UP, up33's reward token, while the vault is staked. Trading fees while it isn't. The agent can switch between the two. |
| Uniswap V4 | Trading fees. |
Some vaults pair a tokenized stock, such as NVDA or AAPL, with USDG. They work the same way, with a few differences you should know about: see Stock vaults.
The Vaults page in the app lists every vault, with its exchange and what it's earning.
What a vault earns
Each vault shows an APY: what it has earned lately, as a yearly rate, with the earnings added back in. It's based on the last seven days of trading, and on the current rewards if the vault earns any. It's a measure, not a promise.
Where the yield comes from explains how it adds up and why it changes.
What the agent does
Each vault earns only while the price is inside a band, called its range. The agent chooses that range, decides when to move it and when to wait, and collects what the vault earns to add it back in.
- Price ranges: what a range is, and how the agent picks one.
- Harvesting and compounding: how earnings are collected and added back in.
- Rebalancing: when the agent moves a range, and when it waits instead.
The agent can't withdraw anything, and each vault's contract limits what it can do. See What it can't do.
What it costs
Aurum takes 10% of what a vault earns: earn $100, keep $90. It never takes anything from the money you put in. Depositing and withdrawing can also cost a swap fee, and every transaction costs a small network fee. Fees lists them all.
What can go wrong
A vault's value moves with the prices of its two tokens, and it can end up worth less than you put in. It earns nothing while the price is outside its range. The contracts have been reviewed for security, but no review can promise there are no bugs.
Risks of vaults goes through each risk, and what the contracts do about it.
Is a vault right for you?
A vault may suit you if:
- you want tokens to earn from trading, without managing a position yourself;
- you're fine holding a mix of two tokens, whose prices go up and down;
- you plan to stay in for a while. Earnings need time to add up, and getting in and out costs a little.
It's probably not for you if you need a fixed return, want to hold just one token, or can't afford to see the money go down.
Ready to try one? The Quickstart takes you through your first deposit.