Is DeFi viable? How does Yearn Finance defeat traditional financial giants?

Yearn has achieved higher revenue than traditional financial institutions with fewer employees.

(This article is authorized and reprinted from ChainNews, with the original title "Can DeFi Really Make It? Take a Look at How Yearn Beats Traditional Asset Management Giants." Original article here)

DeFi leader Yearn Finance is rapidly transforming into a giant in asset management. With the vibrant community support, Yearn's fundamentals appear stronger than those of traditional financial peers.

After recently hitting a historic high of over $5 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL), Yearn also broke the record for the highest monthly revenue.

In May alone, Yearn's revenue exceeded $10 million, with an expected annual revenue of $123.12 million. In comparison, reports indicate that new-age robo-advisors like Betterment and Wealthfront had annual revenues of $50 million and $30 million respectively - however, these figures are from 2019 and 2018 and have not been updated.

Based on revenue generated per dollar deposited and valuation calculations relative to its revenue, Yearn's performance is notably superior.

Although the above comparisons are not entirely equivalent, it is worth noting that Yearn has achieved robust financials in less than a year and a half since its inception.

Furthermore, its innovative human coordination approach means that Yearn can generate higher revenue with fewer employees.

According to YFIStats, Yearn currently has 21 team members, most of whom are anonymous, with a total payroll of $133,716 in April. In contrast, robo-advisors Betterment and Wealthfront have 293 and 231 employees respectively, while the world's largest asset management firm Blackrock has 16,500 employees.

This implies that in terms of revenue generated per employee, Yearn's efficiency is several orders of magnitude higher, with an expected revenue per team member reaching $5.86 million this year.

A significant portion of Yearn team costs go towards platform and strategic development. Analysis of protocol GitHub data shows the commitment growth of the Yearn team and community.

The growth of the Yearn developer community aligns with the number of YFI token holders. The number of YFI holders, like the protocol's TVL and revenue, has recently hit new highs.

Regardless of the recent market turmoil, Yearn continues to show growth in all aspects. While Yearn is rarely covered in traditional media reports, its asset management platform has surpassed new-age banks on several fronts. It is expected that Yearn will not only outperform traditional financial institutions in revenue, but more importantly, it can achieve this with a relatively small yet growing user community.