Earn charges a gas-cost-based fee when it rebalances a strategy. The fee is not calculated as a percentage of your deposit or yield.
- Gas-cost-based pricing. Earn converts the move's gas cost to USDC and multiplies it by a per-chain factor.
- No percentage-based fee. Earn does not charge a management fee or take a percentage of your yield.
- No Earn fee on deposits or closes. You pay the gas for wallet-signed setup, deposit, and close transactions.
- Quicknode funds rebalances. Quicknode pays the gas for rebalance transactions and destination-chain execution.
- Principal protection. A principal-erosion guard blocks standard rebalances whose fee would reduce Net Value below the original capital.
- Coverage is separate. Covered strategies also have a cover premium. See Covered strategies.
Per-chain factors
Each supported chain has its own fee factor. Higher-gas chains such as Ethereum use a smaller multiplier, while lower-gas chains use a larger multiplier so the resulting fee remains meaningful.
| Chains | Factor | Example gas cost | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Optimism, Unichain, Monad | 5× | $0.005 | $0.025 |
| Base, Polygon, Arbitrum | 2.5× | $0.02 | $0.05 |
| Ethereum | 1.1× | $1.00 | $1.10 |
The gas costs above are illustrative. Factors are adjusted from time to time, and the actual fee on each rebalance depends on gas prices at the time of the move.
How Earn calculates a rebalance fee
For a same-chain rebalance, Earn:
- Calculates the move's gas cost at the chain's current gas price.
- Converts that gas cost to USDC.
- Multiplies the USDC value by the chain's factor.
- Takes the resulting fee in shares of the source vault.
If the move fails, Earn does not take a fee.
Cross-chain fee calculation
A cross-chain rebalance includes two priced legs:
- Source chain — The source-chain gas cost multiplied by the source chain's factor.
- Destination chain — The relay-and-deposit gas cost multiplied by the destination chain's factor.
Because destination execution has not happened when the fee is calculated, Earn simulates it on the destination chain. The combined amount is then charged once from the shares leaving the source vault. There is no separate destination-chain charge.
Principal-erosion guard
Earn skips a standard rebalance when its projected cumulative fee would reduce Net Value below the strategy's original capital. Auto-Pilot considers the move again during later checks, when accumulated yield or a lower-cost opportunity may allow it to pass.
Forced exits bypass this guard. Exiting a hidden vault or a vault below the strategy's liquidity floor still incurs the rebalance fee, even if Net Value falls below the original capital. See Rebalancing.
Who pays gas
Gas payment depends on who submits the transaction:
| Gas payer | Transactions |
|---|---|
| You | USDC allowance, per-vault approvals, deposits, and closes signed by your wallet. |
| Quicknode | Rebalances, destination-chain minting for cross-chain rebalances and initial deposits, and destination-side minting for cross-chain closes. |
Where fees show up
Open a strategy's History tab to view the USDC fee for each rebalance. The Net Value section shows the running breakdown between gross value and fees.