Yield Sustainability
Yield sustainability refers to the ability of a decentralized finance protocol to generate consistent returns for liquidity providers without relying on inflationary token emissions or unsustainable external subsidies. True sustainability comes from real-world revenue generation, such as trading fees, borrowing interest, or platform service charges.
Many protocols initially attract capital through high yields funded by token dilution, but these often collapse when the token price falls and the incentives vanish. Analyzing yield sustainability involves auditing the protocol's revenue model, assessing the long-term demand for its services, and determining whether the yields are derived from actual economic activity or artificial bootstrapping.