Fees and gas
TL;DR
- Earn's fee is gas-cost-plus: the gas cost of the move, in USDC, times a small per-chain factor. Not a percentage of yield.
- Fee is taken in shares of the source vault at each rebalance. No fee on deposits or closes, and no management fee.
- You pay gas for setup and close. Quicknode pays gas for rebalances and the destination-chain mint on cross-chain moves.
- A principal-erosion guard blocks any rebalance whose fee would push your net value below your original capital. Forced exits are the exception.
Per-chain factors
Each chain has its own factor, sized so the absolute fee stays meaningful: higher-gas chains like Ethereum carry a small multiplier, cheaper chains a larger one. In practice a rebalance fee runs a couple of dollars on Ethereum and a few cents or less on the other chains. 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 the fee is computed
At each rebalance, Earn takes the gas cost of the move at the chain's current gas price, converts it to USDC, and multiplies by the per-chain factor. The result is taken in shares of the source vault. If the move fails, no fee is taken.
A cross-chain rebalance is priced in two legs: the source-chain gas at the source chain's factor, plus the destination relay-and-deposit gas at the destination chain's factor. The combined fee is charged once, on the source side; there is no separate charge on the destination chain.
Principal-erosion guard
Earn skips any rebalance whose projected cumulative fee would push your net value below your original capital. The move is reconsidered later, by which point yield may have caught up or a cheaper candidate may have appeared.
Forced exits bypass the guard so funds are never stranded: exiting a vault you hid, or one below your liquidity floor, executes and charges its fee even if that dips below your original capital. See Rebalancing.
Who pays gas
- You pay gas on transactions your wallet signs: USDC allowance, per-vault approvals, deposit, and close.
- Quicknode pays gas on transactions Earn signs on your behalf: rebalances, the destination-chain mint on cross-chain rebalances and initial cross-chain deposits, and the destination-side mint on cross-chain closes.
Where fees show up
Each rebalance entry in strategy history shows its fee in USDC. The strategy's Net Value stat shows the running gross/fees breakdown.