Compound is a decentralized lending protocol on Ethereum, developed by Compound Labs, founded in 2018 by Robert Leshner and Geoffrey Hayes. It lets users supply and borrow crypto assets through smart contracts without a traditional intermediary.
COMP is the protocol's governance token, introduced in June 2020. Its distribution to liquidity providers drew wide attention and is often cited as a catalyst of the so-called 'DeFi summer'.
COMP holders can delegate voting rights to any address they choose, including their own wallet, another user, an application, or a DeFi expert. Anyone can take part in governance by receiving delegation, even without owning COMP.
An address with 1% of COMP delegated to it can submit a governance proposal. Proposals can add support for new assets, change collateral factors, adjust interest rate models, or modify other protocol parameters the administrator controls.
Data provided by CoinGecko
COMP has a fixed maximum supply of 10 million tokens, allocated across user rewards, the team, investors, and the community. In 2022 the protocol launched Compound III, also called Comet, which centers each market on a single base asset.
Compound has expanded beyond Ethereum mainnet to several layer-2 networks and chains, including a recent deployment on Unichain. In 2026, governance discussed and passed proposals such as removing the Community Multisig's power to cancel proposals and tightening treasury controls.
Compound is one of the earliest and longest-running DeFi lending protocols, known for transparent on-chain governance and open-source code. Its delegation model lets a broad range of participants take part in decision-making.
Risks include potential smart contract bugs, liquidations when collateral values fall sharply, and voting power concentrating among a few large holders. Regulatory changes and price volatility also apply, so readers should review information carefully.
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