Beefy
Beefy fees affect your first deposit, earnings, and exit
Beefy fees include charges on harvested earnings and selected transaction routes; network gas and third-party bridge costs add separate expenses. Standard ZAP swaps charge 0.05% on converted assets. Some vaults also charge withdrawal fees. A crosschain route can add a destination relay charge, so there isn’t one percentage that describes the entire cost of using a vault.
The amount deducted depends on what the charge measures. Harvested rewards, swapped tokens, and bridged USDC use different calculation bases. A quoted deposit also targets a particular product, whose entry conditions can affect the final cost.
Converting fewer assets reduces the ZAP swap charge
Beefy’s standard ZAP swap rate applies to the assets that an actual swap converts. A route that uses part of the input directly has a smaller fee base than one that converts everything. The destination’s required token mix determines how much needs conversion. For a Cowcentrated Liquidity Manager (CLM) deposit, that mix can be uneven and can change as the pool trades. ZAP simulates the deposit and obtains quotes for the required swaps. The total deposit value therefore doesn’t automatically equal the amount subject to the swap fee.
Each required swap has its own input amount. When a crosschain route needs conversions on both chains, both can contribute to the charge.
Harvesting charges earnings before reinvestment
Performance fees take a share of rewards that the strategy harvests. They reduce the earnings available for reinvestment. They aren’t an annual percentage deducted from the entire deposited balance. A percentage of harvest rewards uses a different base from a withdrawal charge. Harvesting operates on the pooled strategy, so the deduction doesn’t require a separate payment from every depositor’s wallet. A performance fee can arise while the position’s market value falls, because the strategy can earn rewards during a decline. The charge follows harvested earnings, independently of the portfolio’s change in dollar value.
A yield farming strategy claims rewards, deducts applicable performance fees, and reinvests the remainder into principal assets. Beefy’s vault fee framework includes performance rates up to 9.5%, with the selected strategy determining the applicable rate. That ceiling isn’t a universal charge for every vault. The product’s Deposit and Withdraw fee breakdown identifies its own performance terms.
CLM layers charge different earnings streams
Where a CLM’s underlying pool pays trading fees to liquidity providers, Beefy takes a share of those earnings. The July 2026 Ethereum CLM launch used a 9.5% performance fee on CLM yield. That earnings charge has a different basis from an entry charge.
Trading fees and incentive rewards
Trading-fee income compounds within the CLM position. Extra incentives in a CLM Pool can remain available to claim. A CLM Vault’s autocompounding strategy claims those incentives, converts them into principal assets, and reinvests them in the CLM product.
The underlying CLM deduction
The underlying performance fee applies when the position claims trading fees from the pool. It doesn’t wait for a depositor to claim an incentive reward.
The additional vault deduction
The overlying vault charges a separate performance fee on the incentives that its strategy harvests. These percentages concern different earnings streams. Adding them together and applying their sum to every token earned would overstate the combined deduction.
Pool fee tiers describe traders’ payments
The percentage in a CLM product’s name describes the underlying pool’s trading-fee tier. Traders pay that fee when they swap through the pool. Where the pool distributes trading fees to liquidity providers, those earnings face the applicable performance charge. It isn’t a charge on the depositor’s entire position.
Withdrawal charges follow the vault and chosen exit asset
A vault withdrawal fee, where configured, deducts from the assets being withdrawn. Some strategies use it to discourage deposits immediately before a harvest followed by an immediate exit. Strategies that harvest on deposit can handle that accounting boundary without a withdrawal fee. The selected strategy’s actual setting determines the deduction; a rate shown for another vault doesn’t establish your exit cost.
Withdrawing the vault’s underlying deposit asset and using ZAP to receive another token involve different operations. The conversion route can add swap charges alongside any vault withdrawal fee. An LP token may still represent pooled assets after a direct withdrawal. Converting or removing that liquidity can have additional costs outside Beefy’s direct withdrawal.
Network gas and destination relaying pay for different execution
Network gas pays for onchain computation, while Beefy’s crosschain relay charge covers claiming bridged funds and starting the destination deposit workflow. The relay charge includes destination execution costs for those operations. Source-chain gas remains separate and requires the appropriate native token. Shared harvesting reduces repeated individual compounding transactions, but deposits, approvals, and withdrawals can still consume gas. A product with no withdrawal fee therefore doesn’t imply a transaction with no execution expense.
Crosschain costs combine percentages with a flat relay charge
Crosschain ZAP uses Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) to move USDC between supported chains. Circle sets the applicable transfer fee, which depends on the route and transfer mode. A route with no Circle transfer charge can still incur Beefy’s relay charge. The supported route determines the mode; a lower-fee transfer method isn’t automatically an available option for every product.
Beefy’s CCTP route configuration lists a $2.50 relay charge for Ethereum destinations, $1 for Linea, and $0.10 for other listed destinations. These are adjustable route settings. They don’t establish an unchanged maximum for future deposits. The quote for the selected route determines the amount to include alongside its conversion and bridge charges.
Adding percentages directly can misstate the total when they apply to different amounts. Source conversion changes the USDC available to bridge. Bridge and relay deductions then affect what reaches the destination swaps and deposit. To express route charges as a share of the starting value, convert the monetary deductions into a common value unit. Add them together and divide by that starting value. Include source gas separately when comparing the full transaction expense.
A crosschain quote connects each charge to its operation
A first crosschain vault quote can contain several deductions with different bases. A supported route can convert its starting asset to USDC, bridge that USDC, and convert it again before investment. Source and destination swaps apply only where needed. Several of these operations can share an onchain transaction.
| Deposit stage | Applicable cost component | Execution conditions and outcomes |
|---|---|---|
| Prepare USDC on the source chain | Swap fee on any input converted to USDC | An eligible USDC input can skip this conversion. |
| Initiate the CCTP transfer | Circle’s applicable fee on bridged USDC | Destination minting requires a valid Circle attestation. |
| Mint and relay on the destination | Beefy’s configured relay charge | Minted USDC must reach the destination workflow before investment. |
| Convert into the required deposit assets | Swap fee on the destination amount converted | The receiver provides a refund or recovery path if the final ZAP fails. |
| Deposit into the selected vault | Any applicable product entry charge | A vault receipt represents the completed holding. |
A first deposit needs an available route, a sufficient input balance, and native gas before authorization. Reviewing the quote provides a stopping point before a new spending approval or deposit transaction. A successful source transaction alone doesn’t establish the vault holding. If the final ZAP fails after bridging, recovered funds can remain in USDC instead of becoming a vault position.
APY and transaction quotes describe different cost periods
Vault APY calculations already account for performance fees on compounded earnings. Subtracting the same performance percentage from that displayed yield again would count the deduction twice. APY describes an annualized earnings estimate. A deposit quote concerns the assets expected from a particular transaction, including its route-specific conversions. Entry gas and crosschain movement costs therefore belong to the transaction comparison.
Asset prices and pool trading can also change a position’s value. In concentrated liquidity, changing token proportions can create impermanent loss relative to holding the assets. That difference isn’t a Beefy fee. Similarly, swap price impact reflects how a trade changes execution pricing. A fee percentage alone can’t explain every difference between the input value and the resulting holding.
Imbalanced CLM entry can create a separate deposit charge
Depositing into an imbalanced CLM can incur a product-level charge that benefits other depositors. It discourages using a deposit and immediate withdrawal as a cheap swap between pool assets. The charge scales with the deposit and imbalance, and applies to the imbalanced portion. Its stated cap is half the underlying pool’s fee tier. This mechanism is separate from ZAP’s aggregator swap fee: the product entry and an external conversion can each have their own applicable charge.
Promotions waive specific fees on eligible routes
A Free Zap promotion waives Beefy’s ZAP swap fee on the included route. Source-chain gas and crosschain bridge or relay charges can remain payable. Eligibility attaches to the promoted products and route type. A migration route or vault-to-vault promotion doesn’t automatically cover a token-to-vault deposit into the same product.
The June 2026 vault-to-vault launch campaign offered that waiver on selected routes and excluded token-to-vault deposits. Its launch terms don’t establish continuing eligibility for a later transaction. The selected route’s active promotion determines whether the waiver applies.
Direct deposits move conversion costs outside the ZAP quote
A direct deposit uses the asset that the vault accepts and can avoid ZAP conversion charges when that asset is already available. Product-level charges and network gas can still apply. Acquiring the required deposit asset elsewhere may involve separate swaps, liquidity provision, or approvals. Those costs belong in the comparison even when Beefy’s direct deposit displays no swap charge.
ZAP includes supported conversion operations in its route, while manual preparation exposes their costs separately. Compare the expected holding in the same asset and account for both entry and intended exit operations. A lower visible deposit fee can come with additional preparation transactions; a bundled route can carry explicit swap charges while reducing the number of separately managed operations.
Everyday questions about Beefy fees
Who receives Beefy’s vault performance fees?
Vault performance fees allocate revenue to Beefy’s treasury, tokenholder incentives, the strategy’s creator, and the harvest caller. These are shares of the performance deduction. They aren’t separate charges to add on top of its total percentage. The allocation varies with the selected fee category, so fixed recipient percentages shouldn’t replace the product’s actual breakdown.
Where does a vault withdrawal fee go?
A vault withdrawal fee generally remains in the vault for the benefit of its remaining depositors. It helps deter entries just before a harvest followed by immediate exits. That recipient differs from Beefy’s treasury, which receives the standard ZAP swap fee. The deductions can coexist when an exit includes both a configured withdrawal charge and a ZAP swap.
Is a token approval an extra Beefy deposit fee?
An onchain ERC-20 approval can require network gas, separate from any fee on the eventual deposit. It authorizes a contract to move an allowed token amount; it doesn’t establish a completed vault deposit. The later deposit has its own applicable route and product charges. A sufficient existing allowance can remove the need for another approval transaction.
Can I recover network gas after a deposit transaction reverts?
A reverted Ethereum deposit still consumes chargeable gas for the computation that executed. Reversing the transaction’s state changes doesn’t refund that consumed gas. The wallet’s gas estimate and the transaction’s actual gas use aren’t the same thing. Fee refunds handled by a product or route also don’t refund the network’s completed computation.
Can a swap aggregator retain positive slippage on a ZAP?
Some integrated swap aggregators can retain positive slippage as part of their compensation. Positive slippage means execution produced a better outcome than the quoted baseline. That treatment varies by aggregator. It sits alongside Beefy’s own swap-fee mechanism, so the public swap percentage alone doesn’t describe every economic term that may be built into an aggregator’s quoted output.
How are unused ZAP assets different from deducted fees?
Unused ZAP assets return to the user’s wallet and remain separate from deducted fees. A deposit can use less of an asset than the simulation expected, leaving a residual balance. That balance isn’t automatically a fee or a failed deposit. Reconciliation includes the final holding and returned assets, while keeping amounts in different tokens separate.
Do retired Sonic vaults still generate yield that bears performance fees?
Beefy’s retired Sonic vaults stopped earning yield when the Sonic products were deprecated on October 6, 2026. Their remaining funds were withdrawn to the strategies and made available for withdrawal. That status doesn’t promise a fee-free exit: network execution and supported ZAP conversions have their own costs. Depositing again doesn’t restart the retired strategy’s earnings.
How can I check the fee estimate for my first crosschain ZAP?
The app shows crosschain ZAP fees as an approximation and provides a more detailed breakdown in the fee tooltip. Flat relay amounts and percentage-based swap or bridge charges use different bases. The detailed display identifies those components for the selected route. An approximate total isn’t a permanent fee schedule for every combination of products and chains.