How to use
- Set the protocol’s annual revenue and current token market cap.
- Specify the share of supply that is staked (affects staker-level dividend yield).
- Set the percentage of revenue allocated to dividends and to token buyback.
- Adjust the projected annual revenue growth and optional net emission rate for the 5-year path.
- Load a preset for a real-world protocol (GMX, dYdX v4, CAKE, GNS) to compare scenarios.
- Two parallel result cards show Staker yield (dividends divided by staked market cap) and Protocol yield (dividends + buyback divided by full market cap). The frames are reported separately — do not sum across them.
Calculator
Dividend yield + buyback
Presets:
Dividend + buyback shares exceed 100% of revenue — shares have been normalized for the calculation.
Staker yield (dividends / staked mcap)
12.5%
What an individual staker earns on their staked tokens.
Protocol yield (div + buyback / full mcap)
8.0%
Total revenue return measured against full market cap.
Buyback yield (buyback / full mcap)
3.0%
Accrues to all holders via supply reduction.
Note: Staker yield and Protocol yield use different reference frames (staked mcap vs full mcap). They are shown in parallel and should not be added together.
| Year | Dividends ($) | Buyback ($) | Staker yield | Protocol yield | BB yield |
|---|
5Y projection is a ceteris paribus, buyback-burn–driven market cap path. It does not model dividend price impact, secondary market flows, or demand shocks. Net emission rate reduces Mcap growth to approximate dilution from unlocks.
Benchmarks — real protocols
Load any preset above to prefill inputs with a real-world parameter set. Numbers are directional (April 2026); verify live values on DefiLlama / Token Terminal before citing.
| Protocol | Revenue-share model | Share to stakers | Typical APR |
|---|---|---|---|
| GMX v2 | ETH/AVAX fee stream to GMX stakers (+ esGMX emissions); 70% goes to GLP LPs | 30% | 5–12% base, spikes >20% in volatile periods |
| dYdX v4 | On-chain Cosmos app-chain; 100% of protocol revenue streamed to DYDX stakers (USDC) | 100% | 15–30% at launch, now volume-dependent |
| CAKE (PancakeSwap) | Dual model: burn + veCAKE revenue share | ~72.5% burn, remainder to veCAKE pools | 5–20% for veCAKE (lock-dependent) |
| GNS (Gains Network) | Fee redistribution to GNS stakers in DAI/USDC | ~32% (after LP + dev) | 5–15% variable |
Formulas
Staker_yield = (Revenue × DivRate) / (Mcap × StakeRate)
- Revenue — annual protocol revenue, $
- DivRate — fraction of revenue allocated to dividends (0 to 1)
- Mcap — token market cap, $
- StakeRate — fraction of supply that is staked (0 to 1, must be > 0)
- Staker_yield — per-staker dividend yield on staked tokens (computed)
Buyback_yield = (Revenue × BuybackRate) / Mcap
- Revenue — annual protocol revenue, $
- BuybackRate — fraction of revenue allocated to token buyback (0 to 1)
- Mcap — token market cap, $ (must be > 0)
- Buyback_yield — yield from supply reduction, accrues to all holders (computed)
Protocol_yield = (Revenue × DivRate + Revenue × BuybackRate) / Mcap
- Protocol_yield — total revenue return against full market cap (computed)
- Reference frame: full Mcap. Does NOT divide dividends by StakeRate.
- Use this frame when comparing cross-protocol economics.
Reference frames — don't sum across them
Staker_yield is divided by staked market cap (Mcap × StakeRate). Protocol_yield and Buyback_yield are divided by full market cap. These live in different reference frames and must not be added together. The calculator shows them in parallel cards for comparison.5Y projection
The table shows yield dynamics over a 5-year horizon with the following assumptions:
- Revenue grows at the user-set growth rate (range −50% to +200%, default 10%)
- Mcap changes by
Buyback_yield − Net_emission_rateeach year (ceteris paribus, supply-side only) - DivRate, BuybackRate, and StakeRate remain unchanged for all 5 years
- Dividend price impact, secondary market flows, and demand shocks are NOT modeled
- Staking feedback loop (higher yield → more stakers → lower per-staker yield) is NOT modeled
Input guards
- Mcap ≥ $100K and StakeRate ≥ 1% are enforced by slider minimums to prevent division by zero.
- If DivRate + BuybackRate > 100%, the shares are normalized and a warning is shown (you can’t distribute more than 100% of revenue).
- Net emission rate (0–30% per year) reduces the projected Mcap growth to approximate dilution from unlocks/emissions.