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 |
|---|
5-year 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.5-year 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.