Ripe

Ripe is a unified multi-collateral borrowing protocol where users deposit a portfolio of assets — ETH, stablecoins, NFTs, tokenized RWAs, and yield-bearing positions — to back a single GREEN stablecoin loan, eliminating the need for separate vaults per asset. It offers sGREEN, a yield-bearing savings token that auto-compounds all protocol revenues (borrower interest, origination fees, and unrealized yield flushes), alongside stability pools where depositors capture discounted liquidated collateral and RIPE token rewards. The protocol is built for capital efficiency and real-world asset support, targeting borrowers who want one unified position instead of fragmented debt across isolated markets.

Ripe generates yield from four distinct sources, each feeding into different parts of the protocol. Here is how the money flows.

1. Borrower interest and fees

When someone takes out a GREEN loan (the protocol's stablecoin), they deposit collateral and pay a blended interest rate that depends on which assets they put up and how much they borrow against each one. There is also a one-time opening fee of 0.25% (called a Daowry). Both the ongoing interest and the opening fee go to people who hold sGREEN — the protocol's savings token that automatically reinvests earnings.

2. Unrealized yield flush

Even if a borrower never actually repays their loan, interest piles up every block (a tiny sliver of time onchain). The protocol periodically recognizes that accrued interest by minting new GREEN tokens, which raises the exchange rate for sGREEN. So the yield grows whether or not borrowers actively settle their debts — the value builds up regardless.

3. Liquidation fees

If a borrower's position drops below the required safety threshold, a penalty of 5–15% is charged on the collateral (the exact fee depends on how risky that collateral type is rated). These fees are captured by depositors in the stability pools, who get to buy the liquidated collateral at a guaranteed discount.

4. RIPE token rewards

Over 10 years, 250 million RIPE tokens will be distributed:

• 90% goes to stakers — that includes people who lock up RIPE or RIPE liquidity-pair tokens in the governance vault (earning up to a 3× time-weighted bonus), and depositors in stability pools who stake sGREEN/GREEN liquidity-pair tokens.
• 10% goes to borrowers, split in proportion to how much debt they carry and for how long.

Behind the scenes: the treasury and the peg

An entity called the Endaoment treasury (funded by bond sales) actively defends GREEN's value peg. It does this through DEX liquidity operations, PSM arbitrage (trading to keep the stablecoin close to its target price), and multi-strategy DeFi yield farming. Depending on what governance decides, treasury profits can either flow to sGREEN holders or be used to buy back RIPE tokens.

No yield here is subsidized or speculative — every revenue stream comes from actual borrowing demand, actual liquidation events, or protocol token releases that follow a clear onchain schedule.

Ripe Protocol bootstrapped with $1.87M in total funding. The team self-funded $1.32M of that (via Hightop, the founding team's digital banking product) covering operational, legal, and audit costs. A $550K seed round was raised in February 2025 via the Ripe Foundation at $0.02 per RIPE ($20M implied FDV) — the protocol's first outside capital.

Seed round participants (Feb 2025):

• OrangeDAO (Y Combinator alumni network; also received advisor tokens)
• Big Brain (crypto-native VC)
• Tetranode (prominent DeFi investor/whale)
• Sid Krommenhoek (Partner at Album VC)
• Stephen McKeon (Partner at Collab+Currency)
• Trevor Koverko (Founder of Sapien)
• Doug Leonard (Founder of HiFi Finance)
• AJ Taylor (Founder of Etherfuse)

Distribution Partner: Hightop (mobile on-ramp/fiat bridge) received 15% of RIPE token supply as a strategic distribution partner.

Token allocation to backers: Early Backers hold 17.2% (172M RIPE), Core Contributors hold 20.6% (206M RIPE), and Distribution Partner (Hightop) holds 15% (150M RIPE). All vesting is enforced by immutable onchain smart contracts with a 12-month cliff from TGE.

The GitHub repository's security disclosure notes: "We're a startup with a limited budget (No VCs)," highlighting the bootstrapped nature of the project relative to typical VC-backed DeFi protocols.