Strike Finance Adds RealFi Yield to Cardano Liquidity Vault

Strike Finance, a perpetual futures exchange that first launched on Cardano, has integrated RealFi yield into its official liquidity vault, the team announced on October 13. RealFi, a stablecoin protocol backed by real-world assets, launched on Cardano mainnet on October 1. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson amplified the integration on October 14, writing that “RealFi is open for business through Strike” and calling Strike “one of the best DApps on Cardano.”

RealFi Yield Enters Strike’s SLP Vault

The integration concerns the Strike Liquidity Provider, or SLP vault, the protocol-managed vault that supplies market liquidity. Strike announced that the vault now earns RealFi’s full yield alongside its existing trading returns and advertised 50% APR on USD positions. RealFi welcomed the announcement that evening with the phrase “RealFi yield, Strike returns.”

RealFi issues two tokens with different roles. USDrf is a dollar stablecoin supported by highly liquid assets, including U.S. Treasury bills and money market funds. Staking it produces sUSDrf, which earns a variable return from a broader portfolio that includes private credit. The staked token absorbs remaining portfolio losses after the protocol’s first-loss reserves have been used, before those losses reach holders of the base stablecoin.

SLP separately generates trading results through market making, funding payments, liquidation fees and backstop positions. Gains and losses from these activities affect the value of its shares. The vault’s fee is 0%, although trading costs and funding payments still affect its performance.

Strike’s SLP documentation does not yet describe the technical implementation of the RealFi integration. The advertised APR is a variable annualized rate, rather than a realized or guaranteed return.

How the Borrow and Earn Credit Line Works

Borrow and Earn lets users retain a supported asset as collateral and draw dollar credit directly into SLP shares. The borrowed credit cannot be withdrawn as cash, transferred or used as margin for personal trading.

In the launch configuration, debt can reach the full dollar value of the allocated collateral, subject to admission checks and available capacity. Supported collateral includes ADA, SundaeSwap stablecoin liquidity pool tokens and Aave’s dollar deposit token. The current credit mechanism charges no time-based borrowing interest or separate origination fee.

Debt remains denominated in dollars while the value of the collateral and SLP shares can change. Recovery begins when their combined risk measure reaches the specified boundary, or when collateral value falls to 50% of the debt or less. Strike can then redeem pledged vault shares, convert collateral or combine both actions to reduce the outstanding debt.

A vault loss can trigger recovery even when the collateral price is unchanged. Vault gains can improve the credit line’s health, but do not reduce its debt until repayment actually settles.

RealFi Yield and Strike Vault Loss Coverage

Returns depend on RealFi’s portfolio yield and the SLP vault’s trading performance. Borrowers also face collateral-price movements and recovery against a dollar-denominated debt. Those risks affect the outcome of their positions, but are not separate sources of yield included in the advertised APR.

All SLP activities affect the same ordinary shares, including credit losses remaining after recovery has been exhausted. Withdrawals follow a waiting period, with the final payout determined by the share price at execution and available liquidity.

A separate loss coverage program runs from July 4, 2026, to July 4, 2027, with a combined cap of $2 million in deposited capital. The program’s dates are distinct from the terms for individual deposits: the published conditions specify a three-month coverage period from the deposit date and a minimum holding period of three consecutive months for new deposits. Deposits made before July 4 retain their original one-month qualification requirement. Covered losses are paid from Strike’s treasury.

According to the Borrow and Earn documentation, coverage applies to losses on SLP shares, but excludes losses caused by a decline in Cardano’s native token price, including liquidations triggered by that decline. RealFi also states that its products are unavailable in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and other restricted jurisdictions.

According to Strike, SLP shares acquired directly or through Borrow and Earn now include RealFi yield alongside the vault’s market-making results. The integration brings income from real-world assets into the existing vault without requiring users to manage a separate RealFi position.