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Rhea Finance is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform built on the NEAR protocol, formed through the merger of Ref Finance and Burrow Finance. It aims to provide a unified liquidity hub offering decentralized exchange (DEX) and lending services with a focus on chain abstraction. [1] [3]
Rhea Finance was established following the merger of two prominent protocols on the NEAR ecosystem: Ref Finance, a leading decentralized exchange, and Burrow Finance, a top lending protocol. [4]
The merger was announced in March 2025. The primary motivation behind the consolidation was to address the challenge of fragmentation within the DeFi landscape, where users often need to interact with multiple chains, platforms, and wallets to manage assets and optimize yield strategies. [1]
The platform seeks to create a single, integrated liquidity solution accessible to users across different blockchain ecosystems, including NEAR, Bitcoin, and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible chains. By combining the functionalities of a DEX and a lending protocol, Rhea Finance intends to enhance capital efficiency and provide a more streamlined user experience for swapping, lending, borrowing, and yield generation. The platform leverages the underlying infrastructure of the NEAR protocol. [1] [2]
RHEA Finance integrates decentralized exchange and lending capabilities into a single platform.
Rhea Finance is built on the NEAR protocol. The platform offers a Software Development Kit (SDK), known as the Rhea SDK, to allow developers to build applications on top of the Rhea infrastructure [2].
Following the merger, the native tokens of the predecessor protocols, $REF (Ref Finance) and $BRRR (Burrow Finance), were consolidated into a single primary token for Rhea Finance, designated as $RHEA.
The introduction of the $RHEA token was accompanied by the planned introduction of two utility tokens, $xRhea and $oRhea, intended to support governance and ecosystem functions. [5]
Rhea Finance has established partnerships with various entities within the blockchain ecosystem. Listed partners include:
Regarding the merger and the vision for Rhea Finance, the team stated:
"This merger is more than just combining two protocols. It’s building a unified DeFi infrastructure that services all users, from [Bitcoin] - (https://iq.wiki/wiki/bitcoin) and NEAR to the most active memecoin traders. Rhea Finance is designed to remove friction and provide seamless liquidity access." [1]