Rhea

Rhea is a Cross-Chain Swap, Lending, and Staking Hub on NEAR

Rhea is a platform for moving and using crypto across networks, with automated markets for swaps, pooled borrowing, and receipt-token staking on NEAR. Technically, it combines a decentralized exchange, an overcollateralized money market, a bridge aggregator, and liquid staking under one interface. Its native contracts settle on NEAR, while routing and chain-abstraction components connect assets and wallets from ecosystems including Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Solana, BNB Chain, and Bitcoin. The fit is clearest for users who want several DeFi actions without assembling a separate exchange, lender, bridge, and staking provider for every step.

Don't treat every route as a native NEAR swap

Seen from the other side, Rhea's route preview is an execution plan that separates native pool swaps, aggregated bridge transfers, and cross-chain calls before a signature.

The common mistake is reading the quoted output as though one NEAR pool determines everything. A native swap draws from NEP-141 token reserves and settles through Rhea's exchange contracts. A cross-chain route also introduces a source network, a destination network, a bridge or intent-based transfer, and the receiving wallet. Those paths carry different fees, completion stages, and settlement assumptions. Check the exact asset representation as well: native USDC, bridged USDC, NEAR, and wrapped NEAR aren't interchangeable contract balances, even when an interface displays familiar symbols.

Start by deciding where the final asset must live. On a native route, the wallet signs a contract call and receives a NEP-141 balance. On a bridge route, completion also relies on source-chain finality and relay progress. Keeping that distinction visible prevents a partially completed transfer from being mistaken for a failed swap. The destination choice determines whether a pool swap, bridge transfer, or combined route matches the job.

Rhea against Uniswap, Aave, Lido, and NEAR Intents

Rhea is a unified NEAR-based venue, while Uniswap, Aave, Lido, and NEAR Intents each cover a narrower part of the decision. Uniswap focuses on AMM trading, Aave on pooled lending, and Lido on liquid staking, chiefly around their supported deployments. NEAR Intents supplies cross-chain intent settlement rather than a complete lending market. Rhea combines those categories and adds NEAR-native liquidity, but specialists may offer deeper liquidity or broader asset support for one isolated action. Choose by the position's destination, not by interface breadth alone.

The swap router and its execution paths

In the same way, Rhea's swap router is an AMM pathfinder that searches parallel pools, intermediary assets, and multiple curve types for executable output.

The Auto Router allocates one order across parallel pools when splitting improves the quote. It also searches a path through one intermediary pool when no direct pair gives the best result, combining Classic, Stable, and other available liquidity. The multi-chain router extends that logic across NEAR and Aurora, where a NEAR account maps to a corresponding EVM-style address for Aurora actions. A signed route therefore represents a sequence, not merely one exchange rate.

Minimum received remains the decisive swap control. Pool fees are explicit, while price impact rises when the order consumes a larger share of usable reserves. Swap-by-output reverses the quote: the user specifies the output, and the route caps the input. DCL stop-point mode constrains execution within one pool. These controls decide whether the signed route remains acceptable when reserves move.

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Pool designs, fee tiers, and price impact

Where it matters, Rhea liquidity pools are on-chain automated markets whose curve design and fee schedule determine execution cost, capital efficiency, and LP exposure.

Four pool designs serve different relationships. Classic pools use the Uniswap v2 constant-product model. Stable pools apply Curve's StableSwap logic to closely priced assets, while Rated pools adapt that approach for yield-bearing tokens. Discretized Concentrated Liquidity, derived from iZUMi's design, places liquidity into chosen price ranges. Classic, Stable, and Rated positions issue fungible LP tokens; concentrated positions use NFTs. The exchange contract groups reserves of two or three NEP-141 tokens, so pool composition remains visible on-chain.

Classic pools expose three preset fees - 0.20%, 0.30%, and 0.60% - plus a custom range from 0.01% to 19.99%, and the selected fee can't change after creation. Classic LPs receive 80% of the total fee, with 20% assigned to protocol and referral portions. Concentrated pools publish four separate fee tiers: 0.01%, 0.04%, 0.2%, and 1%. Those tiers pair with 1, 8, 40, and 200 price points per slot, respectively. Range selection then determines whether a concentrated position is active and earning fees.

Pooled lending and the health factor

From a cost perspective, Rhea Lending is an overcollateralized money market where suppliers fund shared asset pools and borrowers post supported collateral against their debt.

Supply interest comes from borrower payments, and utilization links the two sides: higher borrowing leaves less idle liquidity and changes the rate curve. A supplied balance earns interest whether or not the user designates it as collateral. Once enabled, its oracle value and asset-specific collateral factor enter the account-wide health calculation. Borrowed balances enter the denominator after their own factors. Rhea uses oracle data, including Pyth price feeds in its oracle layer, because every collateral decision needs a common valuation rather than the last trade in a thin pool.

The liquidation boundary is a 100% health factor. Below that level, the protocol permits a partial liquidation, and its discount equals half of the account's health-factor shortfall. At 90%, that formula produces a 5% discount. Three contract rules constrain the action: the initial factor stays below 100%, discounted collateral doesn't exceed repaid value, and the final factor remains below 100%. Repayment or added collateral changes the next decision, as covered in detail.

Supplying has a separate liquidity constraint. A withdrawal proceeds only if post-withdrawal utilization stays below 100%; if it lands at 100%, the pool lacks cash for the request. The recorded supplied balance remains in the market, and rates continue following utilization until repayments or deposits free enough cash for withdrawal.

rNEAR liquid staking and its exit routes

Broadly, Rhea's rNEAR product is a liquid-staking contract that issues a transferable receipt while delegated NEAR continues earning validator rewards.

rNEAR follows NEP-141, so wallets and NEAR applications handle it as a fungible token rather than a locked validator position. Its exchange rate reflects total delegated NEAR divided by rNEAR supply; the receipt balance needn't mirror the deposit 1:1 as rewards accrue. A standard unstake waits 4 epochs before withdrawal. An immediate exit instead swaps rNEAR through DEX liquidity, so the pool rate, pool fee, and available depth set the received amount. The four-epoch route suits time-flexible exits; the swap route prices immediate liquidity.

Cross-chain transfer through bridge aggregation

At a protocol level, Rhea's bridge aggregator is a route-selection layer that connects NEAR with external networks through established transfer protocols and relays.

Named components include Rainbow Bridge, Stargate, TokenBridge, and Allbridge. One EVM route uses Stargate between an EVM network and Aurora, then Rainbow Bridge between Aurora and NEAR. That design has two fee components: a cross-chain messaging charge and a protocol fee taken from the bridged asset. On a NEAR-to-EVM path, the Aurora relay covers the required ETH and recovers an equivalent amount from the transferred asset. Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and Scroll illustrate the EVM destinations in this route family.

Bridge history matters because delivery completes across multiple systems. Match the destination chain, receiving address, token representation, quoted output, and route status before treating funds as available. A source transaction can finalize before destination credit appears, so the transaction stages identify which network or relay owns the next step.

A clean first-session checklist

A first Rhea session is a wallet-and-route decision that should end with one confirmed asset balance or position, not several experiments.

Use this short checklist to select the smallest workflow that reaches the intended state:

Where returns and costs actually come from

After that point, Rhea's economics combine pool fees, utilization-based interest, validator rewards, bridge charges, network gas, and token-registration storage across each position's lifecycle.

A swap quote embeds the pool fee, then reserves determine price impact. A bridge route adds its transfer and messaging charges, while each network charges gas for its own transactions. NEAR fungible-token transfers use the NEP-141 interface and attach exactly 1 yoctoNEAR to establish caller intent. First-time token interactions also require NEP-145 storage registration; the contract publishes that refundable storage bound rather than applying one universal Rhea amount.

Lending APY moves with utilization and the market's interest-rate configuration. Supplier income rises from borrower payments, while a borrower's cost accrues against debt. A pool near 100% utilization can't satisfy a withdrawal that would leave utilization at 100%, so liquidity returns only after repayment or new supply changes the ratio.

Liquid-staking return comes from NEAR validator rewards reflected in the rNEAR exchange rate. The standard exit costs time; the immediate DEX exit exchanges that wait for market-priced liquidity.

LP income needs a separate reading. Classic liquidity earns its proportional share of the 80% LP fee allocation, while token-price divergence changes the withdrawal mix. Concentrated liquidity earns only while the market trades through its selected range. No single headline yield combines these exposures cleanly, so compare the return source with the position's exit condition, collateral status, and route cost.

The RHEA token stack and protocol lineage

Seen from the other side, RHEA's token system is a three-asset incentive and governance structure that follows the unification of Ref Finance and Burrow Finance. RHEA has a fixed supply of 1,000,000,000 units and 18 decimals. Staking it creates non-transferable xRHEA, whose supply is elastic and whose precision is also 18 decimals. Activity incentives use non-transferable oRHEA, another 18-decimal elastic token. Its reputation-weighted conversion reaches a maximum of 1 oRHEA to 1 RHEA. These tokens govern incentives and reputation; rNEAR remains the separate receipt for staked NEAR.

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Who is Rhea built for?

In the same way, Rhea is a practical fit for users who want NEAR settlement plus swaps, pooled credit, liquid staking, and cross-chain entry in one workflow.

The strongest use cases are converting assets into NEAR ecosystem tokens, supplying idle assets, borrowing without selling collateral, holding rNEAR while retaining transferability, and providing liquidity across several curve designs. The trade-off is compositional complexity: a combined route inherits the pool, lending, bridge, oracle, and network conditions used by that route. Someone seeking only an Ethereum swap may prefer Uniswap; a dedicated lending comparison may favor Aave. Select the narrowest product stack that produces the intended final position.

Everyday questions about Rhea

Does Rhea require a NEAR account for every cross-chain action?

A native NEAR account isn't required for every chain-abstracted flow because Rhea's multichain-account design links an external wallet or public key to a dedicated contract account on NEAR. Native NEAR workflows still use a compatible NEAR wallet, while external-wallet routes add onboarding, deposit, and message steps. The route preview identifies the source wallet and destination account that the selected action will use.

Can supplied assets earn interest without becoming collateral?

Supplied assets earn lending interest even when the collateral setting remains off. In that state, the balance contributes liquidity to its market but doesn't expand borrowing power, and it isn't included among assets available for liquidation. Turning collateral on adds the asset's oracle value and collateral factor to the account-wide health calculation, so the setting changes borrowing capacity rather than the basic source of supplier interest.

What happens if a lending pool reaches 100% utilization?

A withdrawal that would leave a Rhea lending pool at 100% utilization doesn't proceed because the pool would have no available cash for that request. Supplier balances continue to exist and accrue under the market's rate model, while borrower repayments or new deposits restore withdrawable liquidity. Utilization also influences variable lending and borrowing rates, so the displayed APY changes as the ratio moves.

Which token standard does rNEAR use?

rNEAR uses NEP-141, the fungible-token interface that NEAR wallets and smart contracts rely on, while NEP-145 handles storage registration and NEP-148 defines metadata; once the asset moves to an EVM or Solana environment, its destination representation uses the relevant token format, such as ERC-20 or SPL, and remains operationally distinct from the original NEAR token contract balance.

Is wNEAR interchangeable with native NEAR?

wNEAR represents native NEAR in a fungible-token form that DeFi contracts can hold and transfer through NEP-141 methods, with wrapping and unwrapping preserving the 1:1 amount before network fees. A wallet's native NEAR balance pays gas and account storage, whereas its wNEAR balance participates in token pools and contract calls, so the two balances serve different operational roles even though conversion links their units.

When do newly staked NEAR tokens begin earning validator rewards?

Newly delegated NEAR begins earning validator rewards from an epoch boundary after the stake enters the validator set's accounting, rather than from the instant the transaction lands. Rhea mints rNEAR at the contract's exchange rate when staking occurs, and that receipt participates in the pooled accounting. The standard unstake then observes a 4-epoch delay before the underlying NEAR becomes withdrawable.

Do I need RHEA tokens to use swaps or lending?

RHEA isn't a universal access requirement for the exchange or lending markets; users transact with the supported input, output, supply, collateral, and debt assets selected by each product. A native NEAR workflow still needs NEAR for gas and any required storage registration, while RHEA, xRHEA, and oRHEA govern protocol incentives, reputation, staking, and conversion mechanics rather than replacing every transaction asset.

Can Rhea liquidity-pool shares remain farmed while serving as collateral?

Supported Rhea LP positions can serve as isolated lending collateral while their liquidity continues participating in farming incentives, combining three potential return sources: swap fees, farm rewards, and lending supply interest. Each eligible LP token type uses its own separate collateral position, and the borrower selects that position when opening debt. Pool-price divergence, reward schedules, utilization, and the lending health factor still affect the combined position independently.