YF Link/YFL Status 2026: Varen (VRN) Migration Explained

YF Link and YFL status in 2026

YF Link is a legacy DeFi project, and the original YFL farming instructions are obsolete. The community migrated from YFL to a new Varen token, VRN, at a 1:1 ratio in 2021. The verified migration contract is now disabled, Linkswap's domain no longer resolves and no maintained YF Link or Varen DeFi app could be verified on 13 August 2026.

Item	Status checked 13 August 2026
YF Link yield farms	2020 incentive programs ended
YFL token	Legacy ERC-20 at `0x28cb7e841ee97947a86B06fA4090C8451f64c0be`
YFL to VRN migration	Historical 1:1 swap; on-chain migrator is disabled
VRN token	Varen ERC-677 token at `0x72377f31e30a405282b522d588AEbbea202b4f23`
Linkswap	Former app domain does not resolve
`yflink.io`	Old static site still loads, but its product links and data are stale
Varen products	No working official DeFi interface was verified
Public YF Link code	Identifiable repositories were last pushed in 2021

A token can still transfer and display a quoted price after the associated app and governance system stop operating. That does not establish current utility, healthy liquidity or project support.

YFL migrated to Varen (VRN)

On 10 May 2021, YF Link announced a 1:1 YFL-to-VRN migration and a full rebrand to Varen. The new token adopted the ERC-677 standard and a maximum supply of 88,888 VRN.

The verified migrator is 0xf05336a9Bcc1805Fa6c9f9635300Ad43AC1B57Eb. Its read-only state on Etherscan shows migrationEnabled = false and an end date of 16 December 2021. It therefore cannot currently exchange YFL for VRN. Ignore old wording that said the swap would remain open indefinitely; the contract's final state is the controlling evidence.

Do not use a website, direct message or newly deployed contract claiming to reactivate the conversion. No official replacement migration was verified.

YFL and VRN contract addresses

The original Ethereum YFL contract is 0x28cb7e841ee97947a86B06fA4090C8451f64c0be. Verify it on Etherscan.

The Ethereum VRN contract is 0x72377f31e30a405282b522d588AEbbea202b4f23. Verify it on Etherscan. Do not confuse this small DeFi token with the unrelated NYSE/TSX stock ticker VRN or other assets named Varen.

The archived article's 75,000-token maximum is not a reliable current supply figure. YF Link's launch materials described 85,000 YFL, subsequent burns changed the displayed YFL maximum, and the later VRN contract used a separate 88,888-token supply. Contract-specific figures should replace generic ticker claims.

What happened to Linkswap and Varen?

YF Link expanded beyond the six original farms and launched Linkswap in November 2020. The project later proposed products including YFLUSD, Linklend and cross-chain tools, then rebranded to Varen in 2021. Those later products do not make the 2020 farming pools current.

The old yflink.io frontend still serves a historical JavaScript application, but it points to linkswap.app, which no longer resolves. The YF Link GitHub organization's most recently pushed identifiable repositories date to 2021. Former Varen domains such as varen.finance, varen.exchange and GasHopper are unavailable. The old varenx.com address now belongs to an unrelated industrial-AI website.

There is no verified formal shutdown notice, so this article does not claim a specific legal closure date. The broken and repurposed product endpoints, disabled migrator and lack of maintained code support treating YF Link/Varen as a legacy ecosystem.

Safety steps for YFL, VRN and former stakers

Do not use the old YF Link or Varen frontends to approve tokens or connect a wallet.
Do not send YFL to the historical migrator: migration is disabled and the contract cannot perform the swap.
Verify YFL and VRN by their full Ethereum contract addresses, not by ticker, logo or market-directory link.
Find your original farm, vault or liquidity transaction on Etherscan before attempting recovery.
Use read-only contract calls first and independently review verified code before any direct withdrawal.
Do not pay an “unlock” or migration fee and never share a seed phrase with support.
Review and revoke obsolete YF Link, Linkswap and Varen approvals after a legitimate withdrawal.
Varen warned in August 2022 of a malicious proposal targeting its retired governance vault. Anyone still holding a vault receipt token should obtain independent technical help rather than trusting a revived interface.

Corrections to the original YF Link guide

The six YFL emission pools were short 2020 programs and no longer distribute YFL.
YFL was later migrated to VRN; the migration contract is now closed.
YF Link was community-built and had no official affiliation with Chainlink or Yearn Finance.
Linkswap and Varen's former apps are not currently usable services.
The article's 75,000 maximum-supply statement conflicts with launch documentation and later contract changes.
The conclusion that the project functioned without exploits captured only an early snapshot. It was not a forward-looking safety guarantee, and Varen later issued a security warning concerning its retired governance vault.
The suggestion that YF Link might become a future destination for LINK staking did not materialize as a maintained current product.

Original YF Link guide (historical archive)

The following guide is preserved substantially as written for historical context. It describes YF Link in August 2020, not a current farm or endorsement. The old project homepage link has been converted to plain text to reduce wallet-connection risk.

YF Link ($YFL) combines Chainlink’s $LINK token with Yearn Finance $YFI’s yield farming/liquidity mining mechanics. The premise of this project was so it would be adapted it for use by Chainlink enthusiasts, known as “Link Marines”. Considering the LINK token itself has done quite well in 2020 so far with prices going from $2 to $15, both Link Marines and other cryptocurrency enthusiasts, of course, are interested in what YF Link is and what it had to offer. So in this article, we will take a look at the background of YF Link, the functions of, and how to get their native $YFL token.

Background and History of YF Link

YF Link was forked from Yearn.Finance’s ($YFI) Yearn contract by switching it to accept LINK instead of yCRV tokens. It is a community-based project started by Chainlink enthusiasts, specfically, by a “Bobby Shaftoe” and 4 other anonymous developers who announced the existence of the project and its details in a Medium post “The Idea of YFLINK is Born” on 7th August 2020. Since LINK tokens were required to be locked up to generate yield, it is thought that the launch of YF Link had a positive influence on LINK prices as the demand for these tokens increased. Indeed in the few days following the Medium post, prices for $LINK almost doubled.

YF Link in a nutshell (Image credit: YFLINK)

Precursor – Yearn.Finance ($YFI)

The precursor to YF Link, Yearn Finance (YFI), was launched by Andre Cronje on 17 July 2020 as an experiment in yield farming and liquidity mining. It works by allowing the users to provide funds to a smart contract, which are then automatically distributed between dYdX, Aave, and Compound lending protocols, optimized for maximum yield.

In return, the users earn yield profits and acquire YFI tokens. The YFI token is used for governance. The total YFI tokens in existence are 30,000.

Learn more about Andre Cronje’s insights on the DeFi space in his interview with FTX exchange.

How does YF Link work?

YF Link’s YFL token provides liquidity to LINK pools on multiple Decentralised Finance (DeFi) protocols such as Aave, Balancer, and Curve Finance. Users provide funds by depositing them into these protocols, which then generate yield profits for the depositors. These users i.e. liquidity providers also receive YFL tokens as a reward, in turn, these YFL tokens can be traded on exchanges such as Uniswap.

The amount of rewards depends on the amount of liquidity provided and the duration which they are staked. And although users funds are locked in, they can be withdrawn at any time.

Alternatively, some people simply speculate on YFL tokens and trade them on exchanges.

The Concepts

The two underlying concepts used in YF Link are yield farming and liquidity mining. They both work together in synergy to incentivize users to provide liquidity. As we will see later, these 2 concepts come together to enable farmers to earn rewards and potentially gain from these activities.

Yield Farming

Yield farming is a method of using otherwise idle assets for beneficial purposes. It involves taking assets from users, lending them to different protocols, in exchange for gaining more assets than initially provided.

Liquidity Mining

Liquidity mining is a variation of yield farming, which allows liquidity providers to gain another governance asset, alongside their usual yield rewards.

The YFL Token

The $YFL token is the native token for YF Link with a maximum supply of 75,000 tokens. It must be noted that even creators of YF Link have said that the token should be valued at ZERO.

The YFL token is supposed to be used for governance purposes, i.e. it lets holders submit proposals to vote and make decisions. For example, one of the first governance proposals is to have a LINK meme competition.

At the outset, a total of 6 pools were emitting YFL tokens, with various parameters. The emission of tokens will last around 15 weeks with most of the emissions occurring in the first 4 weeks. After the YF Link contracts were deployed, the creators burned the contract keys so that no one can change this emission schedule.

YF Link Pools: What’s the difference?

As mentioned in the above section, when the YF Link contracts were first deployed, a total of 6 pools would emit YFL tokens. Note that as at 22 August 2020, pools 0, 1 and 2 have exhausted their YFL rewards, this means you cannot mint any new YFL tokens by staking in these pools.

Pool 0 also called the Genesis pool ~~~~(15,000 YFL tokens available)~~~~— users provide LINK and YFL is returned. This pool has exhausted its YFL rewards.

Pool 1 LINK Balancer pool ~~~~(15,000 YFL tokens available)~~~~— users provide LINK and YFL is sent to a Balancer pool. Users get BPT tokens and provide them to the YF Link pool. YFL and BAL are then returned. This pool has exhausted its YFL rewards.

Pool 2 yCRV Balancer pool ~~~~(15,000 YFL tokens available)~~~~— uses yCRV. Returns include YFL, BAL, interest from Curve Protocol, and CRV tokens. This pool has exhausted its YFL rewards.

Pool 3 LINK Aave pool (15,000 YFL tokens available)— users provide LINK and deposit it to Aave.com to get aLINK tokens. Then you get those aLINK tokens and deposit it in an aLINK Balancer pool with YFL. From this, users will get BPT tokens which they can stake in the YFL pool. In the end, users can earn YFL, BAL and AAVE interest.

Pool 4 Governance staking pool (20,000 YFL tokens available) — This pool will go live at 26 Aug 2020 at 1400 (UTC). Users have to stake YFL, in order to be able to vote in the Governance contract for the duration of the vote. Users are rewarded with more YFL tokens.

Pool 5 Unintended pool (5,000 YFL tokens available)— the team deployed this pool accidentally. The creators will mine from this pool to fulfill their early mining program obligations and potentially other purposes which are to be announced.

Conclusion

YF Link is an interesting variant of Yearn.Finance. It is likely to enhance the utility and the liquidity of the LINK tokens as well. Some analysts are even terming it the “missing link” between the two most widely used DeFi protocols – Chainlink and Yearn.Finance.

Since its deployment, the project has functioned normally without any bugs or exploits. It has amassed an impressive Total Value Locked (TVL) in a short period of time. It may even become the go-to protocol for people looking to stake LINK tokens for rewards in the future.

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Frequently asked questions

Is YF Link still active?

No maintained YF Link or Varen DeFi product could be verified in August 2026. The old YF Link site is a stale frontend, Linkswap no longer resolves, the migration is closed and public YF Link repositories were last pushed in 2021.

Can I still farm YFL?

No. The six pools described in the original guide were short 2020 distribution programs. They exhausted or ended their rewards and should not be treated as current LINK yield opportunities.

What is the official YFL contract address?

The legacy Ethereum YFL contract is 0x28cb7e841ee97947a86B06fA4090C8451f64c0be. Verify the complete address on Etherscan.

Did YFL migrate to another token?

Yes. YF Link announced a 1:1 migration from YFL to Varen's VRN token in May 2021 as part of a project rebrand.

Can I still migrate YFL to VRN?

No. The verified migrator currently reports that migration is disabled, with an on-chain end date of 16 December 2021. Sending tokens to it will not reactivate the exchange.

What is the official VRN contract address?

Varen's Ethereum VRN contract is 0x72377f31e30a405282b522d588AEbbea202b4f23. It is separate from the original YFL token and unrelated to stocks or other assets using VRN.

Does Linkswap still work?

No working Linkswap interface was verified. Its former domain does not resolve, although the old YF Link website and archived articles still contain links and descriptions.

Is yflink.io safe to connect a wallet to?

Do not connect a wallet. The site serves a historical frontend whose linked products are unavailable and whose data is stale. Use block explorers in read-only mode for legacy research.

Are YFL and VRN still tradable?

The contracts remain transferable and third-party pages may show quotes, but that does not guarantee usable liquidity or reliable price discovery. Check the exact pool, reserves, volume and price impact on-chain before making any decision.

How can I recover tokens from an old YF Link or Varen vault?

Start with your original transaction and identify the exact verified contract and receipt token. Because the interfaces are no longer maintained and Varen previously warned about its retired governance vault, obtain independent technical review before making a direct contract call.