Notional is an Ethereum protocol that enables fixed-rate, fixed-term crypto lending and borrowing using a new financial primitive known as fCash.

Why does Notional matter?

Fixed-rate funding is the standard approach in traditional finance. By locking in interest rates, participants gain predictability and reduce exposure to uncertainty-one reason most U.S. debt is issued with fixed terms. Notional extends fixed interest-rate lending to decentralized finance on Ethereum, letting crypto users access dependable financing.

fCash provides a straightforward way for Notional participants to schedule transfers of value for specific future dates. By trading fCash, users can move value efficiently across time. This capability adds a fresh layer to Ethereum’s financial design toolkit. fCash tokens serve as the core components of the Notional ecosystem. They are transferable tokens that represent a right to a positive or negative cash flow occurring at a particular point in the future. Within Notional, fCash can be traded through built-in liquidity pools with AMM functionality. Each Notional liquidity pool pairs fCash with its settlement currency (for example, cDai paired with fDai).

nTokens are the main method for users to supply liquidity to Notional. With nTokens, users can earn returns passively from liquidity provision across all active maturities, without needing to directly interact with the individual liquidity pools.

NOTE is an ERC-20 token used to govern the Notional protocol. NOTE holders are able to submit proposals, vote, and carry out updates to Notional system parameters and smart contracts. Voting power is based on holding quantity: each NOTE holder receives one vote per NOTE they hold.