Merkl Documentation Portal
Your official source of information for everything regarding the Merkl platform
Merkl is the infrastructure used by stablecoin issuers, neobanks, fintechs, tokenized funds, and exchanges to distribute yield, dividends, and rewards. From one platform, you can design and run virtually any reward program — yield and dividend distributions, liquidity incentives, airdrops, points programs, token-holding rewards, and more — across dozens of chains, without building or maintaining the infrastructure yourself.
- For issuers & institutions: design, launch, and manage reward programs — distributing yield, dividends, and incentives to your users — without the operational burden.
- For users: earn rewards or points simply by taking part in eligible programs.
At its core, Merkl runs an offchain engine that processes both onchain and offchain data to compute the rewards and points for every campaign.
This documentation explains how Merkl works and how its building blocks fit together — campaign types, distribution methods, scoring, and customization. If you're building on Merkl — integrating the API, displaying rewards and analytics, or creating campaigns programmatically — head to the Merkl Developer docs.
What sets Merkl apart?
For Issuers & Institutions
- 🚀 Launch Complex Incentives in Minutes: Start a fully customized incentive campaign in less than 3 minutes, no need for weeks of development.
- 📈 Comprehensive Coverage: Merkl supports rewards on top of a wide range of onchain activities, across dozens of chains:
- Lending & Borrowing: Reward lenders and borrowers across lending markets such as Aave, Compound, and Morpho.
- Liquidity Incentives: Reward liquidity providers in concentrated (CLAMM) and constant-product pools.
- Airdrops: Retroactive token distributions from a custom allocation you provide.
- Token Balance: Reward token holders based on relative balances over time.
- 🛠 Unmatched Flexibility: Run multiple campaigns per asset and shape exactly how, where, and to whom rewards flow:
- Customizable Distribution Types: Choose how rewards are spent over time — fixed or variable reward rates, capped APRs, or custom logic tailored to your program.
- Crosschain Incentives: Incentivize an asset on one chain while distributing rewards on another.
- Reward Boosts: Increase rewards for users holding specific ERC20 tokens.
- Blacklist / Whitelist Controls: Restrict eligibility based on addresses (e.g., compliance lists or protocol-specific criteria).
- Recover Unclaimed Rewards: Reallocate unclaimed rewards to any destination of your choice, ensuring they remain effectively utilized.
- Control, Monitor & Update Emissions: Adjust and refine campaigns even after launch to keep incentives working as intended.
- ⚡ Smart Rewards Forwarding: Automated detection of smart contracts & staking pools ensures rewards are correctly distributed even if users interact via third-party contracts.
- 📊 Advanced Analytics: Gain deep insights into incentive performance, including reward distribution, liquidity source breakdowns, and engagement trends.
- 🔌 Effortless Integration: Use the Merkl API for seamless data integration (APRs, rewards, analytics) or rely on the Merkl App for a ready-to-use interface.
For Users
- 💰 Maximize Earnings with Competitive APRs: Access multiple campaigns for the same asset to stack incentives and boost returns.
- 🔓 No Staking Required: Simply participate in eligible activities, no need to lock up assets or take on extra smart contract risks.
- ⛽ Gas-Efficient Rewards: Batch claim rewards in a single transaction, saving gas fees.
- 🌍 A One-Stop Hub for Onchain Rewards: With 20,000+ campaigns, Merkl provides a single dashboard to track earnings and discover the best opportunities.
Merkl is a non-custodial solution. You retain full control over your assets. Merkl only processes reward claims, adding no smart contract risk beyond what is already involved in your onchain activity.
How to get started?
For Issuers & Institutions
- Learn how Merkl works under the hood by checking the Technical Overview
- Explore the versatility of Merkl's incentive mechanisms — its campaign types, distribution types, customization options, and additional features
- Start your first campaign on Merkl Studio using our guides
- Check our integration and API docs to display Merkl APRs and rewards in your app
- Forwarder, deposit URL, dispute,... check the Glossary if there's a term you don't understand.
For Users
- Discover active campaigns & start earning in the Merkl App
- Learn how to earn rewards in Merkl by checking the user guide
- Opportunity, campaign, APR,... check the Glossary if there's a term you don't understand.
🔗 Links
📩 Contact Us
Merkl is constantly evolving with new features and integrations.
If you have specific use cases or need guidance on your incentive or points program, contact us on Discord (BD Ticket).