NAVI Loop: Same-Asset USDY and USDSUI Loops on Sui

NAVI Loop is a JewelSwap Labs vault on Sui that takes a stablecoin deposit, supplies it to NAVI Protocol, borrows the same stablecoin against it and supplies that too, until the loan is about 62–67% of what is supplied. You deposit USDY or USDSUI, receive a vault share token (jnUSDY or jnUSDSUI), and a keeper runs the loop for you inside limits the contract checks on-chain.

It is a public beta: the contract is new and unaudited, and each vault accepts only about $10,000 in total while the beta runs. This guide explains how the loop works, where the return comes from, why that return depends on NAVI's reward emissions rather than on interest, and the risks you take on. You can open the vault at sui.jewelswap.io/labs/navi-loop and read the full technical page in the NAVI Loop docs.

What NAVI Loop does

NAVI is one of the two largest lending markets on Sui. As of 18 October 2026, DefiLlama tracks about $158M of TVL in NAVI Lending, with about $75M borrowed. If NAVI is new to you, start with our NAVI Protocol overview.

A loop on a lending market works like this: supply a coin, borrow against it, supply what you borrowed, and repeat. Each round adds a little more supplied and a little more debt. Our guide to DeFi looping walks through the general idea. NAVI Loop does it with one twist: it borrows the same coin it supplies. USDY is supplied and USDY is borrowed; USDSUI is supplied and USDSUI is borrowed.

That matters for liquidation. When collateral and debt are the same coin, a price move changes both sides by the same percentage, so the loan-to-value ratio does not move. The loop is not exposed to the price of one asset falling against another. What it is exposed to is the gap between the rates NAVI pays and charges, and NAVI's reward programme.

The two vaults: USDY Loop and USDSUI Loop

Both targets sit below NAVI's own limits. NAVI's open API lists a maximum LTV of 70% for USDY and 75% for USDSUI (NAVI pools API, 18 October 2026). The vault contract adds a hard ceiling of 66% for USDY and 71% for USDSUI, so the keeper cannot push the position closer to NAVI's line than that.

USDY is a token from Ondo Finance that holds short-term US Treasuries and passes the yield through as a rising price. Ondo does not offer it to US persons. Our Ondo Finance guide covers it in detail. USDSUI is a dollar stablecoin native to Sui.

How a deposit moves through the vault

1. You deposit. You send USDY or USDSUI and receive jnUSDY or jnUSDSUI at the current share price. An entry fee (0.50% for USDY, 0.60% for USDSUI) stays inside the vault to cover NAVI's borrow fee on the levered part of your deposit.
2. The coins wait for the keeper. The keeper runs every ten minutes. Until then your deposit sits idle in the vault and still counts at full value.
3. The keeper levers. It supplies the idle coins to NAVI, borrows the same coin and supplies that too, until the position reaches the target LTV.
4. The position earns. NAVI pays its supply rate and rewards on everything supplied and charges borrow interest on what is borrowed. The net result flows into the share price.
5. You exit. If the vault holds enough idle coins, your withdrawal is paid at once. Otherwise you get a withdrawal ticket priced at that moment. The keeper repays part of the loan, withdraws your share from NAVI and funds tickets in the order they were created, usually within one or two runs. You then claim.

Here is the arithmetic for a 100 USDY deposit at the 62% target, taken from the JewelSwap docs:

• Your equity: 100 USDY
• Supplied to NAVI: 100 ÷ (1 − 0.62) ≈ 263 USDY
• Borrowed from NAVI: 263 − 100 ≈ 163 USDY
• LTV: 163 ÷ 263 ≈ 62%

Your deposit is pooled. Those numbers describe your share of one shared NAVI position, not a separate loan in your name, so you never manage a health factor yourself.

Where the return comes from, and why rewards carry it

With leverage L, the vault's return is roughly:

coin's own yield + (supply rate + supply rewards) × L + borrow rewards × (L − 1) − borrow rate × (L − 1) − fees

Three points decide whether that number is positive.

Interest alone is negative

On NAVI, the borrow rate on a coin is normally above its supply rate, because suppliers receive borrowers' interest minus a reserve share and only on the utilised part of the pool. NAVI's API on 18 October 2026 showed USDY at about 0.55% base supply versus 2.10% base borrow, and USDSUI at about 3.18% supply versus 4.89% borrow. Every borrowed coin therefore costs more than it earns. On interest alone, each extra turn of the loop loses a little.

NAVI's rewards make the difference

NAVI pays incentives on top of base interest, currently in vSUI, the liquid staking token from its Volo subsidiary. On 18 October 2026 the API listed supply incentives of about 3.0% on USDY and 3.8% on USDSUI, plus a smaller borrow incentive on USDSUI. A loop earns supply incentives on the whole supplied amount, so leverage multiplies them. That is the only reason the strategy can beat simply holding the coin.

Two caveats are important. NAVI sets and changes these incentives at any time, and they can stop. And NAVI's own borrowing guide says that if you borrow the same token you supply, the amount counted toward rewards can be reduced, with an "effective amount" of supply minus borrow (NAVI docs, How to Borrow). If NAVI applies that rule to the vault's position, the reward income shrinks sharply and the loop can earn less than holding the coin. Treat any reward-driven estimate in the app as provisional.

USDY's Treasury yield is not levered

USDY's yield shows up as its price rising. The vault also owes USDY, so on the borrowed part that price rise is owed back. You earn USDY's own yield once, on your deposit, not times L. Our APY vs APR explainer covers how to read the app's estimates.

Fees

NAVI itself charges a one-time 0.3% fee on each borrow (NAVI borrow docs). A full round trip through the vault costs roughly 0.6%, so on a short hold the fees can be larger than anything the loop earns.

What the contract checks

The keeper is a JewelSwap service, but it does not get a free hand. For each step it borrows the vault's NAVI account for one transaction and must return it. Before taking it back, the contract checks that:

• the vault lost no more value than NAVI's borrow fee on any new debt;
• the LTV is at or under the vault's ceiling, or lower than before the step;
• the vault owes NAVI nothing except its own coin;
• no new debt was taken while the vault is paused or de-risking;
• total losses stay under 1% of the vault per day.

If any check fails, the whole transaction reverts. Deposits, withdrawals and claims only read NAVI's books and never call NAVI directly, so a NAVI upgrade cannot block them. The share price is computed from NAVI's own records: supply minus debt plus idle cash minus amounts owed to queued exits.

Risks

• Unaudited beta contract. The code has not been externally audited. A bug could lose funds, which is why each vault is capped at about $10,000 (8,700 USDY and 9,990 USDSUI) during the beta. Only deposit what you can afford to lose.
• Reward dependence. The loop is profitable only while NAVI's incentives outweigh the negative interest spread. If NAVI cuts, ends or limits rewards on looped positions, the vault can underperform holding the coin, and leverage may be reduced.
• Rate risk. Leverage multiplies the spread between supply and borrow rates. A rise in borrow rates turns the position loss-making faster at higher leverage.
• Liquidation. Price moves do not change the LTV, but borrow interest growing faster than supply interest for a long time slowly raises it. The keeper unwinds well before NAVI's limit; if the keeper stopped for weeks, the position could drift toward liquidation. Our guide to DeFi liquidations explains what happens then.
• Exit liquidity. Queued exits need free coins in NAVI's pool. NAVI's USDSUI pool was about 81% utilised on 18 October 2026, so exits from the USDSUI vault are more likely to wait. See utilisation rate explained.
• NAVI and coin risk. A bug, oracle failure, pause or governance change at NAVI affects the vault directly. A depeg of USDY or USDSUI reduces the vault's value one for one.
• Keeper and admin keys. If the keeper is down, deposits sit unlevered and tickets wait. JewelSwap can pause the vault, change fees within hard limits and upgrade the contract.

NAVI Loop vs Ember Loop

JewelSwap runs a second loop vault on Sui, Ember Loop, which takes USDC, buys Ember's eEARN yield token and borrows USDC against it on Suilend at about 4.5x. That loop earns a spread between eEARN's yield and the USDC borrow rate, and it carries eEARN's strategy risk. NAVI Loop has no second asset and no price gap between legs, but it depends on reward emissions. We compare the two side by side in Ember Loop vs NAVI Loop.

If you would rather run a loop by hand, our step-by-step guide on how to use NAVI Protocol covers supplying, borrowing and the health factor. For leveraged farming rather than lending loops, JewelSwap also runs Scallop leveraged farms and Cetus farms on Sui.

Frequently asked questions

Can the NAVI Loop vault be liquidated if USDY's price moves?

Not by a price move. The vault borrows the same coin it supplies, so collateral and debt move together and the LTV stays the same. The LTV only rises if borrow interest outpaces supply interest for a long time, and the keeper unwinds long before NAVI's limit.

Why is the loop profitable if borrowing costs more than supplying?

Only because of NAVI's reward emissions, currently paid in vSUI, which leverage multiplies. Without them the vault would earn less than holding the coin. NAVI can change or stop those rewards, and its docs say same-token borrowing can reduce the rewards counted.

How long does a NAVI Loop withdrawal take?

If the vault has idle coins, it is instant. Otherwise you get a ticket that the keeper usually funds within one or two runs, about 10–20 minutes. It can take longer if NAVI's pool has little free liquidity.

Is there a deposit limit?

Yes. During the beta each vault accepts about $10,000 in total: 8,700 USDY for the USDY Loop and 9,990 USDSUI for the USDSUI Loop.

Has NAVI Loop been audited?

No. It is an unaudited beta contract. The on-chain checks limit what the keeper can do, but they do not replace an audit.

Keep reading

• What is NAVI Protocol?
• How to use NAVI Protocol
• Ember Loop vs NAVI Loop
• DeFi looping explained
• NAVI vs Suilend

Educational content, not financial advice. NAVI Loop is an unaudited beta; deposits are capped and can lose value. Rates and TVL are as of 18 October 2026 from NAVI's open API and DefiLlama and change constantly. Vault parameters are from the JewelSwap NAVI Loop docs.