> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://guide.rhea.finance/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://guide.rhea.finance/history.md).

# History

From 0 to 1

RHEA Finance (formerly Ref Finance) was initially created by Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol. The first commit on GitHub was made on March 9, 2021.

Following the deployment of the application in April 2021, Proximity Labs, a research and development company focused on NEAR, received a grant from the NEAR Foundation to bootstrap and scale Ref Finance.

Early June 2021, Proximity set up the Ref Finance DAO. DAO members were selected based on their value, contribution, and activity across the board (mainly Telegram and Discord).

Early well-known contributors are:

* Developers
  * Illia: <https://github.com/ilblackdragon>
  * Evgeny: <https://github.com/evgenykuzyakov>
  * Marco: <https://github.com/marco-sundsk>
  * Joe: <https://github.com/aidai524>
  * Referencedev: <https://github.com/referencedev>
  * Mikedotexe: <https://github.com/mikedotexe>
* Business, Strategy and Product
  * ve$RUST at Proximity Labs (ex NEAR core team)
  * Kendall at Proximity Labs (ex NEAR core team)

## From Ref Finance to RHEA Finance

In 2025, Ref Finance merged with Burrow, the lending protocol on NEAR, and rebranded as RHEA Finance.

Since then, RHEA Finance has gone cross-chain: users can trade, lend and borrow across multiple blockchains, not only on NEAR. The protocol continues to be actively developed.