Roll yield is a specific Markets coordinate in the Bitcoin knowledge graph. In practical terms, it identifies the subject described here: Gain or loss produced when expiring futures are replaced with later contracts at different prices. This definition is narrower than promotional usage and should be read together with the implementation, date and evidence attached to the entry.
Roll yield is best understood as part of a system rather than as an isolated definition. Its related coordinates show the mechanisms, incentives and historical records that give the term practical meaning.
Roll yield describes how participants value, trade or obtain exposure to bitcoin. Market behavior can affect adoption and mining economics, but it does not rewrite consensus rules. Price evidence and protocol evidence answer different questions.
Understanding Roll yield helps distinguish a verifiable Bitcoin mechanism or historical record from slogans, products and market narratives.
Primary or authoritative records make these details checkable: roll yield is the gain or loss associated with replacing an expiring futures position at a different price along the curve, separate from spot movement and collateral return. They should be verified before using the coordinate in analysis.
The practical limit is: contango does not guarantee negative total return and backwardation does not guarantee profit; timing, contract selection, basis convergence, fees, margin and index rules matter. A definition, office, chart pattern or published claim is not by itself a prediction or Bitcoin consensus rule.
For the clearest picture, read this entry together with Bitcoin futures ETF, Contango, Backwardation, Tracking error, Bitcoin. The reverse links also lead from Bitcoin futures ETF, Contango, Backwardation.