What is a crypto vault?

A crypto vault is an instrument through which users access an active yield-generating strategy. Examples include lending vaults, liquid staking tokens, risk-curated lending vaults, RWA credit vaults, perpetual LP vaults, and options vaults.

Are all tokenized yield products crypto vaults?

No. Under the Castle Labs methodology used for this page, a vault must provide access to an active yield-generating strategy. A token that is only a direct 1:1 claim on an offchain instrument is better treated as tokenized issuance, not a vault.

Which crypto vault category held up best during recent DeFi stress?

Castle Labs reported that RWA vaults gained 37.8% during the October 2025 to May 2026 stress window, while lending, liquid staking, restaking, options, and risk-curated vault categories saw significant drawdowns.

What should I compare before using a crypto vault?

Compare the source of yield, assets used, curator or manager, smart contract and counterparty risk, liquidity terms, leverage, withdrawal delays, historical drawdowns, and whether the vault is permissionless or KYC-gated.

DeFi vault guide

Crypto Vaults

Vaults are becoming the infrastructure layer for onchain yield. The important question is not just which vault pays the most, but what strategy, asset exposure, and risk path creates that yield.

Compare vault types Review risks

Defined vault TVL

$120.4B

Across the Castle Labs vault taxonomy

Peak vault TVL

$241B

Around the October 2025 market peak

RWA vault growth

+37.8%

During the stress window when most categories drew down

DeFi TVL context

$86B

Vault TVL overlaps because assets can be reused across protocols

What Counts as a Crypto Vault?

For this guide, a vault is an instrument through which users access an active yield-generating strategy. That definition is useful because it separates strategy products from simple tokenized claims on offchain assets.

By that lens, Lido stETH can qualify because users deposit ETH and receive staking yield through a liquid staking token. Centrifuge JAAA can qualify because users access credit yield through a tokenized wrapper. BlackRock's BUIDL, by contrast, is better viewed as direct tokenized issuance because it represents a 1:1 claim on an offchain Treasury fund.

This page uses Castle Labs' vault taxonomy as a research baseline and adapts it for people comparing crypto yield products. The full Castle Labs report is set out in their Vaultification of Finance report.

Eight Crypto Vault Categories

Vaults should not be treated as one market. Each category has a different yield source, risk vector, liquidity profile, and response to stress.

Lending vaults

Morpho, Aave, Spark, Fluid, Kamino

Largest category

Yield source: Borrower interest paid to depositors across one or more lending markets.
Main risks: Credit, collateral, oracle, liquidation, utilization, and curator allocation risk.
Takeaway: Best understood as modular credit markets. Curator quality and collateral selection matter as much as headline APY.

Liquid staking

Lido stETH, Binance Staked ETH, Rocket Pool, cbETH

$42.4B

Yield source: Validator rewards passed through liquid staking tokens.
Main risks: Validator, slashing, smart contract, liquidity, peg, and concentration risk.
Takeaway: Often lower-yielding, but highly composable. stETH-like assets can become collateral throughout DeFi.

Restaking

EigenCloud, EtherFi, Kelp DAO, Renzo

$20.6B

Yield source: Additional rewards from restaked ETH or liquid restaking tokens.
Main risks: Composability, slashing, collateral reuse, protocol dependency, and incident contagion risk.
Takeaway: Restaking can boost ETH yield, but recent stress events showed how accepted collateral can transmit risk.

Risk-curated vaults

Sentora, Steakhouse, Gauntlet, KPK

~$6.5B

Yield source: Curators allocate deposits across markets and strategies for performance or management fees.
Main risks: Curator concentration, mandate drift, fee design, market selection, and risk management execution.
Takeaway: This is DeFi's closest analogue to asset management. Depositors are underwriting the curator, not just the protocol.

Vault infrastructure and yield optimizers

Veda, Upshift, Fluid Lite Vault, IPOR Fusion, Gearbox

TVL can understate AUM

Yield source: Automated allocation across lending, carry, looping, LP, RWA, and other yield sources.
Main risks: Strategy automation, permissioning, adapter, integration, leverage, and liquidation risk.
Takeaway: These products package operational complexity. The key question is whether automation can exit risk fast enough.

RWA credit vaults

Centrifuge, Anemoy, Re, Upshift USDC

Resilient category

Yield source: Private credit, tokenized credit positions, treasury-linked pools, reinsurance, and institutional lending.
Main risks: Counterparty, redemption delay, compliance, liquidity, offchain servicing, and oracle risk.
Takeaway: RWA vaults showed uncorrelated growth, but they introduce TradFi settlement and liquidity constraints.

Perpetual LP vaults

Jupiter JLP, Hyperliquid HLP, Drift, GMX, Ostium

JLP leads category

Yield source: Trading fees, funding, market-making spread, and trader losses inside perpetual venues.
Main risks: Trader PnL, market volatility, tail liquidations, leverage parameters, and inventory risk.
Takeaway: These vaults can pay attractive variable yield, but depositors may effectively become the counterparty to traders.

Options vaults

Derive, Rysk

Smaller post-2022 category

Yield source: Covered calls, cash-secured puts, RFQ-based option strategies, and market-maker execution.
Main risks: Volatility, strike selection, execution timing, liquidity, and strategy design risk.
Takeaway: Modern options vaults are more flexible than early DOVs, but they still fit sophisticated users best.

How to Compare Vaults

The same APY can mean very different things depending on the strategy. Start with the user intent, then work backward to the risk path.

Vault type	Common use	What to check	Primary risk
Stablecoin lending vault	Earn yield on USDC or USDT	Borrower quality, utilization, collateral mix, curator, withdrawal liquidity	Credit and liquidation risk
ETH liquid staking vault	Keep ETH liquid while earning staking yield	Validator set, token liquidity, slashing record, DeFi collateral exposure	Peg and concentration risk
RWA credit vault	Access yield less correlated to crypto prices	Redemption window, borrower disclosures, KYC rules, secondary liquidity	Counterparty and liquidity risk
Perp LP vault	Earn exchange or market-making yield	Trader PnL history, leverage caps, loss events, vault drawdowns	Tail market risk
Options vault	Earn option premium from structured strategies	Strike/expiry design, execution method, liquidity, max loss scenarios	Volatility and execution risk

Vault Risk Checklist

A vault page should not rank products only by the highest APY. Better vault comparison starts by identifying the moving parts that can break during stress.

What asset is actually generating yield?
Is yield coming from staking rewards, borrower interest, trading fees, option premium, or offchain credit?
Can the vault change strategy after deposit?
Who curates or manages the vault, and how are they paid?
What are the withdrawal terms in normal markets and during stress?
Does the vault depend on wrapped, bridged, rebasing, or restaked collateral?
Has the vault or curator disclosed historical drawdowns and incident response rules?
Is the product permissionless, KYC-gated, or available only through secondary markets?

Why RWA Vaults Are Different

RWA vaults were the standout category in Castle Labs' stress-window analysis, largely because their underlying exposure is not always tied to crypto asset prices. Centrifuge, Anemoy, Re, Upshift, and similar products connect onchain depositors to credit, treasury-linked, reinsurance, or institutional lending strategies.

That does not make RWA vaults risk-free. They replace some onchain volatility with counterparty, compliance, redemption, and liquidity questions. Some assets settle on TradFi timelines such as T+1 or T+5, which creates friction for DeFi users who expect instant exits and atomic liquidations.

How to Use This Guide

Vaults are the next layer of the crypto yield market: users still care about APY, but they also need a plain-English explanation of the strategy creating the APY. A useful vault comparison should combine rate data with category, asset exposure, liquidity, manager, permissioning, and risk notes.