S&P Announces Risk Assessment Method for DeFi Lending Vaults, Market Size Grows 6.7 Times in Two Years

Key Points of This Article

• Risk analyzed across six categories including curators
• Separate from credit ratings, individual assessments to be announced later

Evaluation of DeFi Lending Vaults Across Six Categories

On the 4th, S&P Global Ratings, a major U.S. rating agency, announced the launch of a new assessment method called "Vault Risk Assessment (VRA)" targeting lending vaults on the blockchain. The initial evaluation of individual vaults will be announced at a later date.

According to S&P, the total assets held in lending vaults on the blockchain reached approximately $10 billion as of September 2026, expanding from $1.5 billion in September 2024, a growth of about 6.7 times in two years.

Lending vaults refer to on-chain investment products that pool deposited assets and operate according to predetermined strategies. The design and management of the operational policies are handled by operators known as "curators." S&P positions these vaults similarly to money market funds (MMFs) and private credit funds.

In Addition to Managed Assets, Chains and Protocols Are Also Evaluated

The VRA analyzes six categories: "quality of portfolio credit," "liquidity mismatches," "curators," "blockchains," "protocols," and "vault security and governance." The evaluation scope includes not only the quality of the managed assets but also the technical risks of the underlying chains and smart contracts.

The evaluation results are indicated with a symbol ending in "(v)" such as "AAA(v)." S&P explained that VRA is not a credit rating and does not provide views on yield levels. While blockchain transactions offer transparency at specific points in time, the disclosure of vault strategies and risks has been limited, which is supplemented by forward-looking analysis.

Expanding Evaluation Operations in the Cryptocurrency Sector

Yann Le Pallec, President of S&P Global Ratings, stated that as institutionalization of digital assets progresses, there is a growing demand for independent risk assessments that bridge traditional finance and decentralized innovations.

The company has previously worked on assessing the stability of stablecoins. It has also conducted credit ratings for Sky Protocol, the first DeFi protocol, and for securitized products backed by Bitcoin (BTC). In September, the parent company S&P Global agreed to acquire OpenZeppelin, a smart contract auditing firm, and also led a strategic investment in data company Kaiko.

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