Published May 202676 pagesFrancesco · Noveleader
The Vaultification of Finance
The evolution of Vaults as the infrastructure layer of institutional finance onchain
“Eventually, all assets will end up in a vault.”
▮ The numbers that matter
$120.4B
Net vault TVL across eight categories
+37.8%
RWA vaults during the stress window — the only category to grow
75%
Of curated TVL held by just three curators
$7.5B+
Morpho TVL — the curator model's proof point
$200M
Kraken DeFi Earn deposits in two weeks
1.7%
Of DeFi TVL covered by insurance — the biggest gap
The Thesis
Together with stablecoins and perps, vaults complete the triad of the most successful primitives crypto has ever seen. Three unlocks turned them from yield wrappers into the asset-management layer of onchain finance: ERC-4626/7540 standards, Morpho's curator model, and regulatory clarity plus tokenised Treasuries. Even a brutal stress window that halved vault TVL couldn't stop Bitwise, Kraken, and Coinbase from deploying through vaults — the lines between TradFi and DeFi will keep blurring until all assets end up in a vault.
Covered in the report
MorphoAaveMapleVedaEulerFluidKaminoGauntletSteakhouseSentoraCentrifugePendleHyperliquidEtherFi
Inside
- 01Vaults as DeFi Primitive: The Origins
- 02Big Unlocks: ERC-4626, Morpho, Pendle
- 03Regulatory Clarity and Tokenisation
- 04Institutional Vaults: The Allocator Dilemma
- 05The Vault Landscape — Eight Categories
- 06Vault Risk Analysis & The Future of Vaults
More on this topic: DeFi & Onchain Finance