About the report
In this post, we examine the performance of DeFi vaults. Vaults can be considered "self-custodial investment strategies" in traditional finance: vaults are smart contracts that enable users to deposit funds from their cryptocurrency wallets and trade a predefined strategy with investors' money.
Report content updates
Since the previous report is from November 2025, we have updated the report as follows:
- Blacklisting and filtering mechanisms now cover > 100 vaults with issues to keep the data clean
- Browser TVL and average yields across protocols, chains and stablecoins
- Updated ~40 vault protocols (see below)
These benchmarks include:
- Supported denomination stablecoins include USDC (Circle), EURC (Circle), USDT (Tether), USDS (Sky), Metamask USD (mUSD) and other popular stablecoins.
- The report covers 9,245 stablecoin-denominated vaults out of 26,382 total vaults
- The report data is dated 2026-01-28
- Total 21 EVM blockchains
New protocols and vaults added
Since last month, we have expanded or updated the technical support to index the following protocols. A total of ~40 new vault protocols are now supported:
- EulerEarn — @eulerfinance
- Term Finance — @term_labs
- Decentralized USD — @usddio
- Ethena — @ethena_labs
- Centrifuge — @centrifuge
- Maple Finance — @maplefinance
- Sky — @SkyEcosystem
- Upshift — @upshift_fi
- Deltr, Teller, Spark, cSigma Finance
- Liquidity Royalty Tranching, Foxify, CAP, Royco
- ZeroLend, ETH Strategy, Yuzu Money, Altura, Spectra
- Gearbox, Mainstreet Finance, YieldFi, Resolv, Curvance
- Singularity Finance, Brink, Accountable Capital, YieldNest
- Dolomite, HypurrFi, Fluid, USDX Money, Hyperlend
- Sentiment, infiniFi, Renalta, Avant, aarnâ, Yo, Frax Finance
DeFi vault community news, January 2026
Average vault yield per blockchain
The breakdown of vaults by their blockchain is now available. By monthly average TVL-weighted yield, Arbitrum and Avalanche dominate other chains. The average vault yield on Berachain is actually negative, a phenomenon we have not seen before.
YieldNest RWA MAX vault leads real-world asset vaults
YieldNest RWA MAX is a real-world asset vault, in collaboration with Kimber Capital, for mortgage-backed loans on verified house-and-land developments. Currently having 11% annualised returns. The vault has a yearly lock-up matching the underlying instrument, but for enters and exits, $500k in liquidity is available at the Curve DEX.
Bitwise Investments begins to offer DeFi vaults
Bitwise Asset Management, also known as Bitwise Investments, is a cryptocurrency-focused investment firm specialising in professionally managed funds and exposure to digital assets. Founded with a dedicated track record in crypto since 2017, the company offers over 40 products across various formats, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs) like the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index ETF (BITW), separately managed accounts (SMAs), private funds, and staking services.
Bitwise has recently expanded into onchain solutions by launching non-custodial vault curation on Morpho, a DeFi lending platform.
The best-performing vaults
Here you can find the vaults with the best absolute monthly returns. Ostium Liquidity Pool has retaken its place as the best-performing vault.
- Filtered for $50k USD minimum TVL
- The best vaults by their one-month return
- View the live benchmark
Due to the high volatility of some vaults, we also chart the rolling return of non-volatile vaults only.
| # | Vault | 1M Return Ann. | 3M Return Ann. | 3M Sharpe | TVL USD | Chain | Denomination |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ostium Liquidity Pool Vault | 76.5% (n) | 30.2% (n) | 2.90 | 48,098,724 | Arbitrum | USDC |
| 2 | Base-USDC Yield-DynaVault v3 | 562.2% (g) | 562.2% (g) | 8.10 | 368,832 | Base | USDC |
| 3 | Staked dUSD | 49.0% (g) | 30.6% (g) | 6.30 | 1,128,964 | Ethereum | dUSD |
| 4 | Sentiment USDe-1 | 48.9% (n) | 16.6% (n) | 8.90 | 57,901 | Hyperliquid | USDe |
| 5 | Yuzu Protection Pool | 44.5% (n) | 23.6% (n) | 8.40 | 2,619,670 | Plasma | USDT0 |
| 6 | USDC-TIBBIR shares | 39.1% (g) | 25.0% (g) | 5.50 | 111,615 | Base | USDC |
| 7 | Peapods Interest Bearing USDC - 33 | 35.1% (g) | 41.3% (g) | 68.40 | 5,033,678 | Ethereum | USDC |
| 8 | Pocky's High Yield USDC | 34.4% (n) | 31.9% (n) | 27.30 | 209,405 | Base | USDC |
| 9 | Peapods Interest Bearing USDC - 73 | 31.7% (g) | 25.9% (g) | 34.70 | 361,779 | Base | USDC |
| 10 | Pocky's High Yield USDS | 26.4% (n) | 50.4% (n) | 27.00 | 770,125 | Ethereum | USDS |
| 11 | dgnHYPE | 26.1% (n) | -1.1% (n) | -0.00 | 1,999,500 | Arbitrum | USDC |
| 12 | Altura Vault Tokens | 23.8% (g) | 23.7% (g) | 24.90 | 2,311,192 | Hyperliquid | USD₮0 |
| 13 | Angmar Capital | 16.8% (n) | 16.1% (n) | 1.30 | 1,573,409 | Arbitrum | USDC |
| 14 | AQRU Maple Pool USDC1 | 17.2% (g) | 17.1% (g) | 35.70 | 7,542,976 | Ethereum | USDC |
| 15 | Steakhouse High Yield Turbo | 16.2% (n) | 16.2% (n) | 8.60 | 1,198,271 | Arbitrum | USDC |
| 16 | ETH Strategy Perpetual Note | 16.9% (n) | 16.7% (n) | 8.00 | 3,811,842 | Ethereum | USDS |
| 17 | Staked UTY | 15.1% (g) | 10.5% (g) | 7.90 | 3,067,814 | Avalanche | UTY |
| 18 | Upshift AZT | 16.2% (g) | 14.5% (g) | 5.00 | 7,063,769 | Ethereum | USDC |
| 19 | Syntropia Boosted | 15.0% (n) | 14.4% (n) | 9.80 | 507,214 | Ethereum | USDC |
| 20 | Staked avUSD | 13.1% (n) | 14.0% (n) | 58.70 | 95,681,879 | Avalanche | avUSD |
Correlation of returns
Daily returns correlation for the highest performing vaults.
| # | Vault | 3M Return Ann. | 3M Sharpe | Chain | TVL USD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Base-USDC Yield-DynaVault v3 | 562.2% (g) | 8.10 | Base | 368,832 |
| 2 | Harvest: USDC Vault (0xa4Ea) | 152.9% (n) | 10.40 | Base | 1,418,461 |
| 3 | Pocky's High Yield USDS | 50.4% (n) | 27.00 | Ethereum | 770,125 |
| 4 | Peapods Interest Bearing USDC - 33 | 41.3% (g) | 68.40 | Ethereum | 5,033,678 |
| 5 | Spark USDS Compounder | 35.6% (n) | 3.40 | Ethereum | 428,987 |
| 6 | Ostium Liquidity Pool Vault | 30.2% (n) | 2.90 | Arbitrum | 48,098,724 |
| 7 | Yuzu Protection Pool | 23.6% (n) | 8.40 | Plasma | 2,619,670 |
| 8 | Tulipa Capital USDT0 | 24.1% (g) | 2.90 | Plasma | 1,561,001 |
Next steps
Visit our vaults page for real-time dashboards. If you have any questions, contact us on Discord, email or Twitter.