ETH vaults in Glassnode’s September comparability trailed staking even because the stability in its wider vault pattern rose about 15% to $10 billion. Curators managing dollar-denominated vault methods beat Treasuries for a 3rd consecutive month, in accordance with the analysis agency’s October 30 performance review.
Vaults pool deposits into yield methods overseen by curators, or managers. The cut up places a sensible query forward of the marketed yield: what might the depositor have earned whereas retaining the asset they already needed to personal? For an ETH holder, incomes extra tokens by means of a managed technique is beneficial solely in relation to alternate options corresponding to staking. A greenback saver faces a special comparability.
Glassnode’s stability determine, its highest since November 2025, describes the vaults represented in its knowledge. It doesn’t set up whole-market development or isolate how a lot got here from new deposits, altering asset values or modifications in protection. A rising pool of property and a method that beats its benchmark are separate findings.
The benchmark is dependent upon the asset you maintain
A depositor who intends to retain ETH publicity is selecting the right way to put that holding to work. Evaluating an ETH vault with staking preserves that beginning resolution. Evaluating it with a greenback rate of interest additionally introduces a call about whether or not to carry ETH in any respect.
CryptoSlate’s October 24 staking analysis made that distinction between accumulating tokens on an present holding and purchasing for money earnings. Glassnode’s new September comparability brings the query inside managed DeFi: did the extra technique ship greater than staking?
The ETH vaults in Glassnode’s comparability didn’t clear staking’s return hurdle. That makes the related check the return above staking, after permitting for the vault’s further dangers.
The greenback consequence carries a special implication. Beating Treasuries exhibits a return premium towards that comparator, however says nothing by itself about whether or not the premium adequately paid for the vault’s further dangers. The subsequent query is what generated the earnings and what might interrupt entry to the cash.
The yield-data supplier vaults.fyi’s benchmark explainer separates USD and ETH yields by community. Its current methodology weights as much as 5 of the most important qualifying vaults by their whole worth locked, with a $1 million minimal for every. Its legacy Ethereum mainnet ETH benchmark as a substitute makes use of 4 mounted liquid-staking tokens.
The development issues: these sequence can’t be assumed to be Glassnode’s staking comparator. Forex and return dates should match earlier than any return hole may be measured.
Depend staking yield as soon as, and costs as soon as
The accounting is especially consequential for methods constructed on liquid-staking property. A part of the entire return can come from the underlying staking place and half from what the vault does with it. Treating the technique’s further yield as all the ETH return can understate efficiency; including staking once more to an inclusive whole can overstate it.
Vaults.fyi’s APY methodology distinguishes absolutely compounded whole yield, together with underlying protocol yield, from intrinsic yield earned by the underlying asset alone. Its March product update described that separation as a option to distinguish the asset’s earnings from the technique’s contribution.
The identical self-discipline applies to prices. Vaults.fyi derives trailing annualized yields from onchain share-price modifications and accounts for charges already mirrored in share costs or accrual. Subtracting these charges once more would understate the reported return. Individually valued reward-token emissions can add to the entire, so the bottom return and incentives additionally must be distinguished.
Even that cut up can require wanting beneath a wrapper. In its separate census utilizing knowledge as of August 20, vaults.fyi identified cases where wrapper-level base yield contained downstream rewards. An apparently incentive-free return on the first layer can due to this fact nonetheless rely upon incentives additional alongside the allocation chain.
Later yield tables can not settle the September comparability. Vaults.fyi’s October 26 ETH snapshot listed Lido stETH at a 2.34% seven-day common APY. That’s an annualized price from a later trailing window, not September’s realized staking return or a matched check of Glassnode’s vault cohort.
Morpho’s October 8 ecosystem report mentioned greater than $11 billion sat in curated vaults. That broader class is separate from Glassnode’s tracked pattern.
A vault’s phrases can change the worth of its yield
For particular person depositors, the contract and allocation matter greater than a platform whole. Morpho’s Vault V2 documentation describes adapters that route funds into underlying methods and caps that may constrain collateral, oracle or protocol exposures. The enabled adapters, precise allocations and configured limits decide which exposures a person takes.
V2 permits efficiency charges as much as 50% of yield and administration charges as much as 5% of property, whereas distribution wrappers can add one other payment layer. These are configuration ceilings, not precise expenses for Glassnode’s pattern. The V2 framework illustrates why the model, payment schedule and allocation of every chosen vault matter.
Exit rights add one other dimension. Morpho V2’s in-kind mechanisms can alternate vault publicity for an underlying protocol place that will nonetheless be illiquid. A penalty of as much as 2% might apply, and non-obligatory gates can limit withdrawal rights. Leaving a vault is due to this fact not at all times the identical as receiving instantly spendable ETH or {dollars}.
Staking, the ETH comparator, has constraints too. Liquid-staking protocol Lido’s withdrawal process makes use of a first-in, first-out queue, with waits relying on obtainable ETH, queue demand and validator exits. Customers stay uncovered to slashing whereas queued. Promoting stETH on a secondary market supplies one other route, however the execution value can differ from ETH.
That makes the September cut up a place to begin for judging managed DeFi. Greenback curators cleared their reported Treasury hurdle whereas the ETH vault comparability didn’t clear staking’s. For a depositor, the remaining check is whether or not the return above the related different survives the precise payment and incentive accounting and compensates for the particular collateral, contract and exit dangers taken to earn it.
