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, based on the analysis agency’s October 30 efficiency overview.
Vaults pool deposits into yield methods overseen by curators, or managers. The break up places a sensible query forward of the marketed yield: what might the depositor have earned whereas holding the asset they already wished to personal? For an ETH holder, incomes extra tokens by way of a managed technique is beneficial solely in relation to options corresponding to staking. A greenback saver faces a unique comparability.
Glassnode’s stability determine, its highest since November 2025, describes the vaults represented in its information. It doesn’t set up whole-market development or isolate how a lot got here from new deposits, altering asset values or adjustments in protection. A rising pool of property and a technique that beats its benchmark are separate findings.
The benchmark depends upon the asset you maintain
A depositor who intends to retain ETH publicity is selecting find out how 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 choice about whether or not to carry ETH in any respect.
CryptoSlate’s October 24 staking evaluation made that distinction between accumulating tokens on an current holding and searching for money revenue. 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 end result carries a unique implication. Beating Treasuries reveals 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 revenue 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 present 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 an alternative makes use of 4 mounted liquid-staking tokens.
The development issues: these collection can’t be assumed to be Glassnode’s staking comparator. Foreign money and return dates should match earlier than any return hole will be measured.
Depend staking yield as soon as, and charges 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 replace described that separation as a method 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 adjustments 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 have to be distinguished.
Even that break up can require trying beneath a wrapper. In its separate census utilizing information as of August 20, vaults.fyi recognized instances the place 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’t 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 fee 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 consumer 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 charge layer. These are configuration ceilings, not precise prices for Glassnode’s pattern. The V2 framework illustrates why the model, charge 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 which will nonetheless be illiquid. A penalty of as much as 2% might apply, and non-compulsory gates can prohibit withdrawal rights. Leaving a vault is due to this fact not all the time the identical as receiving instantly spendable ETH or {dollars}.
Staking, the ETH comparator, has constraints too. Liquid-staking protocol Lido’s withdrawal course of makes use of a first-in, first-out queue, with waits relying on out there 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 worth can differ from ETH.
That makes the September break 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 charge and incentive accounting and compensates for the precise collateral, contract and exit dangers taken to earn it.
