Yield vaults evaluated across mandate accountability, exit mechanics under stress, strategy-risk honesty, and fee transparency.
Ranked here: yield vaults where someone else allocates your deposit, compared on who is accountable for the mandate, exit under stress, honesty about strategy risk and fee transparency. Not ranked here: products that do not hand the allocation of your deposit to someone else.
#1 of 6 · published ranking
Yearn (v3)
82ChainChoice Score
4199
Why it leads
Yearn (v3) is 1 point ahead of Morpho Vaults, mainly because it scores higher on its fee transparency.
Show the arithmetic
Ahead of Morpho Vaults on fee transparency (+1.2 points)
Cost
Not priced· Only 2 of 6 publish a comparable price
ReviewedNext review by Published Methodology v2026.11.1
How this page is reviewed
Reviewed means every product ranked on this page was read against its sources on or after that date; every ranked category is re-read at least every 45 days. Models research, extract and parse. A deterministic engine ranks. Every quote passes an adversarial refute pass.
No provider can pay for a position in this table. The code that computes this order cannot read which links carry a referral code, and every build proves it. Every score below rebuilds from the published criteria.Ranking v2026.11.1 · 4 criteria · 6 products · same inputs, same order
How we review · 6 ranked of 7 assessed · 4 criteria · 0 sponsor weight
How we review
6ranked
7assessed
4criteria
0sponsor weight
Recommendation first, comparison only if needed.
Reviewed and rechecked on the current cycle.
Commercial relationships disclosed before clickout.
Personal comparison
Yield Vaults ranked comparison
Only 2 of 6 providers publish a comparable price; ranking still uses verified product evidence.
RankProviderBest fitScore
1
Yearn (v3)The original yield vault protocol — now...Top ranked
Fee transparency — 8/10Trade-off: TVL is ~4% of its 2021 peak — less scrutiny per long-tail vault than the brand implies
82score
Check availability for your country
Yearn (v3) · yearn.fi. Provider links appear once we know which country you are browsing from: ChainChoice links to providers only where it serves in full.
Commission: This provider pays ChainChoice nothing for this link. Disclosure
Crypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.
2
Morpho VaultsCurated lending vaults — you underwrite...
Mandate — 7/10Trade-off: Curator risk is the real exposure — the Morpho brand does not underwrite the strategy
81score
Check availability for your country
Morpho Vaults · app.morpho.org. Provider links appear once we know which country you are browsing from: ChainChoice links to providers only where it serves in full.
Commission: This provider pays ChainChoice nothing for this link. Disclosure
Crypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.
3
BeefyMulti-chain auto-compounder — you inher...
Fee transparency — 8/10Trade-off: You inherit the risk of every underlying farm Beefy wraps
77score
Check availability for your country
Beefy · beefy.com. Provider links appear once we know which country you are browsing from: ChainChoice links to providers only where it serves in full.
Commission: This provider pays ChainChoice nothing for this link. Disclosure
Crypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.
4
Fluid LiteAutomated leverage-looping — not passiv...
Fee transparency — 8/10Trade-off: Leveraged looping — an LST depeg or rate spike can invert the yield
76score
Check availability for your country
Fluid Lite · lite.instadapp.io. Provider links appear once we know which country you are browsing from: ChainChoice links to providers only where it serves in full.
Commission: This provider pays ChainChoice nothing for this link. Disclosure
Crypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.
Lagoon · lagoon.finance. Provider links appear once we know which country you are browsing from: ChainChoice links to providers only where it serves in full.
Commission: This provider pays ChainChoice nothing for this link. Disclosure
Crypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.
6
UPUpshiftInstitutional vaults run by appointed c...
Fee transparency — 5/10Trade-off: High Growth ETH showed its 24-hour withdrawal period overdue (since 12 September 2026...
58score
Check availability for your country
Upshift · upshift.finance. Provider links appear once we know which country you are browsing from: ChainChoice links to providers only where it serves in full.
Commission: This provider pays ChainChoice nothing for this link. Disclosure
Crypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.
Ranked on 4 published criteria weighted 30/26/24/20, which set goal alignment — 30 of the 86 points. The rest: regional access 20 (constant here), evidence depth 18 (constant here), ease of use 10 (constant here), institutional trust 8 (constant here). Profile match is shown in breakdowns but carries no weight.
How you can lose money here, and what the ranking scores
Contract failure: the code holding the funds is exploited.
Also scored, as cost, quality or a summary of several families: Fee transparency (20%).
Audit
Infrastructure
Methodology
2026.11.1
published 10 November 2026
Providers tracked
860+
across 121 categories
Last verified
3 November 2026
newest dated pricing or sentiment read
Named on the roster
2 people
managing directors · 6 automated processes
Decision guide
What matters most before choosing in this category
The best vault depends on who you are willing to let allocate your deposit, and on how confidently you could withdraw it in a bad week. Mandate accountability and exit under stress carry over half the weight here, because a headline APY tells you nothing about either — and looping, market making and pass-through farm risk are all routinely presented as passive yield.
Do you know who decides where your deposit goes — the protocol, a named curator, or a delegated desk?
Would you still accept this yield if you knew the strategy was looping or market making rather than lending?
If everyone withdrew at once, does your exit depend on a buffer that thins exactly then?
Current engine lead
The #1 overall and the scoring weights
Yearn (v3)Data checked Nov 2026
The original yield vault protocol — now ~4% of its 2021 peak
The original yield vault protocol — now ~4% of its 2021 peak. Strongest on fee transparency (8/10): Each Yearn vault shows its own fees live, and the displayed APY is net of them. Factory-deployed vaults charge a 10% performance fee, and single-asset vaults generally charge no management fee. Weakest on exit mechanics under stress (6/10): Criterion: 'Redemption path, queue length, and whether instant exit depends on a buffer that thins in a crisis.' The strategy-risks page (200) still names stress illiquidity in the underlying lending; there is no in-kind exit path like Morpho's. ERC-4626 redeem is instant only while the strategies hold liquidity. Published price: Yearn's yVaults overview (docs.yearn.fi, read 3 November 2026): vaults "had 20% performance fees and 2% management fees, but this has changed and yVaults now have a dynamic fee structure." It adds: "For vaults deployed by the vault factory the performance fee is…
Best forFee transparency — 8/10
Main tradeoffTVL is ~4% of its 2021 peak — less scrutiny per long-tail vault than the brand implies
Verify before signupYearn's yVaults overview (docs.yearn.fi, read 3 November 2026): vaults "had 20% performance fees and 2% management fees, but this has changed and yVaults now have a dynamic fee structure." It adds: "For vaults deployed by the vault factory the performance fee is 10% instead of 20%." and "Single asset vaults generally have no management fee." Yield on yearn.fi "is displayed as net APY", so fees are already netted out. Fees are per vault; check the specific vault's live fee display. Worked tally (Yearn's ydaemon API, read 3 November 2026): of 24 v3 Ethereum vaults with at least a hundred thousand dollars deposited, 14 charge a 10% performance fee, 10 charge none, and none charges a management fee.
Weighted criteria
Mandate accountability30%
Exit mechanics under stress26%
Strategy risk honesty24%
Fee transparency20%
Methodology
How this category is reviewed
Reviewed on mandate accountability, exit mechanics under stress, strategy risk honesty, and fee transparency.
The order on this page is the published ranking for this category. Every criterion, weight and source behind it is on the methodology page.
Frequently asked
Questions people ask before choosing yield vaults
What is the difference between staking and yield vault in crypto?
Staking pays you for helping secure a blockchain, and the return comes from the protocol itself. A yield vault hands your deposit to a strategy — lending, market-making, basis trades, or a mix — and pays you what that strategy earns after fees. The distinction that matters is accountability: staking rewards are set by public protocol rules, while a vault's return depends on a manager's decisions, so this page scores whether the mandate is accountable, whether the strategy's risks are stated honestly, and what happens to your exit when the strategy is under stress.
What does a vault curator actually do?
A curator chooses which markets your deposit is allocated to and can usually change that allocation without asking you. Whether the curator is named, and whether they can be replaced, is the single biggest determinant of what you are actually holding — which is why mandate accountability is weighted first.
What matters most when choosing a yield vault?
Who allocates and whether you can leave. Mandate accountability and exit mechanics under stress carry over half the weight, because a headline APY tells you nothing about either.
Why isn't the vault with the highest APY ranked #1?
Because a higher APY is usually compensation for risk that has been moved rather than removed. The rate is shown as a fact and never scored; what is scored is who allocates, how you exit when everyone else wants to, whether the strategy is described honestly, and whether the real fee load is knowable before you deposit.
Reviewed3 November 2026Method4 criteriaCategoryyield_vaults
Not financial advice · For informational purposes only · Always do your own research
