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The DeFi vault, lending, and risk curation ecosystem
The vault economy runs on six interdependent layers. These include the assets that enter the system, the platforms that hold and lend them, the teams that manage risk, the infrastructure that keeps everything running, the capital that funds it all, and the aggregators that optimize returns. This resource maps every active protocol across each layer, with context on how they work and how they connect.
Asset Issuers & Strategy Managers
The protocols that create onchain assets (stablecoins, LSTs, RWAs, synthetics) and the teams that design structured yield strategies.
Vault & Lending Platforms
The base-layer infrastructure where capital is deposited, strategies are executed, and decentralized credit markets operate.
Risk Curators
Specialist teams that configure how vaults behave: which assets are allowed, what risk parameters apply, and how capital is allocated.
Yield Aggregators
Protocols that pool deposits and automatically route capital across vaults and lending markets to optimize net yield with minimal manual effort.
Infrastructure Providers
The oracles, bridges, automation networks, and standards that supply data, execution, and interoperability to every vault and lending market.
Liquidity & Capital Providers
The retail depositors, DAOs, institutional managers, and funds that supply the capital vaults and lending markets are built around.
Explore more
Two primers that explain how the layers in this map work together and why each one matters.
A layer-by-layer breakdown of how assets, vaults, curators, infrastructure, and capital providers fit together and how value flows between them.
A primer on how price data underpins every vault, what happens when it fails, and what makes an oracle trustworthy from a risk perspective.
What is the DeFi Vaults Map? Learn more about it
Check most frequently asked questions
Research, analysis, and deep dives
Visual breakdowns of ecosys.
People shaping institutional DeFi