S&P brings ratings-style scrutiny to $10 billion crypto vault market as $6 million Base incident exposes risks
S&P Global launched a Vault Risk Assessment framework on Oct. 4 to compare the relative risk that investors in crypto lending vaults suffer losses. It examines six areas, including asset quality, liquidity, curator and protocol risk, blockchain risk, and vault security and governance. S&P says the forward-looking assessments are not credit ratings, yield forecasts or guarantees of repayment, and may change as vaults’ assets, contracts or liquidity conditions evolve. The launch coincided with CertiK reporting suspicious activity involving an unnamed Base vault: a proxy borrowed about $6 million in tokens and redeemed them through Aave. The incident did not exploit Aave, but underscored risks in vault contracts and management. Vault deposits reached about $10 billion in September, up from $1.5 billion two years earlier; assessments of individual vaults are expected later.
