S&P Global introduces AAA style risk scoring into the $10 billion lending market of DeFi

S&P Global has launched a treasury risk assessment framework for the growing digital asset lending market.

Under the framework of Standard & Poor's, AAA (v) represents the lowest relative risk of investor principal loss.

In the past two years, the deposits in the crypto lending vault have increased from $1.5 billion to $10 billion.

S&P Global Ratings stated that as deposits in on-chain lending products reached a record $10 billion, the company has introduced a risk framework similar to AAA for crypto lending vaults. Over the past two years, this market has grown nearly sevenfold from $1.5 billion.

At the same time, this new framework is designed to help investors better compare the risks among these growing lending products.

Standard & Poor's Global introduces risk assessment into DeFi

S&P Global launched a new vault risk assessment on October 5, 2026 ( VRA ), to help investors understand the risks of losses in digital asset lending vaults.

VRA will assign a score based on the risk level of each vault. AAA (v) represents the highest score, indicating the lowest risk of incurring losses for that vault. The lower the score, the higher the risk.

S&P said that the operation of a digital asset vault could be similar to actively managed fixed-income funds. Its strategy can be run automatically through smart contracts or managed by human curators.

S&P Global Ratings President Yann Le Pallec stated that as the application of digital assets in traditional finance continues to expand, independent risk assessment is becoming increasingly important.

He stated, "As digital assets continue to move towards institutionalization, the need for independent risk assessment that can connect traditional finance with decentralized innovation is of paramount importance."

Six types of risks will determine the VRA rating.

S&P indicates that when calculating the rating, it examines six key areas, including portfolio credit quality, liquidity mismatch, curator risk, blockchain risk, protocol risk, as well as treasury security and governance.

These factors will be taken into account to form a letter-based score. AAA (v) represents the lowest relative risk of investor losses, while lower scores indicate higher risk.

S&P said that in the future, it will release the risk assessment results for individual vaults through subsequent announcements.

The Global Ratings Services Director and Executive Director, James Wiemken, stated regarding the complex DeFi market and the differences in the way information is disclosed for various projects: “VRA fills this critical gap.”

The scale of encrypted lending vaults has grown nearly 7 times.

As this new framework is launched, the related markets are rapidly expanding. The deposits in on-chain lending vaults have risen from $1.5 billion in September 2024 to $10 billion, representing an almost sevenfold increase within two years.

These vaults include products built on protocols such as Morpho and Euler, allowing users to concentrate their funds into automated lending strategies.