Best DeFi vaults, sorted by what the vault is allowed to do with your deposit

A DeFi vault is a smart contract that takes your deposit, gives you a share token, and does something with the pool. The word covers a Yearn strategy, a Morpho lending allocator, Hyperliquid's HLP, a dHEDGE manager's discretionary book, and a Pendle principal token. They are not the same thing, and a list that ranks them by APY is ranking apples against a bank.

What separates vaults is the mandate: what the contract, or the person behind it, is permitted to do with the pooled deposit. That mandate decides the risk, the exit terms, and what "yield" means. Sort by mandate first, and the APY number becomes readable.

This page does that sort across the five vault types that hold most DeFi deposits, names the leading products in each, and ends with the cases where a vault is the wrong shape for what you want.

Key takeaways

• Five vault mandates cover the field: aggregate and compound, allocate across lending markets, provide perp liquidity, run a manager's strategy, and tokenize a fixed yield.
• The mandate predicts the risk. An aggregator inherits the underlying protocol's risk; a manager vault inherits the manager's; a perp vault inherits the traders'.
• Every vault pools. Your outcome is the pool's, and other depositors' exits can affect your position. The exit terms are as important as the rate.
• ERC-4626 is a share-accounting standard, not a safety standard. It tells you the interface, not the mandate.

How the vault types compare

Type	Leading products	Mandate	Return source	Exit	Main risk
Yield aggregator	Yearn, Beefy, Sommelier, Idle	Deposit into underlying protocols, harvest and compound rewards	Underlying lending or LP yield plus emissions	Usually instant; some strategies have unwind slippage	Underlying protocol; emissions-denominated APY
Curated lending vault	Morpho vaults, Euler vaults	Allocate across isolated lending markets within curator caps	Borrower interest	Up to market liquidity	Curator allocation; bad debt in a market
Perp liquidity vault	Hyperliquid HLP, Jupiter JLP, GMX GLP/GM	Take the other side of traders; market-make; backstop liquidations	Fees, spread, trader losses	Lock (HLP 4 days) or redeem at pool weights	Inventory losses when traders win
Managed strategy vault	dHEDGE, Toros, Drift vaults, Hyperliquid user vaults, Enzyme	Trade the pool at a manager's or code's discretion within whitelists	Whatever the strategy earns	Cooldown (dHEDGE 24h, HL user vaults 1 day) plus close slippage	Manager risk; strategy drift
Fixed-yield wrapper	Pendle PTs	Hold a yield-bearing asset and split it into fixed and floating claims	The yield buyer on the other side	Sell before maturity, or hold to it	Underlying asset's failure; not a rate risk

1. Yield aggregators: compounding what already exists

Yearn, Beefy, Sommelier, and Idle take deposits and route them into underlying protocols, harvest rewards, and reinvest. The mandate is narrow: deposit here, compound that. Their value is automation of a process you could do by hand, at lower gas and without attention.

The risk is the underlying protocol's, plus the aggregator's own contracts, plus one thing the APY hides: on many Beefy-style vaults, a large share of the yield is emissions of a farm token, which is worth what the market says on the day you harvest. An emissions-heavy APY is a forecast of a token price.

Choose an aggregator when you already want the underlying position and want it compounded. The Yearn comparison covers the model against an agent.

2. Curated lending vaults: a curator picks the markets

Morpho vaults and Euler vaults pool a single asset and supply it into isolated lending markets chosen by a curator, within caps the curator sets and a timelock that lets depositors leave before risk-increasing changes take effect.

The mandate is still lending, so the return is borrower interest. What the curator adds is judgement about which markets to touch and how much, and a performance fee for doing so. Exit depends on the underlying markets' unborrowed liquidity.

Choose a curated lending vault when you want lending yield across more markets than one protocol offers, and you have read the curator's list. The Morpho comparison walks through what to read.

3. Perp liquidity vaults: you are the counterparty

HLP, JLP, and GMX's pools take deposits and use them as the liquidity that perpetual traders trade against. The mandate is to be the house: quote, absorb, and profit when traders lose.

The return is fees and trader losses, and the risk is trader wins plus, for basket pools like JLP, the price of the assets in the basket. These are marketed beside yield vaults and are not delta-neutral; the HLP page and JLP page each explain why. HLP locks deposits for 4 days.

Choose a perp liquidity vault when you want to be the counterparty to a venue's traders and accept inventory risk as the price.

4. Managed strategy vaults: a manager or a program trades the pool

dHEDGE, Toros, Drift vaults, Hyperliquid's user vaults, and Enzyme let a manager, or automated code, trade the pooled deposit within a whitelist of assets and protocols. The mandate is the widest on this list: whatever the manager's strategy is, within the vault's limits.

The return is the strategy's and the risk is the manager's. A vault described as market-neutral can drift directional; a manager with a good year can have a bad one. Exits carry cooldowns, 24 hours on dHEDGE by default and 1 day on Hyperliquid user vaults, and large withdrawals can force the vault out of positions.

Choose a managed vault when you want a specific manager's strategy and are willing to do the diligence a marketplace does not. The Toros and dHEDGE comparison, Drift vaults comparison, and Hyperliquid vaults ranking cover the model.

5. Fixed-yield wrappers: lock the rate on something else

Pendle takes a yield-bearing asset and splits it into a principal token and a yield token. Buy the PT at a discount and hold to maturity for a fixed return. It is a vault in the ERC-4626 sense and a derivative in every other sense.

The mandate is to hold the underlying asset until maturity. The return is fixed; the risk is the underlying asset's, unchanged. Fixing the rate on a synthetic dollar does not fix the synthetic dollar. The Pendle comparison covers it.

What every vault shares

Whatever the mandate, five things are true of every vault on this page.

1. Your deposit is pooled. Your result is the pool's, and your share token is a claim on it.
2. Other depositors affect you. Their exits can force position closures or drain liquidity ahead of yours.
3. The mandate can change. Curators add markets, managers change strategy, aggregators migrate. Timelocks help; they do not prevent.
4. The exit is a contract rule. Instant, liquidity-dependent, locked, or cooled down. Read it before depositing, and test it with a small amount.
5. ERC-4626 is accounting. It standardises deposit, withdraw, and share maths. It says nothing about what the vault does.

When a vault is the wrong shape

A vault is the right shape when you want exposure to a pooled strategy and accept pooled terms. It is the wrong shape in two cases.

If you want your position individually held, no vault delivers that; it is the definition of the structure. The alternative is an agent that trades from a wallet you control. Deploy Finance's Income: Funding Rates runs a hedged funding trade on Hyperliquid inside your own wallet under a session key that can trade and cannot withdraw, with no share token, no pool, and no cooldown documented. The ERC-4626 alternatives page covers the difference in detail.

If you want to control the strategy yourself, neither a vault nor an agent is the answer; the open-source bots page is.

The products, one by one

The vault types above group products that behave alike. Each entry below summarises what the product's own public material said at last review, in August 2026, and who it suits. Deploy Finance is covered in the section above.

Yearn

Yearn runs vaults that automate allocation into DeFi strategies, and its vault list spans stablecoin, lending, liquidity, and other strategies, each with its own fees and estimated APY. You hold a vault share; chains, withdrawal mechanics, and capacity vary by vault. It suits a holder who wants a strategy compounded automatically and will read the specific vault's strategy first. The Yearn comparison covers it against an agent.

Beefy

Beefy is a multi-chain yield optimizer whose vaults compound or route the rewards from an underlying farm or pool. You choose the chain, asset, and vault, and fees, withdrawal conditions, and underlying protocols differ by vault. On many vaults a large share of the APY is farm-token emissions. It suits a holder who already wants a specific farm position and wants the harvesting automated.

Sommelier

Sommelier offers automated vault strategies that allocate and rebalance capital across DeFi opportunities, which makes it more active than a plain compounder. Supported assets, fees, and withdrawal terms vary by strategy. It suits a holder who wants a rebalancing strategy rather than a single compounded position.

Idle

Idle allocates deposits through DeFi protocols and structured products, with vault-specific risk and liquidity. You review each product's asset, network, fee, and redemption conditions before depositing. It suits a holder who wants a packaged yield product and will check which protocols sit underneath it.

Morpho vaults

Morpho vaults supply a single asset into isolated lending markets chosen by a curator, within caps and a timelock the curator sets. The return is borrower interest, and Morpho's documentation explains how the curator's fee comes out of it. Exit depends on unborrowed liquidity in the underlying markets. It suits a lender who wants a curator's market selection, and the Morpho comparison covers what to read.

Euler vaults

Euler vaults follow the same curated-lending pattern: a pooled asset supplied into lending markets a curator selects, with borrower interest as the return and exit limited by market liquidity. Curators, caps, and fees differ by vault, so check the specific vault's documentation. It suits a lender comparing curated-lending options beyond Morpho.

Hyperliquid HLP

HLP is Hyperliquid's community-owned protocol vault. It provides liquidity, runs market-making strategies, performs liquidations, and accrues part of trading fees, with no separate leader fee. Deposits are locked for four days after your latest deposit. It suits a holder who wants exposure to the venue's flow and accepts losses when traders win; the HLP comparison covers it.

Jupiter JLP

JLP is the liquidity-provider token for Jupiter's perpetuals on Solana. JLP holders are the pool traders trade against, and the pool holds a basket of assets, so the token carries those assets' price exposure as well as trader PnL. It suits a Solana user who wants perp-venue fees and accepts basket exposure; the JLP comparison explains the risk.

GMX pools

GMX is a decentralized spot and perpetual exchange on Arbitrum, Avalanche, and MegaETH, and its GM and GLV pools supply the liquidity that backs trading and swaps. Liquidity providers earn from that activity and carry the pool's exposure to trader outcomes and asset prices. It suits a holder who wants to be the counterparty on GMX markets; the GMX comparison covers it.

dHEDGE

dHEDGE provides tokenized, non-custodial vaults that managers run within a whitelist of assets and protocols, charging performance fees. Depositors hold a vault token, and withdrawals carry a 24-hour cooldown by default. It suits someone backing a specific manager they have researched.

Toros

Toros packages leveraged and yield strategies as tokens built on dHEDGE vault infrastructure. You hold a token representing the strategy's pooled position. It suits someone who wants a packaged exposure, such as a leveraged token or a yield strategy, without trading it; the Toros and dHEDGE comparison covers both.

Drift vaults

Drift is a Solana protocol for perpetuals, spot, and lending, and Drift vaults let a delegate trade a pooled deposit without being able to withdraw depositor principal. Exits need a redemption request and a notice period. It suits a Solana user backing a specific vault manager; the Drift vaults comparison covers it.

Hyperliquid user vaults

Hyperliquid user vaults let a trader run a strategy on pooled deposits from other users. Each vault has its own leader, strategy, and lockup, with a one-day default. It suits someone who has vetted a particular leader; the Hyperliquid vaults ranking shows how to read one.

Enzyme

Enzyme supplies non-custodial vault infrastructure with configurable asset and protocol restrictions, used by treasuries, curators, and delegated managers. It is closer to a toolkit for running vaults than a single strategy to deposit into. It suits a manager or treasury that needs programmable limits on pooled capital.

Pendle

Pendle splits a yield-bearing asset into a principal token and a yield token. Buying the principal token at a discount and holding to maturity fixes your return, while the risk of the underlying asset stays with you. It suits a holder who wants a known rate to maturity on an asset they already trust; the Pendle comparison covers it.

Verdict

Aggregators for compounding a position you already want. Curated lending vaults for lending across markets with a curator you have read. Perp liquidity vaults for being the house, with inventory risk. Managed vaults for a specific manager's strategy, with their cooldowns. Fixed-yield wrappers for locking a rate on a source you have already accepted.

Read the mandate, then the exit, then the APY.

Learn more

• What are the best alternatives to ERC-4626 vaults?
• Best Hyperliquid vaults
• Best self-custodial ways to earn yield on USDC
• Deploy Finance vs Yearn
• Deploy Finance vs Morpho
• Risks

Start with Deploy Finance

Create a self-custodial Deploy Finance wallet and review the live agents.