Gauntlet is a crypto risk-management firm, founded in 2018, that now mainly designs and runs lending vaults on Morpho 25. Depositors put stablecoins, ETH or BTC into a Gauntlet vault, and Gauntlet decides which Morpho lending markets that money can go to 316. Morpho's data credits Gauntlet with about $985 million in curated deposits across 11 networks as of October 23, 2026 8. The operating company is Gauntlet Networks, Inc. Gauntlet was earlier known as Aave's risk manager 17. It isn't related to the Gauntlet video-game series.
Gauntlet's Terms of Service are issued by Gauntlet Networks, Inc., with Delaware governing law and JAMS arbitration 1. Fortune reports that Tarun Chitra, a former D.E. Shaw Research quant, co-founded the firm in 2018 and is its CEO 5. IQ.wiki also lists John Morrow and Rei Chiang as co-founders 6.
In 2022, Gauntlet raised a Series B of almost $24 million at a $1 billion valuation, led by Ribbit Capital. In June 2026 it closed a $125 million round from Japan's SBI Holdings 5. Fortune puts headcount at about 40 5.
Gauntlet first made its name by simulating DeFi protocols to recommend parameters such as collateral factors and liquidation thresholds. Its clients were mostly DAOs 5. It served Aave as a "risk steward" from 2020. On February 22, 2024, it announced it was leaving, citing the "inconsistent guidelines and unwritten objectives" of Aave's largest stakeholders 7.
Fortune describes the shift that followed: running vaults directly instead of advising DAOs 5. Gauntlet says it has published more than 40 research papers 4.
On Morpho, a curator decides which isolated lending markets a vault may lend to, caps each one and sets fees. Allocators move the money within those limits 16. Gauntlet runs three strategy tiers 3:
Gauntlet's site says retail users can deposit directly, and positions stay self-custodial 3.
Largest Gauntlet-curated Morpho vaults, as of October 23, 2026 9:
| Vault | Chain | Approx. deposits | Performance fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gauntlet USDC Prime (V1) | Base | $410M | 0% |
| Gauntlet USDC Prime (V2) | Base | $169M | 0% |
| Gauntlet USDC Prime (V2) | Ethereum | $108M | 0% |
| Gauntlet USDG Premium (V2) | Arbitrum | $53M | 10% |
| Gauntlet WETH Prime (V2) | Ethereum | $23M | 0% |
| Gauntlet USDC Frontier (V2) | Ethereum | $23M | 0% |
| StableEarn (V2) | Stable | $21M | 0% |
Newer V2 vaults can deposit into older V1 vaults, so these figures overlap and shouldn't be added up.
Many Gauntlet vaults are co-branded for distribution partners, including Uniswap (Uniswap USDC, USDT and ETH), SwissBorg, Bitso, OneKey, Juno (MXNB), Index Coop, Metronome, Compound on Polygon, and Agglayer's Vault Bridge 9. Gauntlet also curates USDC and USDT0 vaults on Hyperliquid's HyperEVM 9.
Gauntlet earns from a performance fee, a share of the interest depositors earn. As of October 23, 2026, most of its V2 vaults charge 0% performance and 0% management fees. Exceptions include USDG Premium on Arbitrum and the HyperEVM USDC vault, at 10% each. Older V1 vaults mostly charge 5–10% 9. Prime V1 vaults use a 7-day timelock on curator changes; most others use 3 days 9. There's no deposit or withdrawal fee in the vault contracts, but network gas applies.
The Resolv case shows the general risk: when collateral collapses, any bad debt that isn't covered is passed to the vault's depositors, not the curator. Background: stablecoin depegs.
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