Which defi protocols actually stay up
Best measured: Aave V3 — 9.3/10 on the 100% we could measure.
Runner-up: Lido — 8.41/10.
Last collection 2026-08-25: probed 252 services, measured 233, over a 90-day window. Collected by our own script, not by hand — the numbers are reproducible, and reproducibly boring.
The ranking
| # | Service | Score | TVL | Audits | Age | Chains | Status feed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aave V3 | 9.3100% | $17.31B | 2 | 4.4y | 21 | statuspage |
| 2 | Lido | 8.4178% | $23.84B | 2 | — | 5 | none |
| 3 | Binance staked ETH | 8.32100% | $9.24B | 2 | 3.3y | 2 | unknown |
| 4 | Morpho Blue | 8.1100% | $9.56B | 2 | 2.6y | 42 | none |
| 5 | SparkLend | 8.08100% | $4.46B | 2 | 3.3y | 2 | none |
| 6 | SSV Network | 7.9578% | $12.56B | 2 | — | 1 | none |
| 7 | EigenCloud | 7.84100% | $6.61B | 2 | 3.2y | 1 | none |
| 8 | Maple | 7.8278% | $3.06B | 2 | — | 2 | none |
| 9 | Ethena USDe | 7.62100% | $4.07B | 2 | 2.5y | 1 | none |
| 10 | Sky Lending | 7.5178% | $5.72B | 2 | — | 1 | none |
| 11 | JustLend V1 | 7.5178% | $3.71B | 2 | — | 1 | none |
| 12 | ether.fi Stake | 6.76100% | $4.37B | 0 | 3.5y | 5 | none |
| 13 | BlackRock BUIDL | 6.54100% | $3.45B | 0 | 2.1y | 8 | none |
| 14 | Tether Gold | 6.54100% | $3.29B | 0 | 2.1y | 8 | none |
| 15 | Babylon Protocol | 5.74100% | $3.11B | 0 | 1.8y | 1 | none |
Every figure carries the date it was taken, on the service’s card below, linked to its open source. Score is out of what we could measure — the % next to it is coverage.
How we scored this
These weights belong to this category alone. Signature measurement here: TVL across the protocol (DefiLlama) — Blue-chip DeFi: the scale of value trusted is the headline, with audits and longevity behind it.
Total value locked (DeFi), on-chain reserves (exchanges) or circulating market cap (stablecoins), from DefiLlama. Capita…
Number of published security audits with links, from DefiLlama's audit field. Not a guarantee — audited protocols still …
Time the service has been live and continuously operating, from DefiLlama's listing date or the documented launch. Survi…
Number of chains the service is deployed on, from DefiLlama. Breadth is resilience and adoption — but only a minor facto…
Whether a public, machine-readable status page exists (statuspage / incident.io / instatus). A service you can audit fro…
Latency in this category is timed at the live interface for every service, so the comparison is like-for-like. We never compare latency across categories — a DEX interface and an exchange API are not the same thing, and pretending otherwise would just reward whoever we happened to probe more cheaply.
The brief also defines FEES and UX (0%, 0%). We don’t publish them: we can’t measure them ourselves, and an estimate dressed as a measurement is worse than a gap. Full methodology
The services
Aave V3
$17.31B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
2 published audits with links (DefiLlama) — read the findings yourself. Audits reduce risk, they do not remove it.
Live 4.4 yr (time since DefiLlama listing (a floor on true age)). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Deployed on 21 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
Publishes a machine-readable incident archive (statuspage) — its whole record can be checked by anyone, including against us.
Over the 90 days the feed covers. Not scored — logging granularity varies between services.
Security audits: 2 published audits with links (DefiLlama) — read the findings yourself. Audits reduce risk, they do not remove it.
Lido
$23.84B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
2 published audits with links (DefiLlama) — read the findings yourself. Audits reduce risk, they do not remove it.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 5 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
$9.24B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
2 published audits with links (DefiLlama) — read the findings yourself. Audits reduce risk, they do not remove it.
Live 3.3 yr (time since DefiLlama listing (a floor on true age)). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Deployed on 2 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
A status page exists but publishes no feed we could parse — readable, not auditable. Part of that may be our blind spot (we read three platforms).
Timed at a different surface from the rest of this category, so not a fair comparison — not scored.
Status transparency: A status page exists but publishes no feed we could parse — readable, not auditable. Part of that may be our blind spot (we read three platforms).
$9.56B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
2 published audits with links (DefiLlama) — read the findings yourself. Audits reduce risk, they do not remove it.
Live 2.6 yr (time since DefiLlama listing (a floor on true age)). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Deployed on 42 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
$4.46B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
2 published audits with links (DefiLlama) — read the findings yourself. Audits reduce risk, they do not remove it.
Live 3.3 yr (time since DefiLlama listing (a floor on true age)). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Deployed on 2 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
$12.56B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
2 published audits with links (DefiLlama) — read the findings yourself. Audits reduce risk, they do not remove it.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 1 chain (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
$6.61B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
2 published audits with links (DefiLlama) — read the findings yourself. Audits reduce risk, they do not remove it.
Live 3.2 yr (time since DefiLlama listing (a floor on true age)). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Deployed on 1 chain (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
Maple
$3.06B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
2 published audits with links (DefiLlama) — read the findings yourself. Audits reduce risk, they do not remove it.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 2 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
$4.07B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
2 published audits with links (DefiLlama) — read the findings yourself. Audits reduce risk, they do not remove it.
Live 2.5 yr (time since DefiLlama listing (a floor on true age)). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Deployed on 1 chain (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Timed at a different surface from the rest of this category, so not a fair comparison — not scored.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
Sky Lending
$5.72B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
2 published audits with links (DefiLlama) — read the findings yourself. Audits reduce risk, they do not remove it.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 1 chain (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
JustLend V1
$3.71B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
2 published audits with links (DefiLlama) — read the findings yourself. Audits reduce risk, they do not remove it.
No documented launch or listing date to measure age from.
Deployed on 1 chain (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
$4.37B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
No published audits on DefiLlama. Not proof of insecurity, but an unaudited contract holding funds is a red flag.
Live 3.5 yr (time since DefiLlama listing (a floor on true age)). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Deployed on 5 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Security audits: No published audits on DefiLlama. Not proof of insecurity, but an unaudited contract holding funds is a red flag.
Anyone putting size into it: it holds funds in smart contracts with no published audit. Fine to experiment with, not to trust with a position you cannot afford to lose.
$3.45B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
No published audits on DefiLlama. Not proof of insecurity, but an unaudited contract holding funds is a red flag.
Live 2.1 yr (time since DefiLlama listing (a floor on true age)). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Deployed on 8 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Security audits: No published audits on DefiLlama. Not proof of insecurity, but an unaudited contract holding funds is a red flag.
Anyone putting size into it: it holds funds in smart contracts with no published audit. Fine to experiment with, not to trust with a position you cannot afford to lose.
Tether Gold
$3.29B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
No published audits on DefiLlama. Not proof of insecurity, but an unaudited contract holding funds is a red flag.
Live 2.1 yr (time since DefiLlama listing (a floor on true age)). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Deployed on 8 chains (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Security audits: No published audits on DefiLlama. Not proof of insecurity, but an unaudited contract holding funds is a red flag.
Anyone putting size into it: it holds funds in smart contracts with no published audit. Fine to experiment with, not to trust with a position you cannot afford to lose.
$3.11B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
No published audits on DefiLlama. Not proof of insecurity, but an unaudited contract holding funds is a red flag.
Live 1.8 yr (time since DefiLlama listing (a floor on true age)). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Deployed on 1 chain (DefiLlama). Breadth is a minor tie-breaker — a focused single-chain protocol can still be excellent.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Security audits: No published audits on DefiLlama. Not proof of insecurity, but an unaudited contract holding funds is a red flag.
Anyone putting size into it: it holds funds in smart contracts with no published audit. Fine to experiment with, not to trust with a position you cannot afford to lose.
Who we left out, and why
We looked at 15, ranked 15.
Head to head
Questions
Why isn’t the biggest name at the top?+
Because we rank on whether a service works and can be checked, not on how big it is. Size is not a criterion here — a large service that publishes no status feed cannot demonstrate its reliability to anyone, and it scores accordingly.
What does "62% measured" mean under a score?+
It is the share of our criteria weight we actually measured for that service. The rest is n/a — we did not measure it, so its weight was redistributed across what we did measure rather than counted as zero. A high score at low coverage is a narrower claim than the same score at high coverage, and we would rather show you that than hide it.
Where do the incident numbers come from?+
From each provider's own status page, which several publish as a machine-readable feed. We compute repair time from their published report and resolution timestamps, and link the source on every figure so you can check it. It is their record — we just do the arithmetic and refuse to round it in their favour.
No affiliate links or paid placements in this section. How this is funded · Methodology