Key Takeaways
2025 marked an inflection point for vaults, as DeFi established itself as the future of financial infrastructure. As we step into 2026, we're taking a moment to reflect on some highlights.
A year of institutional momentum
Gauntlet Vaults earned the trust of leading institutions, fintechs, and wallets seeking reliable access to onchain yield. The range of partnerships and collaborations signals that vaults are becoming the bridge between traditional finance and onchain opportunities.
Bringing TradFi yields onchain
We collaborated with Apollo, Securitize, Morpho, and Polygon to launch the first onchain levered RWA strategy using Apollo's ACRED fund. This represented a fundamental shift in how institutional-grade yields can be accessed and optimized onchain, combining the efficiency of DeFi with off-chain yields. Read more about this integration here.
Explosive growth on Solana
Our Solana vault TVL surged, driven by successful integrations with Phantom and Squads Protocol on Kamino, as well as delta-neutral vaults on Drift. Read more about our Kamino vaults here and our Drift Vaults here.
Gauntlet Vaults integrate with business banking
Wirex integrated Gauntlet Vaults with their Business Accounts on a global scale, an industry first. This integration gives Wirex Business clients one-click access to stablecoin yield on their USD and EUR balances, seamlessly blending traditional business banking interfaces with onchain yield opportunities. Read our announcement.
Learn more about our partnerships and integrations in VaultBook.
New ways to access DeFi yield
DeFi and vaults are democratizing access to onchain yield and will be core to the financial infrastructure of the future. In 2025, we launched vaults and features that meet users wherever they are, whether that's across multiple chains or experiencing DeFi for the very first time.
Cross-chain yields with Gauntlet USD Alpha
We introduced Gauntlet USD Alpha (gtUSDa), a multi-strategy vault providing cross-chain yield on stablecoins. Users can supply USDC to the vault on Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism, with seamless access stablecoin yield from across the DeFi ecosystem.
Gauntlet Miniapp on The Base App
With millions experiencing DeFi for the first time all over the world, we launched streamlined access to Gauntlet Vaults with a new Miniapp on Base.
Building trust through education
Accessible DeFi education is critical as more institutions and users come onchain. In 2025, we developed a comprehensive educational resource with VaultBook, setting the standard for transparency and education in vault curation:
- Start with our DeFi 101 materials on vaults and curators
- See how our vaults performed during market turbulence
- Reference our comprehensive glossary of DeFi terms
- Dive deep into Kamino Vaults and our methodology
- Explore Morpho Vaults, methodology, and risk management
Three trends shaping vaults in 2026
As we look ahead, three major developments are poised to reshape the vault landscape:
Multi-strategy vaults are coming here: We expect to see more vaults adopting a multi-strategy structure, building portfolios of underlying vaults with distinct strategies.
Fixed-rate products gain traction: Fixed-rate vaults will increasingly offer the predictability that both suppliers and borrowers need for sustainable yield, and more in line with TradFi standards.
RWAs continue their onchain migration: Real-world assets came onchain in 2025 in a real way. In 2026, this trend will accelerate, merging off-chain yields with onchain efficiency.
As we move into 2026, we're energized by the progress made and excited about what's ahead. Here's to a vibrant year of continued growth, innovation, and institutional adoption in the vault ecosystem.
Gauntlet Team
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