Crypto Lending Vault Deposits Top $10 Billion

Crypto lending vaults held more than $10 billion in deposits by October 19, up from $4 billion at the beginning of 2025, as digital assets increasingly flow into lending strategies that offer yield while exposing depositors to borrower, collateral and technology risks. The estimate, attributed to Blockworks data, reflects the growth of vaults that pool cryptocurrencies or stablecoins and deploy them through lending and other strategies. Curators typically select strategies or borrowers, set risk parameters and may collect fees. Interest paid by borrowers can generate returns for depositors, though the yield varies by strategy and risk. That arrangement can give companies and individuals a way to earn returns on digital assets they might otherwise hold for payments or other uses. But deploying those assets also means accepting lending exposure and potentially giving up some liquidity. Depositors can face losses if borrowers fail to repay, collateral becomes difficult to sell, automated liquidations do not work as expected, or smart-contract code fails. One example cited in the reporting involved the March hack of decentralized protocol Resolv. USR, its token, was used as...