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vaults.fyi puts curated DeFi at $11.29 billion with five teams on 69.3% and Morpho carrying 46.2%. DefiLlama counts a different $7.18 billion and finds the same concentration.
The Investor · Invest desk

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Divide the vaults.fyi numbers by each other and the long tail thins out fast. Five teams sit on roughly $7.82 billion [1]. The other 126 curators in the count share about $3.47 billion, an average of $27.5 million each [2], a size at which a curator is a side project rather than a counterparty.
Two kinds of concentration are stacked here, and they do not offset. Morpho's 46.2% is a protocol share, about $5.22 billion running through one set of contracts and oracles [3]. The 69.3% is a share of judgment: the curator picks the markets, the collateral, the caps and the exposure limits [4]. Morpho Blue and MetaMorpho exist to split those layers, letting outside managers build isolated markets and package them into a single vault [5]. So a depositor spread across four vaults from one curator on one protocol holds one contract stack and one risk committee, and has paid for diligence four times.
What that judgment amounts to shows up in the collateral. The bitcoin share of the $3.71 billion held by the 25 largest Morpho stablecoin vaults works out to about $2.01 billion [4], near 17.8% of the entire curated market [5], sitting behind interfaces that read as stablecoin deposits and depending on bitcoin oracles and on liquidations clearing in a falling market [6].
Back out the denominator and the growth story reads differently too. Curated capital at 12.51% of supply-side TVL implies a supply-side market of about $90 billion [6], against roughly $155 billion a year earlier [7]. Curated grew 39% while that denominator fell 41.8% [7], so the doubling of share is partly the rest of the market walking out.
The two surveys are $4.11 billion apart [9] because they count vaults and protocols on different definitions [9], and the smaller count is the more concentrated one, with its top five at 80.9% [8]. Note also that the DefiLlama figures lean on data collected from Sentora, which the same table ranks second at $1.97 billion [8].
Concentration is partly the residue of the last blowup. Usual fell from fourth to thirty-fourth, Concrete and Sentora were unranked a year ago and now hold fourth and second, and vaults.fyi ties the reshuffle to stress around Stream and Resolv that washed out weaker managers and moved money to the survivors [10].
Into that, Bitwise has launched non-custodial vaults with Morpho targeting 6% a year and forecasts onchain vault AUM doubling in 2026 [11]; Apollo is working with Securitize, Midas with Fasanara, and JPMorganChase is preparing tokenized money-market fund vaults [12]; Wintermute's Armitage, live since May, says it can accept collateral other curators cannot because it handles liquidations itself [13]. The backdrop is 207 DeFi exploit incidents in the first half of 2026 against 83 a year earlier [14], about 2.5 times as many [10]. Six percent is the quoted price for accepting the oracle, the liquidation queue and the curator [11].
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
The vaults.fyi survey found 69.3% of the measured curated market runs through just five curators.
Over the past year the curated portion climbed to 12.51% of supply-side DeFi TVL from 5.24%, expanding 39% while the broader supply-side market contracted 41.8%.
The vaults.fyi and DefiLlama reports disagree on totals because they count vaults and protocols differently, but agree the market is greatly concentrated.
About 46.2% of curated capital runs through Morpho across Ethereum-based chains and Solana; the remaining 53.8% is split among 17 other protocols.
A curator picks the markets, the collateral, the caps and the exposure limits, so spreading deposits across several vaults does not spread risk if one team runs all of them.
Morpho Blue and MetaMorpho split the basic lending function from risk management, letting outside managers create separate lending markets and package them into single vaults.
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Evidence-backed comparisons of source perspectives and observed adoption signals. Read the methodology
Which Builder, Operator, and Investor concerns the observed source mix emphasized—not a truth score.
Evidence, demonstrated adoption, hype gap, incentives, and confidence are assessed independently, each on its own current evidence. How these are measured.
Quantified but single-publisher and tracker-dependent
Every figure is specific and attributed to a named dataset (vaults.fyi, DefiLlama on Sentora data, TRM Labs), which is better than narrative assertion. But the cluster contains one publisher and no primary report, no methodology, and the two headline totals differ by $4.11bn on counting rules alone, so the core market-size number cannot be independently pinned.
Real capital already routed through curated vaults
Adoption is observed rather than promised: $11.29bn (or $7.18bn on the narrower count) sits in live vaults across 18 protocols, the cohort grew 39% and more than doubled its share of supply-side DeFi TVL while the wider market shrank, and named non-crypto institutions plus a market maker have shipped or announced vault products.
Mildly overstated by forward-looking framing
The structural findings are close to aligned with the data: concentration and hidden bitcoin collateral are directly measured. The overstatement sits in the forward and promotional layer — Bitwise's own 'ETFs 2.0' doubling forecast and 6% target are carried without challenge, the 'widest survey so far' framing is unverified, and the risk narrative rests on structure rather than any disclosed realized depositor loss, while the rising exploit count is cited alongside curated vaults without evidence linking the two.
Data providers and vendors are market participants
The measurement layer is not disinterested: Sentora supplies the data behind the DefiLlama study and simultaneously appears as a top-ranked curator (second on vaults.fyi, second-largest at $1.97bn on the DefiLlama list), Bitwise is forecasting growth for a product line it just launched with Morpho, and Morpho benefits directly from being ranked the dominant venue. Rankings that reshuffle winners after stress events also reward the surviving teams that participate in the data.
Directionally solid, numerically soft
Confidence is moderate: the concentration conclusion is corroborated by two independent trackers and the growth-versus-contraction pattern is internally consistent, so the direction is credible. Precision is weaker — one publisher, no primary reports, month-only dating for two events, a $4.11bn total gap, and interested data providers all cap how far the specific figures should be trusted.
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