If you're looking to earn reasonable yield on your idle stablecoins (USDC/USDT/USDT0...), I built this ranking for you. 50 defi protocols ranked by risk, security and yield apy.
S Tier
.@aave — major lending money market and blue chip defi with deep liquidity (tvl) and conservative risk params; yield compresses hardest in downturns.
Category: Lending | Chains: Ethereum + major L2s | Stable APY: ~2–3%
Risk: low but main downside is rate compression.
.@compoundfinance v 3 — old-school lending with fewer moving parts.
Category: Lending | Chains: Ethereum + select L2s | Stable APY: 2–3%
Risk: conservative
.@Uniswap — major fee engine DEX for stable pools.
Category: DEX LP | Chains: Ethereum + L2s | Stable APY: 1–60%
Risk: fee volatility, incentive ending, pool selection.
.@CurveFinance — stablecoin plumbing for DeFi.
Category: Stable AMM | Chains: Ethereum + L2s | Stable APY: 2–7%
Risk: low
.@Morpho — marketplace for curated vault risk + lending vaults.
Category: Lending | Chains: Ethereum + Base | Stable APY: 3–7% (vault-dependent)
Risk: low
.@sparkdotfi — lending + liquidity hub.
Category: Lending | Chains: Ethereum + Base | Stable APY: 2–5%
Risk: conservative
A Tier
.@maplefinance — onchain credit with strategies often steadier than most incentive farms.
Category: Credit | Chain: Ethereum | Stable APY: 4–5%
Risk: credit cycle/borrower risk.
.@AerodromeFi — Base’s incentives machine.
Category: DEX LP | Chain: Base | Stable APY: ~7%
Risk: emissions are heavy
.@yearnfi — delegated strategy yield aggregator + vaults.
Chains: Ethereum + L2s | Stable APY: 1–5%
Risk: strategy risk
.@pendle_fi — turns yield into a tradable product.
Category: Yield derivatives | Chains: multi-chain | Stable APY: 6–9%
Risk: yield structure complexity.
.@Balancer — AMM built for stable + composable liquidity.
Category: DEX LP | Chains: Ethereum + select L2s | Stable APY: ~3%
Risk: pool complexity, boosted mechanics.
.@ConvexFinance — yield optimizer.
Category: Yield | Chains: Ethereum | Stable APY: 4–7%
Risk: dependency on Curve incentives.
.@KaminoFinance — Solana’s lend + vault hub.
Category: Lending/vaults | Chain: Solana | Stable APY: ~3%
Risk: chain concentration.
.@orca_so — Solana LP yields with incentives + volume.
Category: DEX LP | Chain: Solana | Stable APY: 1–80%
Risk: LP variance
.@AuraFinance — Convex-for-Balancer.
Category: Yield booster | Chains: Ethereum | Stable APY: ~8%
Risk: extra dependency stack.
B Tier
.@0xfluid — unified liquidity layer built by @Instadapp team; designed for capital efficiency.
Category: Lending + DEX | Chains: Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base (multi-chain) | Stable APY: 3–4%
Risk: model complexity
.@eulerfinance — permissionless markets with more variance.
Category: Lending | Chains: EVM | Stable APY: 1–7%
Risk: market factors + complexity.
.@FolksFinance — Strong in its home ecosystem; xChain adds extra plumbing.
Category: Lending | Chains: Algorand + xChain | Stable APY: 3–7%
Risk: crosschain mechanics + ecosystem concentration.
.@VenusProtocol — BNB Chain money market.
Category: Lending | Lead chain: BNB Chain | Stable APY: ~2%
Risk: chain concentration
.@GearboxProtocol — Leverage changes everything.
Category: Leveraged lending | Chains: EVM | Stable APY: 2–7%
Risk: liquidation/oracle/leverage risk.
.@SiloFinance — Isolated markets reduce contagion, but your market choice matters.
Category: Lending | Chains: EVM | Stable APY: 1–8%
Risk: market-specific
.@beefyfinance — Aggregator across chains; quality depends on the chain + strategy.
Category: Yield vaults | Chains: multi-chain | Stable APY: 3–9%
Risk: strategy + chain dependence.
.@MoonwellDeFi — Base lending option; smaller than the giants.
Category: Lending | Lead chain: Base | Stable APY: ~4%
Risk: couldn’t decipher
.@Dolomite_io — More features, more surfaces.
Category: Money market / margin | Lead chain: Arbitrum | Stable APY: 2–4%
Risk: complexity
.@merkl_xyz — Incentive router: good for boosts, not “set and forget.”
Category: Incentives | Chains: multi-chain | Stable APY: 0.4–2%
Risk: incentives can disappear overnight.
.@SushiSwap — Long-running DEX; yields depend on the pool.
Category: DEX LP | Chains: multi-chain | Stable APY: 1–9%
Risk: pool selection
.@CamelotDEX — Arbitrum-native DEX incentives.
Category: DEX LP | Lead chain: Arbitrum | Stable APY: 1–11%
Risk: emissions + liquidity migration.
.@AcrossProtocol — Bridge yield is still bridge risk.
Category: Bridge liquidity | Chains: multi-chain | Stable APY: 1–3%
Risk: bridge exposure.
.@symbiosis_fi — Crosschain routing yield.
Category: Crosschain | Chains: multi-chain | Stable APY: 4–9%
Risk: crosschain dependencies.
C Tier — High risk
.@katana — high-yield venue with limited depth.
Category: Yield/strategy | Stable APY: 30–40%
.@bluefinapp — trading venue where yield stability depends on incentives/volume.
Category: DEX/perps | Stable APY: 3–36%
.@avantisfi — trading/perps-driven yield surfaces.
Category: Perps/trading | Stable APY: ~11%
.@GMX_IO — perps liquidity/revenue share. The yield here is cycle-dependent.
Category: Perps | Chains: Arbitrum + other L2s | Stable APY: 1–5%
.@GainsNetwork_io — perps/trading yield protocol where yield depends on volume and market conditions.
Category: Perps | Stable APY: ~10%
.@yield — structured yield where return comes with counterpart risk.
Category: Structured/credit | Stable APY: ~12%
.@upshift — Category: Yield strategy | Stable APY: 9–13%
.@hyperion_xyz — Category: Yield/strategy | Stable APY: 19–24%
.@superformxyz — crosschain vault router with a dependency stack risk factor
.@ston_fi — TON DEX with high risk of ecosystem concentration
Honorary mentions
.@metromxyz
.@goldfinch_fi
.@WildcatFi
.@KiloEx_perp
.@TakaraLend
.@project0
.@autopools
.@StakeDAOHQ
.JustLend
Let me know what you think of this list.
