DeFi risk manager
Chaos Labs
2021 · United Stateschaoslabs.xyz ↗
Also known as Chaos Labs risk oracles, chaoslabs.xyz
chaos labs
Chaos Labs is a DeFi risk management company founded in 2021 by Omer Goldberg, with engineering in Tel Aviv and an office in New York. It builds 'risk oracles' that push parameter changes on-chain automatically, and it served as Aave's primary risk manager from November 2022 until it left in April 2026. It now works with GMX and co-manages Kraken's DeFi Earn USDC vaults.
Our read
Chaos Labs' pitch is automation: parameters that follow the market instead of waiting for a governance vote. That speed is useful, and so is its habit of publishing post-mortems within days. The flip side showed on 10 March 2026, when a misconfigured automated price cap cost Aave borrowers about 512 ETH. With Aave gone, its record now rests on smaller mandates and the Kraken vaults.
Key facts
- Funding
- $20M seed (Feb 2023, PayPal Ventures and Galaxy) and $55M Series A (Aug 2024, led by Haun Ventures)
- Aug 2024 · Ctech by Calcalist ↗
- Aave engagement
- November 2022 to May 2026; 30-day offboarding from 8 April 2026
- Apr 2026 · Aave Governance ↗
- Kraken DeFi Earn
- Runs USDC vaults with Sentora; launched 26 Jan 2026 in the US, EEA and Canada
- Jan 2026 · The Block ↗
What Chaos Labs does
Chaos Labs sells risk management for DeFi protocols, built around what it calls risk oracles: systems that watch market data and push bounded parameter updates (supply caps, interest-rate curves, price caps on staked assets) on-chain without a governance vote each time. Most competitors still propose changes by forum post and wait.
| Client | Role | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Aave | Primary risk manager for V2, V3 and GHO | Nov 2022 – May 2026 |
| Venus (BNB Chain) | Risk manager and risk oracles | Until early 2026 |
| GMX | Risk oracles, market risk modelling | Since 2024 |
| Kraken DeFi Earn | Vault risk manager for USDC vaults, with Sentora | Since January 2026 |
It is paid by retainer. Aave paid $1.6 million for the November 2023 to November 2024 term, preferably in GHO or a mix with AAVE. On Kraken's product it is one of the managers deciding where USDC in Veda-built vaults goes: Aave, Morpho, Sky and Tydro.
Why Chaos Labs left Aave
Chaos Labs joined Aave in November 2022 and was its main risk manager from then on, alongside Gauntlet until February 2024 and LlamaRisk from 2024. It announced its departure in early April 2026. LlamaRisk, which took over, summarised the stated reason as the extra scope of Aave V4 and the burden of running V3 and V4 side by side. The offboarding plan of 8 April gave it 30 days and one final month of pay, and rotated the Risk Steward multisig keys from Chaos Labs and BGD to Aave Labs and LlamaRisk.
Its last year on Aave included its most expensive error. On 10 March 2026 the CAPO oracle, which caps the exchange rate Aave uses for wstETH, was pushed about 2.85% below market because a snapshot ratio and its timestamp were updated out of step. That triggered 10,938 wstETH of E-Mode liquidations across 34 accounts. Chaos Labs posted a post-mortem the same day naming its own off-chain process as the cause. Users lost 512.48 ETH. The Aave DAO refunded them from its treasury by 1 April, though delegates reported one payment about 20 WETH short.
The Kelp rsETH exploit of 18 April 2026, which left Aave with nine-figure bad debt, came ten days after the key rotation. We record it against LlamaRisk, which held the controls that day, although the rsETH collateral settings dated from when both firms served Aave.
Omer Goldberg and who runs Chaos Labs
Omer Goldberg founded Chaos Labs in 2021 and is its CEO. The company raised a $20 million seed in February 2023, led by PayPal Ventures and Galaxy, and a $55 million Series A in August 2024, led by Haun Ventures, with F-Prime, Slow Ventures and Lightspeed among others. At the Series A it had 29 staff, mostly at its Tel Aviv R&D centre. Goldberg's argument then was that most DeFi apps run on 'stale parameters that take hours or days to update', which is the problem its oracles are built for.
Incident log
2 entries · $2.4M lost in total · repaid, confirmed: 0 of 2 where user funds were at stake
Other$1.0M
wstETH CAPO oracle misconfiguration on Aave
A snapshot ratio and timestamp set out of step pushed the wstETH exchange-rate cap about 2.85% below market, causing 10,938 wstETH of E-Mode liquidations across 34 accounts. Users lost 512.48 ETH (about $1.02M) to liquidators' oracle profit and liquidation bonuses; Aave took no bad debt.
Partly repaidThe Aave DAO refunded affected users from its treasury, with the AIP executed and funds sent by 1 April 2026. Delegates noted there was no public per-user accounting and one payment was reported about 20 WETH short, so we cannot confirm repayment in full.Other$1.4M
Oracle deviations and bad debt on Venus during the 10 October crash
During the 10 October 2025 crash, Venus, where Chaos Labs was risk manager, took about $1.38M of bad debt by Chaos Labs' own count (Venus later put it at about $1.17M). Chaos Labs attributed much of it to a CAKE oracle deviation; Chainlink disputed that reading. Separately, borrowers were liquidated during a WBETH depeg window.
Partly repaidVenus executed the first compensation VIP on 27 October 2025 ($1,945,814 in USDT to 17 wallets liquidated in the WBETH window); a second wave of $2,766,784 was proposed the next day. Repayment of the bad debt from the Venus Risk Fund was proposed on 6 November 2025. We confirmed the first payout only.
In our ratings
This page is the record. The scores sit on the review cards, next to the evidence and the weights they came from.
Compare Chaos Labs with
GauntletDeFi risk manager · 2018 · United StatesGauntlet is a New York DeFi risk firm that sets Compound's lending parameters and curates yield vaults on Morpho, Kamino and Drift. Founded in 2018.
LlamaRiskDeFi risk manager · 2021LlamaRisk is a DeFi risk firm that began in 2021 serving Curve DAO and has run Aave's risk parameters since Chaos Labs left in April 2026.
SentoraDeFi risk manager · 2025Sentora is the institutional DeFi firm formed in 2025 when IntoTheBlock merged with Trident Digital. It runs vaults for Kraken DeFi Earn, Euler and Morpho.
Block AnaliticaDeFi risk manager · 2019 · SingaporeBlock Analitica (BA Labs) is a Singapore DeFi risk firm, Sky's risk team since 2019, and was risk curator of Summer.fi's Lazy Summer vaults until 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Is Chaos Labs still working with Aave?+
No. It announced its exit in April 2026 and handed over after a 30-day transition; LlamaRisk and Aave Labs now hold the Risk Steward keys.
What is a Chaos Labs risk oracle?+
An automated system that reads market data and pushes bounded changes to a protocol's risk parameters, such as caps or rate curves, without a separate governance vote each time.
Does Chaos Labs have a token?+
No. It is a venture-backed private company paid by the protocols and platforms it works for.
Did Chaos Labs cause the Aave wstETH liquidations?+
Its own post-mortem says yes: an out-of-step update in its off-chain process misset the CAPO cap on 10 March 2026. The Aave DAO refunded users from its treasury.
What changed
- Profile published.
Compiled by
Blockchain Security Researcher · September 27, 2026
We have no commercial relationship with Chaos Labs and earn nothing from any link on this page. Every fact above carries the date it was true and a link to where it comes from; if one is out of date, the contact page reaches the editor who keeps this file.