Gauntlet

Gauntlet started in 2018 selling agent-based simulations: model how borrowers and liquidators behave under a price shock, then pick collateral factors and caps that keep a lending market solvent. That work became standing mandates. On Compound it has proposed parameter changes since February 2021 and today covers the v3 'Comet' markets across several chains. On Aave it served as risk steward for about four years before quitting in February 2024, saying it could not work with the DAO's 'inconsistent guidelines and unwritten objectives'. Aave delegates said the real reason was Gauntlet's plans elsewhere.

Those plans were vaults. Within a week of leaving Aave it announced vault curation on Morpho, and it now runs vaults on Kamino and Drift on Solana and through Aera as well. When it raised $125 million from SBI Holdings in July 2026, it described itself as a yield curator for more than 150 fintechs and institutions, not as a risk consultancy.

The Compound fee is contested. At the September 2025 renewal an AlphaGrowth delegate argued for performance-based pay and a competitive tender; Gauntlet replied that its guidance had 'avoided any material insolvencies'.

Deposits in these vaults move with incentives. When OKX's pre-deposit campaign on Katana ended in March 2026, Gauntlet's TVL fell from about $1.72 billion to $1.325 billion in a week. Nothing was lost; the money was yield-chasing stablecoins moving on, and Gauntlet said deposits later returned.

The vault business is also where Gauntlet's recent loss came from. On 22 March 2026 Resolv's USR stablecoin was exploited. Gauntlet USDC Core had about $7.6 million allocated to a wstUSR/USDC market, and independent on-chain analysis put 96% of the resulting $6.2 million of Morpho bad debt in Gauntlet vaults. Gauntlet reported the exploit within three hours, removed the markets once their timelocks expired and deprecated three vaults. On 3 June 2026 it announced that 4,379,827 USDC recovered from Resolv was claimable by depositors of five affected vaults.

The CRV episode is still the reference case for how Gauntlet handles a loss: a proposal the day after, with the position that caused the debt, and $308,118 of its own insolvency fund put toward the $1.88 million shortfall. The Aave DAO covered the remainder rather than cut CRV suppliers' balances.