Staking, Lending & Yield
Best Crypto Yield Aggregators
Vaults that move capital between strategies for you. You are underwriting every protocol they touch, not just the one you deposited into.
All 3 compared
Sorted by computed score. Column headers carry this category's weighting; the highest score in each pillar is marked. Tap a name for the full assessment.
| # | Service | Score | Custody35% | Cost20% | Regulation5% | Performance30% | Access10% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | ConvexBoosted Curve returns without locking tokens yourself | 7.7Solid | 7.8 — best in table | 8.0 — best in table | 6.2 | 7.8 — best in table | 7.4 |
| 02 | BeefyMulti-chain auto-compounding with unusually broad coverage | 7.6Solid | 7.4 | 8.0 — best in table | 6.0 | 7.6 | 8.2 — best in table |
| 03 | YearnV3 vaults with a published risk level you have actually read−1 penalty | 5.3Mixed | 7.0 | 7.6 | 6.4 — best in table | 7.4 | 7.6 |
The assessments
what each score rests on- 017.7/10
Convex
Best for boosted Curve returns without locking tokens yourself
Company file: Convex Finance, owners, incidents →Solid◆ Sources checked · 27 Sept 2026Does one thing: uses the veCRV it has locked forever to boost Curve returns for depositors who do not want to lock anything themselves. Narrow, effective, and entirely dependent on Curve continuing to work.
Pillar scores
- Custody & Security35%
- 7.8
- Cost & Fee Transparency20%
- 8.0
- Regulation & Legal Standing5%
- 6.2
- Performance & Reliability30%
- 7.8
- Access & Support10%
- 7.4
Strengths
- Delivers a genuine boost that exceeds the fee for most depositors
- Contracts never exploited; the admin multisig cannot touch deposits
- 17% fee, hard-capped at 20% in the contracts
Against it
- Completely coupled to Curve — inherits every risk there
- The mechanism is genuinely hard to understand
- Governance concentrated in locked-token holders
Full assessment of Convex →solid · 7.7/10 - 027.6/10
Beefy
Best for multi-chain auto-compounding with unusually broad coverage
Company file: Beefy, owners, incidents →Solid◆ Sources checked · 27 Sept 2026Runs on more chains than anything else in the category and does the auto-compounding job reliably. The breadth is the risk: a vault is only as sound as the underlying farm, and there are a great many underlying farms.
Pillar scores
- Custody & Security35%
- 7.4
- Cost & Fee Transparency20%
- 8.0
- Regulation & Legal Standing5%
- 6.0
- Performance & Reliability30%
- 7.6
- Access & Support10%
- 8.2
Strengths
- Low, clearly published fees with genuinely effective auto-compounding
- Widest chain coverage in the category
- Honest per-vault labelling of where the yield originates
Against it
- Vault quality is inherited from underlying farms that vary enormously
- Very wide coverage means a very wide risk surface
- Little curation — the user must judge each vault
Full assessment of Beefy →solid · 7.6/10 - 035.3/10
Yearn
Best for v3 vaults with a published risk level you have actually read
Company file: Yearn Finance, owners, incidents →Mixed◆ Sources checked · 27 Sept 2026The original yield aggregator, with the most public machinery in the category: per-strategy risk scores and 26 security disclosures since 2020. The record also holds four exploits; after the yETH pool was drained in November 2025 (about $9M), only 857 pxETH came back and Yearn says it is not liable for the rest.
Pillar scores
- Custody & Security35%
- 7.0
- Cost & Fee Transparency20%
- 7.6
- Regulation & Legal Standing5%
- 6.4
- Performance & Reliability30%
- 7.4
- Access & Support10%
- 7.6
Deductions applied
- −2.0Unrecovered user-fund loss. Users lost funds in the last 24 months and were not made whole. Applies once, regardless of cause.
Strengths
- Per-strategy risk scores published, which almost nothing else here does
- 26 security disclosures published since 2020
- The longest operating record in automated yield
Against it
- Performance fee makes net return materially lower than the headline
- Deliberately conservative, so rarely the highest yield on offer
- yETH exploit (Nov 2025, ~$9M): mostly unrecovered, and Yearn disclaims liability
Full assessment of Yearn →mixed · 5.3/10
Vaults that move your capital between strategies so you do not have to. The thing most depositors miss is that you are underwriting every protocol the vault touches, not just the one you deposited into — and the strategy can change after you are in. We weight custody and performance hardest and look closely at who can redirect the money.
Frequently asked questions
What am I actually taking on when I deposit into a vault?+
The vault contract, plus every protocol its strategy touches, plus the risk that the strategy changes to something you would not have chosen. That last one is the least appreciated: on most aggregators, governance or a strategist can redirect capital after you are in. Check who holds that authority before depositing, not after.
Why is the net return so much lower than the advertised APY?+
Performance fees, mostly, then gas on compounding, then the fact that headline APY is usually an annualised snapshot of a rate that will not persist. The number worth comparing is net-of-fee return against simply holding, which is the comparison the performance pillar makes.
Is auto-compounding worth paying for?+
On expensive chains, frequently yes — manual claiming and recompounding costs more in gas than the fee. On cheap chains the maths is closer, and the convenience is the real product rather than the return.
Assessed by
By James Park
NFT & Web3 Gaming Analyst · September 27, 2026