July 29, 2026
Innovations from the crypto industry are arriving in traditional finance, including stablecoins, tokenized assets, and perpetual futures. In our view, the next innovation to break through to the mainstream will be onchain vaults.
Vaults are a vehicle for onchain asset management. The vault structure is highly flexible, but many vaults operate with specific investment parameters and hold yield-generating assets. In the context of traditional finance, vaults closely resemble CLOs (collateralized loan obligations). Like CLOs, vaults pool investor capital into professionally managed portfolios designed to maximize risk-adjusted returns and distribute cash flows generated by the underlying assets (Exhibit 1).
The difference is that vaults are fully onchain. They use smart contracts rather than trustees and custodians, and settle transactions natively on blockchain networks like Ethereum, Base, and Solana. This means that vaults can offer full transparency, operational efficiencies, and potentially higher liquidity.
There are currently about $7 billion in assets invested in more than 3,000 vaults managed by 57 curators, 79% of which are focused on stablecoins (Exhibit 1).1 By comparison, the CLO market totals roughly $1.5 trillion across thousands of vehicles managed by more than 250 firms.2
As onchain credit markets mature, vaults are emerging as a foundational investment vehicle for digital assets, serving a role similar to CLOs and other actively managed credit products in traditional finance. However, US securities regulation remains a key source of uncertainty, particularly where investors might rely on a curator to actively manage the vault.
Key Takeaway: Vaults, a structure for onchain asset management, may be the next crypto innovation to break through to the mainstream.
Exhibit 1: Onchain vaults are similar to – but different from – CLOs
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