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Updated report

Yearn — yvUSDT-1

1.25
yvUSDT-1 (USDT-1 yVault)/Ethereum/Latest: September 28, 2026/Original: May 11, 2026

Score Breakdown

CategoryWeightScore
Audits & Historical20%1.50
Centralization & Control30%1.50
Funds Management30%1.00
Liquidity Risk15%1.00
Operational Risk5%1.00
Final Score1.25 / 5.0
20%30%30%15%
Minimal Risk

Overview

yvUSDT-1 is a USDT-denominated Yearn V3 vault (ERC-4626) on Ethereum mainnet. The vault holds ~$5.74M USDT and is 100% deployed at the snapshot — totalIdle = 0, totalDebt = totalAssets. The queue holds two strategies — a Yearn-operated MetaMorpho vault (ymv-USDT), added directly as a strategy, and a Spark USDT Lender. Five earlier strategies — Spark USDT Lender (old), Morpho Gauntlet USDT Prime, Morpho Steakhouse USDT, USDT Fluid Lender, and Aave V3 USDT Lender — are revoked (activation = 0).

The MetaMorpho vault (added May 24, 2026) is governed by Yearn Security as owner, with a 3-day timelock and a 2-of-3 curator Safe; it lends USDT against wstETH, WBTC, XAUt, and sUSDS collateral in four Morpho Blue markets. The Spark USDT Lender (added June 26, 2026) supplies directly to the Spark Lend USDT reserve.

The Debt Allocator, triggered through the yHaaS keeper relayer, rebalances debt between the two strategies continuously — 282 DebtUpdated events between July 13 and September 28, 2026. Either strategy can hold anywhere from 0% to nearly 100% of debt at a given moment; the time-weighted split over that window was ~44% MetaMorpho / ~56% Spark. At the snapshot the split is ~72/28.

The PPS is 1.093836 (~9.38% cumulative since deployment, ~4.2% annualized over ~26.2 months).

Key architecture:

Key metrics (September 28, 2026, snapshot at block 26078415):

  • TVL: 5,743,266.94 USDT (100% deployed)
  • Total Supply: 5,250,570.53 yvUSDT-1
  • Price Per Share: 1.093836 USDT/yvUSDT-1 (~9.38% cumulative appreciation over ~26.2 months, ~4.2% annualized; ~3.4% annualized since July 13, 2026)
  • Total Debt: 5,743,266.94 USDT (100% of TVL)
  • Total Idle: 0
  • Debt distribution (snapshot; rebalanced continuously):
    • MetaMorpho Vault (ymv-USDT): 4,142,044.12 USDT (72.12%)
    • Spark USDT Lender: 1,601,222.82 USDT (27.88%)
  • Per-strategy max debt: 50,000,000 USDT each
  • Deposit Limit: 50,000,000 USDT
  • Profit Max Unlock Time: 10 days
  • Fees: 0% management fee, 10% performance fee at the yvUSDT-1 level; the MetaMorpho vault charges a further 5% performance fee on its interest (recipient: Yearn Security Safe)

Sky exposure note: Spark Lend is a Sky sub-DAO (governed by Sky), so the Spark USDT Lender allocation (27.88% at snapshot, ~56% time-weighted, up to ~94% at times) carries a Sky-governance dependency on the Spark admin keys. The MetaMorpho vault also lends ~100K USDT (~1.7% of yvUSDT-1) against sUSDS collateral, a small indirect USDS-peg exposure mitigated by Morpho liquidations. yvUSDT-1 is materially less Sky-coupled than yvUSDC-1 / yvUSDS-1 / yvDAI-1 (which have direct USDS exposure), but it is not fully Sky-independent.

Links:

Risk Summary

Key Strengths

  • Battle-tested Yearn V3 infrastructure: 3 audits by top firms, ~28 months of clean V3 production. Immutable vault contract eliminates proxy upgrade risk
  • Standard Yearn governance: Yearn V3 Role Manager + 6-of-9 ySafe (named DeFi signers) + 7-day self-governed timelock
  • Two-ecosystem split: Morpho and Spark Lend, ~44/56 time-weighted — both blue-chip USDT venues with multi-year clean track records
  • Minimal USDS-peg exposure: yvUSDT-1 holds USDT, not USDS; the only USDS-linked exposure is ~1.7% lent against sUSDS collateral in a Morpho market
  • Active monitoring via Yearn's monitoring-scripts repo
  • No leverage. No cross-chain. No conversion hops in the active strategies
  • Established track record: ~26.2 months in production, ~9.38% cumulative return, zero incidents

Key Risks

  • Concentration in two venues only: Morpho (MetaMorpho) and Spark Lender. The Debt Allocator can move nearly all debt to either one (MetaMorpho reached 100% and Spark ~94% at points between July and September 2026). Less diversified than the prior 5-strategy queue
  • Sky-governance dependency on ~56% of debt (time-weighted): Spark Lend is a Sky sub-DAO, so Sky governance / Spark admin keys can affect over half of yvUSDT-1's funds on average. Less coupled than the USDS-denominated vaults but not Sky-independent
  • MetaMorpho governance and collateral surface: the ymv-USDT MetaMorpho vault adds a governance layer — Yearn Security (4-of-7) as owner, a 2-of-3 curator Safe, Daddy (6-of-9) as guardian, and a 3-day timelock. Its USDT is lent against wstETH, WBTC, XAUt, and sUSDS, so oracle faults or failed liquidations in those markets can cause bad debt for the Morpho leg
  • High underlying utilization: Spark USDT ~95% and Morpho markets ~90.5% utilized at snapshot. Free liquidity still covers yvUSDT-1's positions, but a utilization spike would delay exits
  • Full strategy-queue replacement: all five previously-queued strategies were revoked and replaced by two new ones between May and July 2026. The rationale for the full replacement rather than incremental changes has not been independently verified
  • USDT-specific: centrally-issued stablecoin with periodic concerns about Tether's reserve composition; this risk is inherent to the underlying asset and not specific to yvUSDT-1

Critical Risks

  • None identified. All gates pass.

Full Report

Contract Addresses

Core yvUSDT-1 Contracts

Contract Address Type
yvUSDT-1 Vault 0x310B7Ea7475A0B449Cfd73bE81522F1B88eFAFaa Yearn V3 Vault (v3.0.2), Vyper minimal proxy
Underlying asset (USDT) 0xdAC17F958D2ee523a2206206994597C13D831ec7 Tether USD
Accountant 0x5A74Cb32D36f2f517DB6f7b0A0591e09b22cDE69 Shared Yearn Accountant (0% mgmt, 10% perf)
Fee Recipient (Dumper) 0x590Dd9399bB53f1085097399C3265C7137c1C4Cf Claims fees and routes to auctions/splitters
Morpho Blue 0xBBBBBbbBBb9cC5e90e3b3Af64bdAF62C37EEFFCb Immutable lending core used by ymv-USDT
Spark Lend Pool 0xC13e21B648A5Ee794902342038FF3aDAB66BE987 Aave-v3-fork pool; USDT aToken spUSDT
MetaMorpho Curator 0x90D0f26025571295D18a6c041E47450B81886B51 2-of-3 Safe

Governance Contracts (shared with all Yearn V3 risk-1 vaults)

Contract Address Configuration
Yearn V3 Role Manager 0xb3bd6B2E61753C311EFbCF0111f75D29706D9a41 Single instance for all category-1 vaults
Daddy / ySafe (Governance) 0xFEB4acf3df3cDEA7399794D0869ef76A6EfAff52 6-of-9 Gnosis Safe
Brain (Operations) 0x16388463d60FFE0661Cf7F1f31a7D658aC790ff7 3-of-8 Gnosis Safe
Security 0xe5e2Baf96198c56380dDD5E992D7d1ADa0e989c0 4-of-7 Gnosis Safe
Strategy Manager (Timelock) 0x88Ba032be87d5EF1fbE87336b7090767F367BF73 TimelockController — 7-day delay
Keeper 0x604e586F17cE106B64185A7a0d2c1Da5bAce711E yHaaSRelayer — REPORTING only
Debt Allocator 0x1e9eB053228B1156831759401dE0E115356b8671 Minimal proxy — REPORTING + DEBT_MANAGER

Yearn V3 Infrastructure

Contract Address
Vault Factory (v3.0.2) 0x444045c5C13C246e117eD36437303cac8E250aB0
Vault Original (v3.0.2) 0x1ab62413e0cf2eBEb73da7D40C70E7202ae14467

Strategies (2 in default queue, both with debt)

# Strategy Name Added Current Debt (USDT) Allocation
1 0x0963232eB842BAF53E8e517691f81745C1F228a0 MetaMorpho Vault (ymv-USDT) May 24, 2026 4,142,044.12 72.12%
2 0x176Caf15f1793fc16898458E0ba295ec6523E9E2 Spark USDT Lender (TokenizedStrategy v3.0.4) June 26, 2026 1,601,222.82 27.88%

Both strategies have max_debt = 50,000,000 USDT. The Debt Allocator shifts debt between them several times per day, so the snapshot split is not stable; the time-weighted split from July 13 to September 28, 2026 was ~44% MetaMorpho / ~56% Spark.

The Spark USDT Lender strategy's management is Brain, its emergency admin is Security, its keeper is the yHaaS relayer, and its own performance fee is 0%. yvUSDT-1 holds 100% of its shares.

MetaMorpho Vault (ymv-USDT) Market Allocation

yvUSDT-1 holds ~99.98% of ymv-USDT shares. Of its 4,146,877.31 USDT totalAssets():

Morpho Market Collateral LLTV Supply Cap ymv-USDT Supply % of ymv-USDT % of yvUSDT-1 Market Utilization
0xe7e9694b…87d2 wstETH 86% 50M 2,750,138 66.3% 47.9% 90.5%
0xa921ef34…df99 WBTC 86% 50M 1,094,710 26.4% 19.1% 90.5%
0xb7843fe7…0877 XAUt 77% 2M 201,611 4.9% 3.5% 90.4%
0x3274643d…cf0b sUSDS 96.5% 50M 100,416 2.4% 1.7% 90.5%
0x45671fb8…5bca cbBTC 86% 50M 0 0% 0% 75.0%
0x5c6aaf2d…02d1 none (idle market) — 1B 0 0% 0% 0%

The supply queue contains the WBTC market and the idle market; the withdraw queue contains all six. All markets are USDT-loan, isolated Morpho Blue markets with the standard Adaptive Curve IRM (0x870aC11D48B15DB9a138Cf899d20F13F79Ba00BC). Bad debt in any one market is socialized only across that market's suppliers.

Previously queued, now revoked (activation = 0 at block 26078415):

Sky-governance exposure note: Spark Lend is a Sky sub-DAO. The Spark USDT Lender held 27.88% of yvUSDT-1's debt at the snapshot and ~56% time-weighted since July 13, 2026; that share is administered through Sky / Spark governance. This is a Sky-governance dependency. The only USDS-peg exposure is the ~1.7% of yvUSDT-1 lent against sUSDS collateral through ymv-USDT. yvUSDT-1 is materially less Sky-coupled than yvUSDC-1 / yvUSDS-1 / yvDAI-1, but not fully Sky-independent.

Strategy Protocol Dependencies (current allocation)

Protocol Strategy Allocation Notes
Morpho MetaMorpho Vault (ymv-USDT) 72.12% (snapshot) / ~44% (time-weighted) Yearn-operated MetaMorpho vault; owner Yearn Security (4-of-7), 3-day timelock, 2-of-3 curator Safe, guardian Daddy (6-of-9); lends against wstETH, WBTC, XAUt, and sUSDS collateral
Spark Spark USDT Lender 27.88% (snapshot) / ~56% (time-weighted) Sky sub-DAO; audited stack (ChainSecurity, Cantina); strategy added June 26, 2026

The debt is split across two ecosystems (Morpho, Spark), with the Debt Allocator moving funds between them continuously. Both have multi-year USDT track records with no significant principal-loss events. Because the allocator can move nearly all debt to one venue, either venue can briefly hold nearly 100% of funds. The Morpho leg adds collateral and oracle risk from four isolated markets, dominated by wstETH (~48% of yvUSDT-1 at the snapshot) and WBTC (~19%).

Audits and Due Diligence Disclosures

Yearn V3 Core Audits

Auditor Date Scope Report
Statemind May 2, 2024 V3 Vaults (v3.0.0) PDF
ChainSecurity May 4, 2024 V3 Vaults + Tokenized Strategy (v3.0.0) 2 PDFs
yAcademy Jun 2024 V3 Vaults (v3.0.1) PDF

Underlying Protocol Audits (active and queued strategies)

Underlying Audits Notes
Morpho 25+ audits across Trail of Bits, Spearbit, OpenZeppelin, ChainSecurity, Certora; formal verification Blue-chip lending protocol; MetaMorpho vault source verified on Etherscan
Spark (USDT lender) ChainSecurity, Cantina (Spark Lend / SparkDAO) Sub-DAO of Sky; new SparkLender strategy source verified on Etherscan

Strategy Review Process

All strategies pass through Yearn's 12-metric risk-scoring framework (RISK_FRAMEWORK.md). yvUSDT-1 is registered as Category 1 in the Role Manager (getCategory(vault) == 1), the strictest tier.

Bug Bounty

On-Chain Complexity

Low. All funded strategies are direct USDT lend / compound with no conversion hops:

  • MetaMorpho Vault → direct USDT deposit to a Yearn-operated Morpho MetaMorpho vault, which lends into four isolated collateralized Morpho Blue markets
  • Spark USDT Lender → direct supply to Spark Lend USDT market
  • No leverage, no looping, no cross-chain at the vault or strategy level
  • Standard ERC-4626 throughout
  • Vault is immutable

Historical Track Record

  • Vault deployed: July 23, 2024 (deployment tx) — ~26.2 months in production
  • TVL: 5,743,266.94 USDT (~$5.74M) — well within the $50M deposit limit. TVL was ~$7.2M in mid-July 2026 and fell to ~$5.8M by late August, mostly from a single 1,238,358 USDT withdrawal on August 25, 2026 (tx)
  • PPS trend: 1.000000 → 1.093836 (~9.38% cumulative return, ~4.2% annualized). The PPS has not decreased
  • Security incidents: None known for this vault or for the Yearn V3 framework
  • Strategy history: seven strategies have been queued historically. Five have been revoked. Between May and July 2026, all three strategies then active (Spark USDT Lender, Morpho Gauntlet USDT Prime, Morpho Steakhouse USDT) were revoked and replaced by two new strategies: a Yearn-operated MetaMorpho vault (ymv-USDT, added May 24, 2026) and a new Spark USDT Lender instance (added June 26, 2026). No strategies were added or revoked between July 13 and September 28, 2026
  • Yearn V3 track record: V3 framework live since May 2024 (~28 months). No V3 vault exploits

Yearn protocol TVL: ~$204M total (DeFiLlama, September 28, 2026).

Underlying USDT lending market track records: Spark Lend and Morpho both have multi-year track records on USDT markets with no significant principal-loss events.

Funds Management

yvUSDT-1 is 100% deployed at the snapshot, split ~72/28 between a Yearn-operated MetaMorpho vault (ymv-USDT) and a Spark USDT Lender. The Debt Allocator rebalances between them continuously.

Current State (snapshot)

  • Total Assets: 5,743,266.94 USDT
  • Total Debt: 5,743,266.94 USDT (100% deployed)
  • Total Idle: 0
  • Capital utilization: 100%

ERC-4626 redemptions settle by unwinding strategy positions in queue order (MetaMorpho first, then Spark). They are atomic for the user as long as the underlying lending markets have available liquidity (see Liquidity Risk).

Active Strategies

Strategy Allocation Mechanic Risk profile
MetaMorpho Vault (ymv-USDT) 72.12% (snapshot) USDT deposit to Yearn-operated MetaMorpho vault on Morpho; lends against wstETH / WBTC / XAUt / sUSDS Governed by Yearn Security (4-of-7), 3-day timelock, 2-of-3 curator Safe; 5% MetaMorpho performance fee
Spark USDT Lender 27.88% (snapshot) Direct supply to Spark Lend USDT market Sky sub-DAO, ChainSecurity / Cantina audits; added June 2026

Both strategies are simple lend / compound patterns with no leverage, no conversion hops, and no cross-chain. The MetaMorpho vault adds a governance layer (owner, curator, guardian, timelock) and exposes that leg to the collateral, oracle, and liquidation mechanics of its Morpho markets.

Accessibility

  • Deposits: Permissionless ERC-4626. Subject to 50M USDT deposit limit
  • Withdrawals: ERC-4626. Strategy unwind through Spark + Morpho USDT markets (both deep)
  • No cooldown or lock period
  • Fees: 0% management, 10% performance
  • Profit unlock: 10 days

Collateralization

  • 100% USDT backing — held through MetaMorpho vault on Morpho and Spark Lend USDT market positions
  • Collateral quality: USDT is the largest stablecoin by market cap. Centrally-issued by Tether
  • No leverage
  • Redemption: atomic for normal sizes; very large redemptions depend on MetaMorpho vault liquidity and Spark market utilization at the moment of withdrawal

The collateral quality is the union of the Yearn-operated MetaMorpho vault and Spark Lend USDT market quality. Both are blue-chip USDT venues with multi-year clean track records. The MetaMorpho leg's borrowers post wstETH (~66% of ymv-USDT), WBTC (~26%), XAUt (~5%), and sUSDS (~2%) as collateral at 77–96.5% LLTV.

Provability

  • PPS: ERC-4626, fully algorithmic
  • Strategy totalAssets(): reads the underlying lending position balance on-chain in both Spark and Morpho
  • Profit / loss reporting: keepers via process_report(), profits unlock over 10 days

Liquidity Risk

Exit pipeline: ERC-4626 withdraw → strategy withdraw → underlying lending market withdrawal (MetaMorpho vault on Morpho or Spark Lend USDT market).

  • Underlying liquidity (snapshot):
    • Spark Lend USDT: ~$325.1M supplied, ~$15.9M free USDT in the spUSDT aToken (~95.1% utilization). The strategy's ~$1.60M position is ~10% of free liquidity
    • MetaMorpho markets: the four funded markets run at ~90.5% utilization. Free liquidity in each covers ymv-USDT's full position: wstETH ~$12.2M free vs $2.75M, WBTC ~$8.1M vs $1.09M, sUSDS ~$1.16M vs $0.10M, XAUt ~$0.27M vs $0.20M. The XAUt market has the thinnest margin
  • Same-asset: USDT-denominated share token — no price-divergence risk
  • No DEX liquidity needed — exits via the lending protocol's own redemption mechanics
  • No withdrawal queue or cooldown — atomic redemption for normal sizes (MetaMorpho vault has a 3-day timelock on parameter changes but redemptions are atomic)
  • Deposit limit: 50M USDT cap vs $5.74M TVL (room for +771%)

The two-ecosystem split means a liquidity squeeze in one venue can be partially absorbed by the other, subject to queue order, the user's withdraw size, and the current allocator split.

Centralization & Control Risks

Governance

Position Address Threshold Roles on Vault
Daddy (ySafe) 0xFEB4acf3df3cDEA7399794D0869ef76A6EfAff52 6-of-9 12 of 14 vault roles
Brain 0x16388463d60FFE0661Cf7F1f31a7D658aC790ff7 3-of-8 REVOKE_STRATEGY, QUEUE, REPORTING, DEBT, DEPOSIT_LIMIT, PROFIT_UNLOCK, DEBT_PURCHASER, EMERGENCY (roles = 14706)
Security 0xe5e2Baf96198c56380dDD5E992D7d1ADa0e989c0 4-of-7 DEBT, MAX_DEBT, EMERGENCY
Strategy Manager (Timelock) 0x88Ba032be87d5EF1fbE87336b7090767F367BF73 7-day delay ADD_STRATEGY, REVOKE_STRATEGY, FORCE_REVOKE, ACCOUNTANT, MAX_DEBT
Keeper 0x604e586F17cE106B64185A7a0d2c1Da5bAce711E Bot REPORTING only
Debt Allocator 0x1e9eB053228B1156831759401dE0E115356b8671 Bot REPORTING + DEBT_MANAGER

ySafe 6-of-9 signers include publicly known DeFi contributors — see Yearn Multisig Info.

Properties:

  1. No EOA holds vault roles directly
  2. Strategy additions and accountant changes pass through 7-day timelock
  3. Self-governed timelock — TIMELOCK_ADMIN belongs to the timelock itself
  4. Vault contract is immutable — Vyper minimal proxy
  5. Same governance pattern across 37+ vaults

Programmability

  • PPS: ERC-4626, fully algorithmic
  • Vault operations: permissionless deposit / withdraw on-chain
  • Strategy reporting: automated via keeper
  • Debt allocation: Debt Allocator (automated, triggered through the yHaaS keeper relayer) + Brain (manual); rebalances several times per day
  • Off-chain inputs: none

External Dependencies

Dependency Criticality Notes
USDT (Tether) Critical (underlying asset) Centrally issued; relies on Tether's operational and reserve integrity
Spark Lend High (27.88% snapshot, ~56% time-weighted, up to ~94%) Sky sub-DAO; Spark admin keys live under Sky governance
Morpho High (72.12% snapshot, ~44% time-weighted, up to 100%) Immutable Morpho Blue markets; MetaMorpho vault governed by Yearn Security with 3-day timelock + 2-of-3 curator Safe
Morpho market collateral / oracles Medium, via ymv-USDT wstETH (~48% of yvUSDT-1), WBTC (~19%), XAUt (~3.5%), sUSDS (~1.7%) collateral; bad debt from failed liquidations or oracle faults is borne by market suppliers
Sky governance Indirect via Spark (and sUSDS collateral) Spark Lend admin sits under Sky; not an independent venue
MetaMorpho curator Indirect, internal 2-of-3 Safe; can lower market caps immediately, while cap increases and new markets pass the 3-day timelock

Dependency quality: the deployed mix is two blue-chip ecosystems (Morpho + Spark), with allocation moved continuously by the Debt Allocator. Over July 13 – September 28, 2026, ~56% of debt sat behind Sky-governed infrastructure on a time-weighted basis. The vault is materially less Sky-coupled than yvUSDC-1 / yvUSDS-1 / yvDAI-1 (which carry direct USDS exposure) but not fully Sky-independent. The Morpho leg is a Yearn-operated MetaMorpho vault, which internalizes curator risk but adds the vault's own governance surface (owner, curator, guardian, timelock) and market-collateral risk.

Operational Risk

  • Team: Yearn Finance — established 2020, public contributors, named multisig signers
  • Vault management: Standard Yearn V3 Role Manager pattern shared across 37+ vaults
  • Documentation: Comprehensive Yearn V3 documentation. Strategy code verified on Etherscan
  • Legal: Yearn BORG via YIP-87
  • Incident response: 4 historical V1 events handled. V3 framework not yet stress-tested by an exploit
  • V3 immutability: vault cannot be upgraded
  • Operational history:
    • Late April 2026: 100%-idle posture, precautionary deallocation following the rsETH bridge exploit (per Yearn team, unverified attribution)
    • May 2026: Redeployment into Spark + Morpho Gauntlet (~46/54 split); Fluid and Aave V3 strategies revoked
    • May–July 2026: Full strategy-queue replacement — all three remaining strategies revoked, replaced by a Yearn-operated MetaMorpho vault (added May 24, 2026) and a new Spark USDT Lender (added June 26, 2026). Rationale for the full replacement rather than incremental changes has not been independently verified
    • July–September 2026: stable two-strategy queue; 282 DebtUpdated events as the Debt Allocator rebalanced between the two strategies (roughly 140 paired rebalances)
    • The sequence demonstrates active debt management capability: the operations multisigs can pull, revoke, and redeploy across entirely new strategy sets

Monitoring

Existing Monitoring Infrastructure

Yearn maintains the monitoring repository with active alerting. yvUSDT-1 is in the monitored vault list:

  • Large flow alerts (protocols/yearn/alert_large_flows.py) — runs hourly via the automation scheduler
  • Endorsed vault check (protocols/yearn/check_endorsed.py) — daily
  • Timelock monitoring (protocols/timelock/timelock_alerts.py)

Key Contracts

Contract Address Monitor
yvUSDT-1 Vault 0x310B7Ea7475A0B449Cfd73bE81522F1B88eFAFaa PPS (convertToAssets(1e6)), totalAssets(), totalDebt(), totalIdle(), Deposit / Withdraw events
Each active USDT strategy (2 active addresses above) totalAssets(), current_debt, isShutdown(), keeper report frequency
MetaMorpho vault (ymv-USDT) 0x0963232eB842BAF53E8e517691f81745C1F228a0 totalAssets(), owner(), curator(), guardian(), timelock(), supplyQueue() market list
ySafe (Daddy) 0xFEB4acf3df3cDEA7399794D0869ef76A6EfAff52 Signer / threshold changes
Accountant 0x5A74Cb32D36f2f517DB6f7b0A0591e09b22cDE69 Fee changes

Critical Events to Monitor

  • Allocation drift — the Debt Allocator moves debt between venues several times per day (72/28 Morpho/Spark at snapshot, ~44/56 time-weighted). Track the rolling time-weighted share; a sustained >75% share in one venue should trigger reassessment of the dependency subscore
  • MetaMorpho market changes — new markets, cap increases (SubmitCap / SetCap), or supply-queue changes on ymv-USDT; utilization of the XAUt market (thinnest free liquidity)
  • Strategy current_debt changes — DebtUpdated events on the vault
  • Strategy additions / removals — StrategyChanged events (new strategies pass through 7-day timelock; further revocations are operational signals)
  • MetaMorpho vault governance changes — owner(), curator(), guardian(), or timelock changes on the ymv-USDT vault
  • Emergency actions (Shutdown)
  • ySafe / Brain / Security signer or threshold changes
  • PPS decrease — should only increase outside of explicit loss events
  • Sky / Spark governance events — Spark Lend admin actions can affect the Spark share of yvUSDT-1's debt (~56% time-weighted)
  • Spark USDT utilization — ~95.1% at snapshot; sustained full utilization would slow exits from the Spark leg
  • USDT-specific: Tether-side issues (peg deviation, attestation reports, blacklisting events)

Monitoring Functions

Function Contract Purpose Frequency
convertToAssets(1e6) Vault PPS tracking Every 6 hours
totalAssets() Vault Total TVL Daily
totalDebt() / totalIdle() Vault Capital deployment ratio — currently 100% deployed Daily
withdrawQueue(i), config(id) / Morpho market(id) ymv-USDT / Morpho Blue Market list, caps, and utilization Daily
USDT balanceOf(spUSDT) USDT / Spark Spark free USDT liquidity Daily
strategies(address) Vault Per-strategy debt, last report time, activation (revocations show activation = 0) Daily
get_default_queue() Vault Withdrawal queue composition (currently 2 strategies) Weekly
getThreshold() / getOwners() ySafe Governance integrity Weekly
getMinDelay() Timelock Delay change detection Weekly

Reassessment Triggers

  • Time-based: Reassess in 6 months (March 2027) or annually
  • TVL-based: Reassess if TVL exceeds $25M or changes by ±50%
  • rsETH-related context: if any new strategy is added that takes direct or indirect rsETH exposure, full re-review of the dependency subscore
  • Strategy posture:
    • if a USDS-denominated strategy is later added to yvUSDT-1, the partial Sky-coupling becomes a peg dependency — re-evaluate dependency and concentration scores against the broader risk-1 stable stack
    • if either venue's time-weighted allocation stays above ~75% of deployed funds, re-evaluate the dependency / liquidity scores
    • any change to the MetaMorpho vault's governance parameters (owner, curator, guardian, timelock) should trigger reassessment
    • a new ymv-USDT market, a collateral type outside wstETH / WBTC / cbBTC / XAUt / sUSDS, or a large cap increase should trigger review of the Morpho-leg collateral risk
    • if any further strategy revocations or replacements occur, investigate the rationale
  • Underlying-protocol incidents: any major incident at Spark Lend or Morpho USDT markets — full re-review
  • USDT-specific:
    • sustained Tether peg deviation
    • Tether reserve attestation issues
    • significant blacklisting / freezing events
  • Governance-based: ySafe / Brain / Security signer or threshold changes; any change to the timelock delay (would itself require 7 days)

Appendix: Contract Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         VAULT LAYER                                  │
│                                                                      │
│  ┌───────────────────────┐                                          │
│  │  yvUSDT-1 (v3.0.2)   │                                          │
│  │  ERC-4626, immutable  │                                          │
│  │  EIP-1167 min proxy   │                                          │
│  │  0x310B…FAaa          │                                          │
│  │                       │                                          │
│  │  $5.74M USDT TVL      │                                          │
│  │  100% deployed        │                                          │
│  │  totalDebt = $5.74M   │                                          │
│  │  totalIdle = 0        │                                          │
│  └───────────┬───────────┘                                          │
│              │                                                       │
│      ┌───────┴────────┐                                             │
│      ▼                ▼                                             │
│  MetaMorpho Vault  Spark USDT Lender                                │
│  (ymv-USDT)        1.60M (27.88%)                                   │
│  4.14M (72.12%)    Sky sub-DAO                                      │
│  Morpho protocol   (split rebalanced continuously)                  │
│   wstETH 66% / WBTC 26% / XAUt 5% / sUSDS 2%                        │
│                                                                      │
│  MetaMorpho governance:                                              │
│   - Owner: Yearn Security (4-of-7)                                  │
│   - Curator: 2-of-3 Safe                                            │
│   - Guardian: Daddy (6-of-9)                                        │
│   - Timelock: 3 days                                                │
│                                                                      │
│  All previously-queued strategies revoked (activation = 0):          │
│   - Spark USDT Lender (old, 0xED48…9400B)                           │
│   - Morpho Gauntlet USDT Prime (0x6D29…849F)                        │
│   - Morpho Steakhouse USDT (0x0a4e…45c5)                            │
│   - USDT Fluid Lender (0x4Bd0…8A72)                                 │
│   - Aave V3 USDT Lender (0x2799…8Cb2)                               │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The vault is split across two ecosystems, ~44/56 Morpho/Spark time-weighted
since July 13, 2026. The Spark share sits behind Sky-governed infrastructure.
The Morpho leg is through a Yearn-operated MetaMorpho vault with its own
governance surface (owner, curator, guardian, timelock).

Appendix: TimelockController Role Structure

TimelockController 0x88Ba032be87d5EF1fbE87336b7090767F367BF73 — same timelock used by 37+ Yearn V3 vaults including all six mainnet risk-1 vaults. getMinDelay() = 604800 (7 days).

Role Holder Type Notes
DEFAULT_ADMIN No holder — Never granted (admin = address(0))
TIMELOCK_ADMIN Timelock itself Contract Self-governed
PROPOSER Daddy/ySafe 6-of-9 Safe Sole proposer
EXECUTOR Daddy/ySafe 6-of-9 Safe Direct execution
EXECUTOR TimelockExecutor 0xf8f60bf9456a6e0141149db2dd6f02c60da5779b Contract Wrapper: Brain (3/8) + deployer EOA can call execute() through it
CANCELLER Daddy/ySafe 6-of-9 Safe Cancel pending proposals
CANCELLER Brain 3-of-8 Safe Cancel pending proposals

To shorten the delay, Daddy 6/9 must propose updateDelay(), wait 7 days during which Brain or Daddy can cancel, then execute. DEFAULT_ADMIN was never granted, so no party can self-grant PROPOSER or TIMELOCK_ADMIN to skip the flow.

Score Details

Scoring Guidelines:

  • Be conservative: when uncertain between two scores, choose the higher (riskier) one
  • Use decimals when a subcategory falls between scores
  • Prioritize on-chain evidence over documentation claims
  • Rounding rule: the weighted sum is recorded to two decimal places, rounded down (1.475 → 1.47). The home page and reports list round it down again to one decimal.
  • Score reflects the September 28, 2026 snapshot — 100% deployed across MetaMorpho (Morpho) + Spark, dynamically rebalanced (72/28 at snapshot, ~44/56 time-weighted since July 13).

Critical Risk Gates

  • No audit — Yearn V3 core audited by 3 top firms. Active underlying protocols (Spark, Morpho) extensively audited. ✅ PASS
  • Unverifiable reserves — ERC-4626 + on-chain Spark/Morpho positions verifiable. ✅ PASS
  • Total centralization — 6-of-9 multisig with publicly named signers. ✅ PASS

All gates pass. Proceed to category scoring.

Category Scores

Expand a category to see how it was scored.

Audits & Historical Track Record20%1.50
Factor Assessment
Audits V3 framework: 3 audits by top firms. Active underlying protocols (Spark, Morpho): blue-chip with extensive audit coverage
Bug bounty $200K (Yearn Immunefi)
Production history ~26.2 months (July 23, 2024). V3 framework: ~28 months
TVL $5.74M USDT (100% deployed). Deposit limit: 50M
Security incidents None on V3, none on the active underlying protocols
Strategy review Rigorous 12-metric framework with ySec security review

Score: 1.5 / 5 — strong audit coverage, ~26.2 months clean production, no incidents.

Centralization & Control Risks30%1.50

Subcategory A: Governance

Factor Assessment
Upgradeability V3 vault is immutable (EIP-1167 minimal proxy)
Multisig 6-of-9 ySafe with publicly named, prominent DeFi signers
Timelock 7-day delay on ADD_STRATEGY and ACCOUNTANT. Self-governed
Privileged roles Well-distributed; no role concentration
EOA risk None

Governance Score: 1.0 / 5 — textbook score-1 governance.

Subcategory B: Programmability

Factor Assessment
PPS On-chain ERC-4626, fully algorithmic
Vault operations Permissionless deposits / withdrawals
Strategy reporting Programmatic via keeper
Debt allocation Automated (Debt Allocator) + manual (Brain)

Programmability Score: 1.0 / 5 — fully programmatic.

Subcategory C: External Dependencies

Factor Assessment
Protocol count (active) 2 funded ecosystems (Morpho via MetaMorpho vault, Spark Lend)
Criticality USDT (Tether) + MetaMorpho/Morpho (72.12% snapshot, ~44% time-weighted) + Spark Lend (27.88% snapshot, ~56% time-weighted, Sky-governed)
Concentration Allocator moves debt continuously; either venue can hold nearly all funds. ~56% time-weighted behind Sky-governed infrastructure (Spark). The Morpho leg carries its own governance surface and wstETH / WBTC / XAUt / sUSDS collateral risk
Quality Top-tier on both venues; concentration is the main concern

Dependencies Score: 2.5 / 5 — two blue-chip ecosystems (Morpho, Spark Lend), but on average over half of debt sits behind Sky-governance infrastructure (Spark Lend → Sky sub-DAO → Sky governance), and the allocator can move nearly all funds to either venue. The Morpho leg adds MetaMorpho governance (owner, curator, guardian, timelock) and market-collateral exposure. The rubric "1–2 blue-chip dependencies" = 2 captures the count; the +0.5 reflects the single-point-of-control concentration from the Sky-governance share and the absence of a fixed allocation split.

Centralization Score = (1.0 + 1.0 + 2.5) / 3 ≈ 1.5

Score: 1.5 / 5

Funds Management30%1.00

Subcategory A: Collateralization

Factor Assessment
Backing 100% USDT (held via MetaMorpho vault on Morpho and Spark Lend USDT positions); Morpho-leg loans overcollateralized by wstETH / WBTC / XAUt / sUSDS
Collateral quality USDT is the largest stablecoin by market cap; centrally issued by Tether
Leverage None
Verifiability Vault and strategy positions fully on-chain

Score: 1.0 / 5 — top-tier on-chain backing. USDT centralization is a known characteristic of the underlying asset, not a vault-specific issue.

Subcategory B: Provability

Factor Assessment
Reserve transparency Vault and strategy USDT positions fully on-chain
Exchange rate ERC-4626, programmatic, real-time
Reporting Automated via keepers, 10-day profit unlock
Third-party verification Underlying USDT positions trivially on-chain

Score: 1.0 / 5 — excellent on-chain provability.

Funds Management Score = (1.0 + 1.0) / 2 = 1.0

Score: 1.0 / 5

Liquidity Risk15%1.00
Factor Assessment
Exit mechanism ERC-4626 → strategy unwind through MetaMorpho vault and Spark USDT market
Liquidity depth Spark: ~$15.9M free vs ~$1.60M position (~95.1% utilization). Morpho: every funded market's free liquidity exceeds ymv-USDT's position (~90.5% utilization); XAUt market has the thinnest margin (~$0.27M free vs ~$0.20M)
Large holder impact Very large redemptions depend on MetaMorpho vault / Spark utilization at withdraw time
Same-value asset USDT-denominated
Withdrawal restrictions None

Score: 1.0 / 5 — both active venues are deep blue-chip USDT lending markets, and free liquidity covers yvUSDT-1's full position in each. The two-venue split provides cross-venue resilience. Re-evaluate if either venue's utilization rises to 100% for an extended period or if the time-weighted allocation stays above ~75% in a single venue.

Operational Risk5%1.00
Factor Assessment
Team Yearn — established 2020, public, named multisig signers
Vault management Standard pattern across 37+ vaults
Documentation Comprehensive, code verified on Etherscan
Legal BORG (Cayman foundation)
Incident response 4 historical V1 events, $200K Immunefi. Demonstrated active debt management — the Brain/Debt Allocator pulled all debt, revoked five strategies across two phases, and redeployed into a new two-strategy configuration (Yearn-operated MetaMorpho vault + new Spark USDT Lender) between April and July 2026
Monitoring Active hourly alerts, vault in monitored list

Score: 1.0 / 5 — top-tier operational maturity. The deallocate / redeploy / full-strategy-replacement sequence demonstrates incident-response and debt-management capability.

Final Score Calculation

Category Score Weight Weighted
Audits & Historical 1.5 20% 0.300
Centralization & Control 1.5 30% 0.450
Funds Management 1.0 30% 0.300
Liquidity Risk 1.0 15% 0.150
Operational Risk 1.0 5% 0.050
Final Score 1.25 / 5.0

1.250 is recorded as 1.25 (two decimals, rounded down). The Centralization score (1.5) reflects the Sky-governance concentration on ~56% of debt (time-weighted) and the allocator's ability to concentrate funds in one venue; otherwise the vault is a clean two-venue blue-chip stablecoin deployment.

Risk Tier

Final Score Risk Tier Recommendation
1.00–1.49 Minimal Risk Approved, high confidence
1.50–2.49 Low Risk Approved with standard monitoring
2.50–3.49 Medium Risk Approved with enhanced monitoring
3.50–4.49 Elevated Risk Limited approval, strict limits
4.50–5.00 High Risk Not recommended

Final Risk Tier: Minimal Risk (1.25 / 5.0) — Approved, high confidence

Assessment History

DateScoreNotes
May 11, 20261.3Initial assessment; ~46/54 Spark/Morpho Gauntlet split
July 13, 20261.25Strategy-queue replacement: MetaMorpho vault + new Spark USDT Lender; ~44/56 split; Sky dependency increased to ~56%
September 28, 20261.25Refresh: TVL $5.74M; unchanged queue and governance; continuous allocator rebalancing documented; MetaMorpho market collateral mapped