DeFi Vaults Price Real-World Collateral at Premium Due to Liquidity Concerns
The DeFi lending market has grown significantly in recent years, with vaults carrying $131 billion in deposits by April 2026. However, a closer look at how these vaults price collateral reveals some surprising differences.
According to S&P Global Ratings, nearly 94% of deposits in crypto vaults are still in crypto-native activities such as staking, lending, and yield aggregation. But when it comes to setting caps on collateral, vaults treat different types of assets differently.
For example, tokenised gold pays an additional 81 basis points over staked ether at the same utilisation, and is also subject to a nine-point harder LTV haircut by curator Steakhouse. Additionally, the maximum amount that can be lent against tokenised gold is $10 million, compared to $1 billion against wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC).
This premium on real-world collateral is due to its lower liquidity and slower unwrap speed in a forced sale situation. As Adrian Cachinero Vasiljevic of Steakhouse notes, 'the quality of the asset is contingent on how fast the collateral can be liquidated.'