S&P Global Launches Letter-Grade Ratings for DeFi Lending Vaults

This is a significant step because it imports a familiar credit-rating vocabulary into DeFi lending, where risk has largely been assessed through protocol-native metrics and audits rather than a letter grade. The detail that curators can cap a vault's grade is the real story: it puts a gatekeeper between the rating and the rated product, raising questions about whether the score reflects the vault's underlying risk or the curator's willingness to accept it. That no vault has yet been assessed means the framework is untested. Whether issuers seek ratings voluntarily, and how much weight the market gives them, is the open question.