BENQI sAVAX DeFi Yield & Risk Rating
BENQI sAVAX is a liquid staking token on Avalanche representing staked AVAX, issued by BENQI Liquid Staking. Yield is generated from native Avalanche staking rewards earned by delegating pooled AVAX to P-Chain validators. sAVAX is value-accruing and redeemable for AVAX via a 15-day native cooldown or instantly through secondary AMM markets.
AUM
-
Net APY
-
Active Users
-
Type
Liquid Staking
Network
Avalanche
CCC
High RiskCeiling A-
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CurrentPotential
This rating is based solely on publicly available information. DeFi protocol risk assessed across Security, Strategy and Operations on the AAA–D scale. The range from CCC to A- reflects the gap between the current assessment and the potential rating achievable if all identified improvement areas are addressed.
SCSSmart Contract Security70
KMPKey Management Permissions49
MMarket73
LLiquidity78
CCollateral67
PMProtocol Mechanics100
ICEInfra Counterparty Exposures83
PCEProtocol Counterparty Exposures87
GGovernance22
FRFinancial Resilience29
TLCTeam Legal Compliance81
DTDocumentation Transparency52
Market Details
ChainAvalanche
Treasury$2.96M
Code AuditsHalborn ↗Certora ↗Zellic ↗Chaos Labs ↗
Oracles UsedChainlink ↗Edge ↗
Stated Withdrawal Time15 days
Component Ratings
Contract Addresses (6)
Key Strengths
S1Well-audited core contracts with the sAVAX token contract reviewed by top firms and independently formally verified, plus separate oracle audits.
S2Active bug bounty with a maximum payout well above standard low-risk thresholds and liquid staking explicitly in scope.
S3Clean security record with no protocol exploit, rug-pull, or depositor loss since launch, and a monotonically increasing exchange rate.
S4Fully organic yield with no leverage: all yield is native Avalanche staking rewards, AVAX is the only collateral, and Avalanche delegation does not slash delegator principal.
Key Risks
R1Unverifiable key management: the controlling multisig is documented only in an old third-party governance post, and the current threshold, signer set, and any timelock cannot be confirmed on-chain because the admin resolves to an unverified contract.
R2No on-chain timelock or binding tokenholder governance over the upgradeable token proxy; onchain voting covers validator delegation only, not contract logic.
R3Thin, undiversified treasury held almost entirely in the protocol's own volatile governance token and down sharply from its peak, leaving a minimal liquid loss backstop relative to TVL.
R4Off-chain custody dependency: the underlying AVAX is bridged and delegated through an MPC-secured system without disclosed security certifications, and native unstake settlement depends on it.
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