Introducing Ratings for Custodial Earn Products

Staking Rewards now rates custodial earn products. Every rated product gets an independent risk grade from D to AAA, a public scoring breakdown, and a potential grade that shows what it could earn if it fixed the gaps within its control. The ratings are live at stakingrewards.com/custodial.

Why we built this

We've rated DeFi protocols for a long time. In DeFi, most of the risk sits in code and contracts that anyone can inspect on-chain. That makes it measurable.

Custodial products work differently. When you deposit into a CEX earn program or a CeFi yield platform, you hand your assets to a company. What happens next depends on that company. Does it hold the reserves it says it holds? Is it licensed where it operates? Where does the yield actually come from? Will it let you withdraw when you want to?

Most of that is hard to see from the outside. So most people choose between these products on the one number they can see: the APY. Put two products side by side and the higher rate usually wins, even when the risk behind each one is very different.

Some of the largest losses for yield-seekers in crypto came from custodial platforms, where the point of failure was the operator, not the code. Those risks were rarely priced into the rate on offer.

We built these ratings to put a risk grade next to the yield. They use the same scale as our DeFi ratings, so a custodial product and a DeFi product can be compared on the same terms.

How the grade works

The 900-point score maps to a 22-step letter scale from D to AAA, grouped into four risk bands:

• Low risk: A- to AAA
• Moderate risk: BBB- to BBB+
• Elevated risk: B- to BB+
• High risk: CCC+ and below

Every rated profile also carries a potential grade: the grade the product would earn if the operator closed every gap within its control. Some gaps can't be closed. An operator incorporated in a jurisdiction with no licensing framework stays capped however well it does elsewhere. The distance between the two grades separates products that could improve from products that are structurally limited.

What's on a profile

Every rated product has a public profile showing:

• The current grade, its risk band and the potential grade
• A score for each of the five components
• Market details: fees, custodian, insurance, founding year, strategy type, proof of reserves, supported assets, licenses and stated withdrawal time
• Key strengths and key risks in plain language, each linked to its source
• The date it was last rated, the framework version used, and a link to the detailed scoring breakdown
• An option to request the full rating report

The listing page pins rated products to the top with their grade, APY, lockup and minimum deposit. Products we track but haven't rated yet appear below, marked "not yet rated." You can search, filter by asset or operator, show rated products only, or switch to DeFi ratings with one toggle.

How to use it

Choosing where to earn on assets you already hold. If two products offer similar rates, the grade shows which one carries more risk. If one pays more, the grade shows what that extra yield is costing you.

Due diligence for funds, treasuries and allocators. Every operator is assessed on the same structure, and every finding links to its source. That makes it a consistent starting point for counterparty review, with the full report available on request. It doesn't replace your own diligence.

Comparing custodial and DeFi options for the same asset. Both use one scale, so you can weigh a custodial earn product against a DeFi vault directly.

For operators. The component scores and the potential grade show exactly where points are being lost and what would move the grade. Any rating can be challenged with evidence from the profile page.

What a grade is, and what it isn't

A grade is an independent assessment of relative risk, based only on publicly available information. It isn't investment advice, and it isn't a guarantee that funds are safe.

APYs on the listing are reported by the operators. Staking Rewards does not verify them. Proof-of-reserves reports also vary in quality: some are independently verified and some are self-attested, and each profile shows which.

What's next

We'll keep rating more of the products on the listing. Until a product is rated, it stays marked "not yet rated." Operators and users can request a rating from the site.

See the ratings at stakingrewards.com/custodial