Mellow Launches Core Vaults for Institutional DeFi

The Core Vaults architecture represents a significant advancement in institutional DeFi infrastructure, providing a programmable framework for building on-chain structured products. According to Nick S., founder of Mellow, “Structured products are going to be the native language of institutional DeFi. Core Vaults give allocators and builders a fluent vocabulary – modular, transparent, and ready for any market condition.” The system addresses one of the most persistent challenges facing professional allocators: the need for clarity, control, and compliance in an environment that is often messy and fragmented.

The platform’s design brings together disparate yield opportunities across DeFi protocols and centralized exchanges into a single framework with standardized strategy design. This consolidation eliminates the need for institutions to navigate multiple platforms and manual integrations, instead offering a unified approach to accessing diversified yield strategies. The architecture abstracts execution complexity, reducing integration timelines to near-zero while maintaining the transparency and auditability required by institutional participants.

Core Vaults incorporate comprehensive institutional controls including granular per-vault limits, asset whitelists, and permissions verified by independent actors. The system features embedded risk management with AML and KYC modules, two-tier oracle safety, and audit-backed contracts included from the outset. These features address the compliance and security requirements that have traditionally prevented larger institutions from participating in decentralized finance ecosystems.

The platform’s programmable flexibility enables curators to deploy diverse strategies including delta-neutral, leveraged, restaking, and liquidity provision across both DeFi and centralized venues. Frictionless integration allows protocols and exchanges to connect without custom adapters or additional engineering, while custodial settlement rails through integrations with Copper ClearLoop and Binance Ceffu keep assets under secure custody while enabling CEX execution. Signature queues enable one-transaction deposits and withdrawals for fast-moving institutional opportunities, providing the speed and efficiency required in professional trading environments.

At launch, the Core Vaults system is anchored by Lido’s stETH, the most widely used staking token on Ethereum, as the flagship asset. This strategic choice leverages stETH’s established position as a foundational element within the DeFi ecosystem. According to Jakov Buratović, Master of DeFi at Lido Ecosystem Foundation, “Lido Protocol’s stETH already underpins much of DeFi, and the stRATEGY Vault builds on that foundation. Powered by Mellow’s Core Vaults, it gives users a simple way to access a diversified set of strategies built around stETH in one place.”

The Lido stRATEGY Vault serves as a practical demonstration of Core Vaults’ capabilities. Available through the Earn tab on stake.lido.fi/earn, users can deposit ETH, WETH or wstETH and receive strETH in return, representing their share of the vault. Capital is then programmatically allocated across established DeFi venues such as Aave, Ethena, Uniswap and others, with rewards accruing in the background and supplemented by Mellow Points. This implementation shows how Core Vaults enable users to access diversified, risk-isolated strategies built around Ethereum’s largest liquid staking token without managing multiple dashboards and manual integrations.

The launch of Core Vaults arrives during a period of accelerating institutional inflows into Ethereum. Spot ETH ETFs in the United States have drawn billions in recent months, while regulatory frameworks like MiCA in Europe and upcoming stablecoin regulations are creating clearer guidelines for institutional participation. This regulatory clarity, combined with the infrastructure provided by Core Vaults, positions the platform to capture growing institutional demand for structured access and defined risk in crypto markets.

For institutions, Core Vaults provide the auditability and trustless custody required for professional asset management. For curators and protocol teams, they unlock a broader design space where strategies can be implemented without writing a single line of code. For end-users, they deliver accessible, user-friendly routes to sophisticated strategies powered by stETH and other assets. The platform’s progressive roadmap toward permissionless oracles, autonomous execution, and trust-minimized curator roles indicates a long-term commitment to decentralization while maintaining the institutional controls necessary for current market participants.