Five DeFi Projects Under Observation: From Tiered Vaults to On-Chain Perpetual Order Books

Scanning new DeFi projects: fixed rates, tiered vaults, and funding rate spreads.

Written by: @Rightsideonly

Compiled by: AIdidiaoJP, Foresight News

Note: This article is for project observation and information organization only. The projects mentioned are mostly in early stages and carry high uncertainty. Readers are advised to make independent judgments and be aware of risks.

This week, I discussed the projects I focused on and learned about during the conference. Some are still in anonymous development and waiting for team updates. Here are five projects I am actively tracking: Mezzanine, INFINIT, IRIS, RISEx, and Boros. To be clear, I have no vested interests; I just think Boros is really cool.

Mezzanine: Breaking Down Single Assets or Yield Strategies into Multiple Tiers

Mezzanine builds structured vaults around single assets or single yield strategies, then breaks the vaults into different tiers.

Subordinate assets take the first losses and share a larger proportion of the profits; priority ranks after the buffer, with lower yields. An intermediate tranche (Mezzanine tranche) can also be optionally set, with a typically longer withdrawal period.

Each vault also has a non-interest-bearing base token, which is in a super-priority position and ultimately bears the losses. Deposits are first converted into this base token before entering a specific tier, and this step is automated by the app.

Mezzanine has not yet launched, but the first vault has been fully documented, and the strategies have been running elsewhere: Hastra Optimizer Vault. Users deposit USDC or wYLDS on Ethereum, and the strategy converts the funds into Hastra PRIME and AUTO, then cycles through Morpho and Kamino; Aave, Exponent, and Pendle are listed as potential venues.

The reserve is $50,000, funded by the asset manager, with an additional month's vault earnings held in a custodial account. In terms of security, the project has been audited by Sherlock and ChainSecurity, and formally verified by Certora; partners listed on the official website include Pendle, Kamino, Upshift, and RedStone.

The profit-sharing ratio between priority and subordinate levels has not yet been disclosed. The documentation states that when the vault page opens, it will display the base rewards and risk premium ratios; I will keep an eye on subsequent updates.

INFINIT: Managed Trading Vaults, Real Trading Yielding Approximately 32% Annualized

INFINIT operates managed trading vaults, executing trades on Hyperliquid. External strategy managers are responsible for operations and must invest their own funds as first loss. The first vault is APEX Quants' APEX MultiStrategy, which started trading on July 30 and is currently performing as expected.

This vault is based on a deposit of $506,100 USDC, with a 7.18% increase over 82 days; as of October 20, the annualized rate according to the app is 31.94% APR.

The vault goes long and short on Hyperliquid, covering crypto assets, stocks, commodities, and indices, relying on market conditions to determine when to trade; it remains in cash when no assets meet the scoring threshold.

Backtesting shows an annualized return of 163% over an 84-day window, with a maximum drawdown of 10.5%. The real-world 31.94% is below the manager's conservative estimate of 40% to 90%, but far exceeds most DeFi mining yields, making the next vault worth looking forward to.

The IN token will distribute part of the execution fees to stakers, used to unlock app features and comes with governance voting rights. Vault 1 will redeem on October 28, and the deposit window for Vault 2 is planned from October 28 to November 11. As of this writing, Vault 1 has 8 trading days left, and the strategy has been validated in real trading.

IRIS: Overlaying Fixed Rate, Fixed Term Loans on Existing Lending Markets

IRIS overlays fixed rate, fixed term loans on existing lending markets. It does not create a separate interest rate market but is built on Morpho Blue and Aave V3, thus not needing to start liquidity from scratch.

The mechanism is roughly as follows: the market maker (solver) signs off-chain quotes, and after the borrower accepts, the borrowing rate is locked until maturity, while the underlying venue still receives a floating rate. The solver pays a margin to cover the gap between the fixed and floating rates, earning the spread plus collateral returns, minus protocol fees.

Each loan is packed into a one-time

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