Exponential

Exponential (exponential.fi, or Exponential DeFi) is a firm that grades the risk of DeFi pools. It is not Exponent, the Solana yield exchange. Its grades run from A to F. The same team then built YO Protocol, a tool that moves your deposit to the pools with the best yield for the risk. YO runs on four chains, and on Solana it has one vault, yoSOL, which takes SOL. The firm now trades as YO Labs. As of October 2026 the old site sends you to yo.xyz/risk, and the grades live on as YO's Risk Graph. Its backers include Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures and Solana Ventures.

Exponential DeFi risk ratings: how the A-F grades work

The first product gave each DeFi pool a grade from A (least risk) to F (most risk). Each grade adds up four kinds of risk: the chain, the protocol, the assets, and the pool's own plan, such as how much it borrows or what else it leans on.

The grades follow what a pool depends on, not just the pool alone. A pool on a lending market that takes a wrapped coin picks up that wrapper's risk too. The grades also reach people through DeFiLlama, which shows them via its API.

The standalone ratings site is gone. In an October 2026 post, YO said that "Exponential graded DeFi pools A to F; YO took that torch and gave it to Risk Graph". Visitors to exponential.fi are now sent to YO's risk page.

YO Risk Graph: Exponential's ratings today

The YO Risk Graph keeps the A-F scale. It "scores pools, assets, protocols, and chains with a letter grade (A–F) based on their full dependency stack". YO says it is "the same system YO uses to inform vault allocations and due diligence".

It has two access tiers:

• Vault Exposure API: free and public. It returns the collateral breakdown behind a vault.
• Agent API: paid. It returns full risk grades, dependency maps and entity search, and is aimed at developers and AI agents doing contagion analysis.

For readers who used the old exponential.fi pool browser, this is the main change. Full grades now come through YO's API products and its vault pages, not a free public screener.

What is YO Protocol and how does the yield optimizer work?

YO (short for Yield Optimizer) went live in May 2025 with $7.7 million in deposits. You put one coin into a vault and get a yoToken back that grows in value. YO then shifts the vault's money between the pools it has cleared, as the best yield for the risk moves.

YO does not bridge one pot of money from chain to chain. It keeps a separate vault of native coins on each chain, which the team calls "embassies". It says this cuts the risk of bridge hacks.

The docs say YO can charge fees to deposit and withdraw, but they are set to zero for now. Each vault keeps some cash idle, so most withdrawals are instant. Large ones wait in a queue and can take up to a day. On EVM chains the yoTokens follow the ERC-4626 vault standard.

YO V2: the closed-loop upgrade (October 2026)

YO launched V2 on 5 October 2026. It rebuilt the core architecture so that funds move only along paths fixed in onchain code. According to the V2 security framework:

• Vaults reach outside protocols only through single-purpose adapter contracts. Each adapter has its receiver hardcoded to the vault and resets approvals to zero after each use. Adapters cannot call arbitrary contracts or be upgraded.
• An onchain approval registry caps how much of each asset a vault can approve to each contract.
• Every vault has an allowlist of yield sources, chosen on collateral quality, liquidity, audit history and dependency risk.
• Transactions are simulated against live state before execution. An Oracle Guard checks share prices against rolling anchors.
• Upgrades need a 4-of-6 multisig and pass through a 48-hour timelock.

yoSOL, yoUSD and the other YO vaults

The contract registry lists these vaults as of October 2026:

yoSOL is YO's Solana vault, and it takes SOL. It runs as its own Solana program, not a copy of the EVM vaults, and it has its own audits (see the risk section below). YO's public pages say little about where yoSOL puts its SOL to work. Check the vault page in the YO app before you deposit.

• yoSOL mint: yoSoLJkgRYFwmt8apEDVKxHy6FktjYEWLvxB6NyJuNj
• yoSOL program: yvSoLSBaLoqZ2yQttGbaYzHDXr9Bo9UdqtiRDiVaMxP

yoUSD is the main stablecoin vault. In October 2026, YO said almost all of it sat in Morpho lending markets on Ethereum, lending USDC against bitcoin and ether. yoUSD Edge is a second stablecoin vault. It earns from loans backed by more collateral than they lend, on Ethereum and Base.

YO Ecosystem Vault and looping

In mid-October 2026, YO opened the YO Ecosystem Vault, a lending market on Morpho run by the risk firm kpk. Lenders put in USDC. Borrowers post yoUSD or yoUSD Edge and loop it: borrow, buy more, and post that too. YO says you can reach up to seven times leverage on yoUSD, in one step in the YO app. This lives on Ethereum only. It does not touch yoSOL.

YO token ($YO) and airdrop

YO Labs issued a governance token, $YO, with a supply of 1 billion. The announced split is:

• 30% to community growth and future rewards
• 24% to core contributors
• 21.5% to ecosystem development and partnerships
• 16.5% to early investors
• 8% to a genesis airdrop for YO Points participants

Claims opened on 5 February 2026, on Base only. According to the token documentation, $YO launched non-transferable: claimed tokens cannot be sold, traded or sent to another wallet during that phase. Vault reward APY is paid in $YO through Merkl, with a 90-day claim window. The YO Foundation can claw back tokens left unclaimed six months after a campaign ends. $YO is not a Solana token.

Who is Exponential DeFi and YO Protocol for?

YO suits hands-off savers who want one-click, risk-checked yield on a major coin. They need to be happy to trust YO's engine and the team's multisig. SOL holders can use yoSOL and stay on Solana. But most of what YO offers lives on other chains: the stablecoin vaults, the lending vault and the looping tools. If you want a stablecoin vault on Solana, YO has none today.

The Risk Graph APIs suit builders of wallets, apps and AI agents who need risk grades that follow each position's links. YO also offers an SDK, a widget and a gateway contract for apps that want to offer YO yield.

Loopers are a smaller group. If you borrow against yoUSD to loop it, you need to know how and when a position gets liquidated.

Is YO Protocol safe? Audits, admin keys and risks

YO publishes a list of audits, each covering a specific contract set:

• Core EVM vault (yoVault): Offbeat Security and Hunter Security (January 2025), Spearbit (May 2025).
• yoVaultSecondary: Aether Labs (October 2025) and Paladin (November 2025).
• yoVaultV2: Aetheryc (December 2025).
• V2 onchain adapters: Cantina (June 2026, plus a re-review).
• yoGateway: Aether Labs (August 2025) and Paladin (November 2025).
• Solana yoSOL vault: Zellic (February 2026) and Accretion (April 2026). These are the only audits that cover the Solana program.

YO also runs an Immunefi bug bounty, live since May 2025, with a maximum payout of $10,000. That cap is small next to the deposits it protects.

Who controls the contracts. On EVM chains, the 4-of-6 admin multisig works behind a 48-hour timelock. On Solana, the docs name a "YO Admin Multisig" (9PVwkaG7tEqxVW5jZmeYjXiWMgnvQi6crDB67j2mbovq) that manages program upgrades and protocol whitelisting. A separate "YO Operator Multisig" (EF9p1k8UzKG6jNxkPRVemyaCD9eHiRf6MDfo57AmM717) handles rebalancing between whitelisted assets. We could not confirm the yoSOL program's upgrade authority on an explorer for this update. We also found no Solana timelock in the docs, so treat yoSOL as upgradeable by the team's multisig.

What can go wrong. YO's risk page lists:

• smart contract bugs
• failures in the protocols it allocates to
• chain outages
• liquidity limits, with withdrawals delayed up to 24 hours
• strategy underperformance
• bridging risk

A risk grade is a judgment, not a guarantee. Because YO both grades yield sources and allocates to them, there is no independent check on how it rates its own choices. Looping yoUSD in the Ecosystem Vault adds liquidation risk on top of the vault's own risk. YO has also warned of impersonator accounts and offers a verification tool at app.yo.xyz/verify.

We found no reported exploit of YO or Exponential as of October 2026.

YO Protocol alternatives on Solana

• Solana yield aggregators. Lulo routes stablecoin deposits between Solana lending markets. Kamino's vaults automate lending and liquidity strategies inside one protocol. Both are Solana-native and cover stablecoins, which YO does not offer on Solana.
• Exponent. Its name is often confused with Exponential, but it is a different project: a Solana yield exchange for fixed-rate and leveraged yield trading, not a risk-graded optimizer.
• Liquid staking. SOL holders who want plain staking yield with no allocation engine can hold a liquid staking token instead. Our stake pool comparison lists the options, including our own compassSOL. Disclosure: Solana Compass runs that pool and validator.

Exponential and YO Labs: founders and funding

Driss Benamour is the CEO and co-founder. Mehdi Lebbar is the other co-founder and runs its investing. The firm raised a $14 million seed round in 2022. Paradigm led it, and Haun Ventures, Solana Ventures and Polygon joined.

In December 2025, YO Labs raised $10 million more in a Series A. Foundation Capital led that round, and Coinbase Ventures, Scribble Ventures and Launchpad Capital joined. In all, the firm has now raised $24 million.

Timeline:

• 2022: $14 million seed round. Exponential then builds its A-F DeFi risk ratings, later shown on DefiLlama.
• May 2025: YO launches on Ethereum, Base and Solana with $7.7 million in deposits.
• December 2025: $10 million Series A.
• February 2026: $YO genesis airdrop claims open on Base.
• February and April 2026: the yoSOL Solana program is audited by Zellic and Accretion.
• October 2026: YO V2 goes live. The Ecosystem Vault launches on Morpho. exponential.fi redirects to YO's risk page.