Five DeFi Projects on Watchlist: From Tranched Vaults to On-Chain Perpetual Orderbooks

Note: This article is for project observation and information review only. Most projects mentioned are in early stages and carry high uncertainty. Please exercise independent judgment and mind the risks.

This week, I discussed several projects I observed and learned about during conference events. Some are still in anonymous development, awaiting team updates. The following five are the ones I am actively tracking: Mezzanine, INFINIT, IRIS, RISEx, and Boros. To clarify upfront, I have no conflicts of interest; I simply find Boros genuinely impressive.

Mezzanine: Dissecting Single Assets or Yield Strategies into Multi-Tiered Structures

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

Subordinated tranches absorb losses first and capture a larger share of returns; senior tranches sit behind the buffer and offer lower yields. An intermediate mezzanine tranche can optionally be inserted, typically featuring a longer withdrawal period.

Each vault also includes a non-yielding base token positioned at the super-senior tier, bearing losses last. Deposits are automatically converted by the app into this base token before being routed to a specific tranche.

Mezzanine has not yet launched, but its first vault is fully detailed in the documentation, and its underlying strategy is already operational elsewhere: the Hastra Optimizer Vault. Users deposit USDC or wYLDS on Ethereum, which the strategy converts into Hastra PRIME and AUTO, then cycles through Morpho and Kamino; Aave, Exponent, and Pendle are listed as potential integrations.

The reserve fund stands at $50,000, contributed by the asset manager, with an additional month of vault revenue held in escrow. On security, the project has been audited by Sherlock and ChainSecurity and formally verified by Certora; partners listed on the website include Pendle, Kamino, Upshift, and RedStone.

The profit-sharing ratios between senior and subordinate tiers have not yet been disclosed. The documentation states that the vault page will display base rewards and risk premium proportions upon opening; I will monitor for further updates.

INFINIT: Managed Trading Vaults Already Achieving ~32% Annualized Returns in Live Trading

INFINIT operates managed trading vaults that execute trades on Hyperliquid. External strategy managers oversee operations and are required to commit their own capital as first-loss funds. The inaugural vault is APEX Quants' APEX MultiStrategy, which began trading on July 30 and is currently performing as expected.

Built on $506,100 in USDC deposits, the vault gained 7.18% over 82 days; as of October 20, it translates to a 31.94% APR based on the app's annualization metrics.

The vault takes long and short positions across cryptocurrencies, equities, commodities, and indices on Hyperliquid, using market regime detection to time entries. It remains fully flat when no instruments meet the scoring threshold.

Backtesting shows a 163% annualized return over an 84-day window with a maximum drawdown of 10.5%. The live performance of 31.94% falls below the manager’s conservative estimate of 40% to 90%, but significantly outperforms most DeFi mining yields, making the next vault highly anticipated.

The IN token allocates a portion of execution fees to stakers to unlock app features and comes with governance voting rights. Vault 1 redemption is scheduled for October 28, while the deposit window for Vault 2 is planned from October 28 to November 11. At the time of writing, Vault 1 has eight trading days remaining, and the strategy has already been validated in live markets.

IRIS: Layering Fixed-Rate, Fixed-Term Loans Onto Existing Lending Markets

IRIS overlays fixed-rate, fixed-term loans onto existing lending markets. Rather than building a new rate market from scratch, it sits atop Morpho Blue and Aave V3, eliminating the need to bootstrap liquidity from zero.

The mechanism works roughly as follows: market makers (solvers) sign off-chain quotes. Once accepted by borrowers, the borrowing rate is locked until maturity, while the underlying venue continues charging floating rates. Solvers post margin to cover the gap between fixed and floating rates, earning the spread plus collateral yield minus protocol fees.

Each loan is placed into a one-time “pod,” isolating collateral and debt separately without commingling with other loans. Positions can be refinanced across whitelisted platforms.

IRIS has not yet publicly disclosed TVL, loan volume, or a native token. There is still much ground to cover, but if successful, it could pave a new path for fixed-term lending without creating separate liquidity pools.

RISEx: A Perpetual Contracts DEX Where the Order Book Runs Entirely On-Chain

RISEx is a perpetual contracts DEX where the order book runs entirely within RISE’s EVM. RISE itself operates as an Optimistic Rollup L2. There is no off-chain matching engine; orders, matching, and settlement are all on-chain states, allowing other contracts to read them and trade accordingly within the same transaction.

Currently tracking 43 perpetual markets with approximately $39 million in open interest, it remains a relatively new project. Major cryptocurrencies offer up to 25x leverage, using USDC as collateral.

RISE has raised $8 million, including a $4 million round from Galaxy Ventures in June 2025; seed investors include Vitalik Buterin and Stani Kulechov.

RISEx does not have a token yet. The RISE chain and RISEx describe themselves as “one team, one vision, one token.” Mainnet access remains restricted, requiring entry via invite or waitlist referral.

Boros: Creating Markets for Various Interest Rates, Starting with Perpetual Funding Rates

Boros builds infrastructure targeting market inefficiencies to create markets for various interest rates. Its current focus is on perpetual funding rates: users can go long or short leveraged Yield Units to convert floating funding rates into fixed implied APRs.

On October 15, Boros launched spread markets for ETH and BTC, tracking the funding rate differential between Hyperliquid and Gate. A single position captures the spread between the two venues. At launch, short quotes were priced at a fixed APR of approximately 25% to 35%.

How do both sides make money? Shorting the spread involves hedging with perpetual contracts on both venues, resulting in a delta-neutral position that earns the fixed implied APR of roughly 25% to 35%. Longing the spread collects the actual realized spread at each settlement, provided the actual spread consistently exceeds the fixed rate paid.

Arbitrageurs continuously shorting will drive down the fixed rate, while longs get to buy cheap. These actions create mutual advantages for both sides, compounding trading volume over time.

Users can also execute fixed-rate trades via the CrossEx terminal. This free, open-source application runs locally on a user’s machine. It scans all Boros markets, cross-references them against Gate CrossEx perpetual contracts, and calculates net annualized returns after accounting for fees and slippage. After selecting a market, it locks in the fixed-rate leg on Boros and sequentially hedges the perpetual leg on Gate. The interface displays the locked APR, required margin, delta-neutrality status, and projected returns at expiration.

While this sounds like an institutional desk strategy, it’s not exclusive to them. User @gabavineb posted that after 25 days of longing the spread, a 9.19 ETH position generated 1.96 ETH (~21% return), complete with step-by-step instructions.

If you prefer to understand the mechanics before deploying capital, the Boros Academy breaks down core mechanisms and common strategies: rate speculation, hedging your own cost of capital, and delta-neutral arbitrage. Dedicating an afternoon to the Academy and testing with a small position provides sufficient comprehension.

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