A Cardano DeFi public-goods reference implementation — a non-custodial USDCx auto-yield vault built by a Cardano self-custody user who couldn't find one on-chain and decided to ship it. Not optimized for commercial scale; Apache 2.0, fork-welcome. Core user protections are contract invariants, not operational promises. V1 design complete; public launch gated on external audit (target Q2-Q3 2027).
Phase 1 expected TVL $500–$25K (speculative estimate, not a forecast). Pre-audit cap is a risk envelope, not a sales target. Hard-capped at 4.5% performance fee; 29-field VaultDatum with 15 immutable anchors; 17 logic validators + 4 NFT mint policies + 1 DEX adapter under Plutus V3 16 KB ceiling.
The founder is a member of the target user segment — a Cardano self-custody holder who couldn't find a non-custodial USDCx auto-yield vault and decided to build one.
OptiVaults's founder is a Cardano self-custody user: ADA holder + native staker (delegated to a stake pool) since 2025, small-BTC holder since 2025, participated in Midnight's NIGHT redeem (those NIGHT tokens later ended up paired with ADA on Minswap V2 — a natural continuation, not a planned portfolio construction), Minswap V2 ADA/NIGHT LP since 2026, and a current USDCx holder (USDCx launched on Cardano via Circle's xReserve in February 2026). V1 did not start as a market opportunity — it started as a specific personal problem: USDCx was in the founder's wallet and the realistic options were (a) send to a CEX earn product (rejected on self-custody principle), (b) supply directly on Liqwid's USDCx market for ~0.5-2% APY (inflation-negative), or (c) swap to DJED and supply on Liqwid for ~11.8% — but (c) still requires a 2-TX entry per market (swap USDCx → DJED, then Liqwid supply), parallel management if you want DJED + USDM + USDCx diversification, and a 2-TX recall + swap-back round-trip per full or partial withdraw. The qToken sits in the wallet between actions and its rate accrues automatically — no per-cycle chore. On a $200 position the entry + exit round-trip gas is ~1-2% of principal. No "deposit USDCx and let it auto-compound across DJED + USDM with a single-TX exit" non-custodial vault existed on Cardano. So the founder built one.
Aave, Compound, and Yearn shipped conceptually similar vault-aggregator patterns on Ethereum years ago. V1 is being built on Cardano in 2026 because the preconditions only recently aligned: USDCx launched via Circle's xReserve in February 2026, Liqwid's stablecoin markets reached supply-depth maturity in 2024-2025, the Cardano SPO operator community reached breadth needed for credibly-independent governance signers, and Aiken + PlutusV3 tooling stabilized to v1.1.x. V1 is not the first auto-yield vault in DeFi — it is the first version whose architectural preconditions are actually satisfied on Cardano.
OptiVaults is not trying to become Cardano's largest vault. The explicit goal: put a complete, audited, Apache-2.0-licensed reference implementation into the Cardano open-source commons — so that even if OptiVaults stays small, other teams can fork V1 and specialise it. V2+ would evolve this same idea toward a multi-protocol, multi-strategy asset-allocation layer as the Cardano DeFi landscape deepens — a direction, not a committed roadmap. If that evolution does not happen, V1 remains what it offers today: automatic compounding + dual-issuer stablecoin allocation + self-serve exit + audited-and-capped fee structure, costing 4.5% of realised yield. We'd encourage depositors to evaluate V1 on those concrete properties rather than on any future V2 features.
Three simple steps to start earning yield on your stablecoins.
Connect your Cardano wallet and deposit stablecoins into the vault. You receive vUSDCx share tokens representing your proportional claim.
The automated keeper deploys capital across DeFi protocols, compounds yields, and rebalances — all validated on-chain.
Burn your vUSDCx shares anytime to receive your original deposit plus accumulated yield. No lock-ups, no permission required.
A diversified, risk-managed approach to stablecoin yield on Cardano.
30% of deposits stay as idle USDCx at the vault for instant withdrawals (0% yield at V1 launch by design — buffer must stay liquid). Governance-adjustable via UpdateStrategy 7-day timelock if a yield-bearing home becomes viable.
45% DJED + 25% USDM supplied to Liqwid Finance stablecoin markets (launch target). Depositors bear dual-issuer allocation: Cardano Foundation/COTI for DJED, Mehen for USDM — within single-ecosystem Cardano exposure.
Risk engine adjusts weights based on real-time APY, pool depth, and depeg signals. Governance can override via 7–21 day timelock (action-dependent).
Liqwid Yield Cycle (no DEX swap needed)
1. Recall from Liqwid (burn qTokens, receive underlying + interest) → 2. Compound (on-chain yield detection, fee deduction) → 3. Re-deploy to Liqwid. Capital-efficient — yield realized directly in the recalled token.
Illustrative projections after the 4.5% performance fee. Actual returns depend on market conditions.
| Scenario | Gross APY | Net APY |
|---|---|---|
| Conservative | ~2% | ~1.9% |
| Moderate | ~5% | ~4.8% |
| Optimistic | ~8% | ~7.6% |
APY is variable and not guaranteed. Past performance does not predict future results.
Simple, on-chain enforced fee structure. No hidden charges.
Only charged on yield earned — never on your principal. Enforced on-chain at compound time.
Instant withdrawal from the 30% idle buffer. The 0.1% fee stays in the vault — it raises the share price for all remaining holders (deferred yield).
Batcher fee covering the keeper's Conway ref-script TX cost. ~2 ADA network deposit returned on cancel. Direct deposit (wallet→vault) has no OptiVaults fee beyond the ~1 ADA network TX fee.
OptiVaults uses a share-based model (similar to ERC-4626) where all depositors earn yield proportionally.
1. Deposit USDCx → Receive vUSDCx
You receive vUSDCx share tokens proportional to the current vault value. Share price starts near 1:1 and rises as yield compounds.
2. Yield Compounds → Share Price Rises
When the keeper harvests yield, total vault value increases but total shares stay the same. This raises the share price equally for all holders.
3. Fair for Everyone
New depositors get fewer shares at the higher price — they don't dilute existing holders. Early depositors benefit from lower entry price. Everyone earns proportionally from their deposit moment.
4. Withdraw Anytime
Burn vUSDCx to receive your proportional USDCx back (principal + earned yield). 0.1% fee on direct withdrawals (free via queue). The fee stays in the vault, benefiting remaining holders.
Built from day one with security as the top priority. Every operation validated on-chain.
Admin keys, fees, policies, and registry auth are locked at deployment. No operation can alter them.
Deposit and compound outputs are validated with exact equality — no room for value extraction.
Admin, Keeper, and User roles have distinct keys and capabilities. No single key controls everything.
Direct withdrawals always charge a fee. Batched withdrawals require queuing. Both prevent same-block exploits.
Share multiplier and minimum deposit work together to block ERC-4626 style inflation attacks.
Token-specific minimum receive amounts enforced on-chain. Users are protected against sandwich attacks.
Multiple rounds of internal audit review completed during pre-launch; V1-specific internal audit coverage + external audit (target Q2-Q3 2027) gate the public launch.
Smart contract code is publicly available for independent verification and community auditing.
Automatic stablecoin price monitoring with staged withdrawal on significant deviation. 30% buffer provides additional safety margin.
If the keeper goes offline for 7+ days, any user can withdraw directly from the smart contract — no admin approval needed. Early withdrawal fee is also waived.
After 7 days of keeper inactivity, admin can recall deployed funds. General deploy remains keeper-only. Only stranded non-deposit tokens (e.g. DJED/USDM) can be swapped by admin via AdminDeployNonDeposit — subject to a 21-day Registry timelock. Admin cannot touch USDCx or ADA.
Transparent, time-locked, multi-signature governance with user exit guarantees.
All governance actions require unanimous signer approval at V1 launch (1 founder + 2 independent Cardano SPOs). Timelocks: 7–21 days depending on action (EmergencyWithdraw 0d / UpdateSlippagePolicy 48h / UpdateStrategy + TreasurySpend 7d / UpdateFee + Registry + KeeperAuth 14d / UpdateFeeSplit 21d). Any single signer can 1-of-n cancel during timelock.
All non-emergency governance actions require a minimum 7-day waiting period. Users can exit before any change takes effect.
Critical parameters (fee collector, minting policy, keeper key) are enforced on-chain and cannot be changed after deployment.
If keeper goes offline for 7+ days, any user can force-withdraw directly from the smart contract. No governance approval needed.
Your funds are always recoverable — even if our infrastructure goes offline permanently.
Open-source npm package. Build and sign withdrawal transactions locally with your own Blockfrost key. No backend needed.
Self-contained HTML file (works offline). Connect wallet, enter Blockfrost key, withdraw. Save it now as your insurance policy.
All contracts are open source (Apache 2.0). Anyone can build an alternative frontend with the same contract addresses.
OptiVaults is in a pre-audit deployment phase. Principal is at risk. Review all risks before depositing.
Total value locked is operator-capped at USD 100,000 equivalent until the professional third-party audit (scheduled Q2-Q3 2027) completes. The cap is enforced at the frontend and by keeper-side monitoring. Do not deposit more than you can afford to lose.
The contracts have passed multiple rounds of internal audit review (findings resolved), but have NOT yet been reviewed by an independent third-party auditor. A professional audit is scheduled for Q2-Q3 2027. Residual bugs cannot be ruled out.
USDCx (Circle via xReserve), DJED (COTI algorithmic), and USDM (Mehen fiat-backed) can lose their USD peg. Automatic depeg monitoring triggers phased recall at >5% deviation, but cannot undo realised losses.
Deployed capital earns yield via Liqwid Finance lending markets. Liqwid smart-contract bugs, bad-debt events, or market-wide liquidity crises directly impact vault NAV. RecallFromLiqwid may return less than supplied during protocol distress.
The keeper runs as dual-instance shared-key automation. Key compromise cannot drain principal (on-chain contracts prevent this) but can stall compounding and batch processing. 7-day keeper-inactivity fallback lets any user withdraw directly.
V1 launch governance is 3-of-3 MultisigGov (unanimity required): 1 founder + 2 independent Cardano SPOs. Action-specific timelocks 7–21 days (UpdateFeeSplit longest at 21d, self-dealing protection) + 1-of-n cancel veto by any signer during the timelock window. Full 3-of-3 collusion could signal malicious actions (fee/strategy changes), but 15 immutable datum fields + hard-capped 4.5% fee + emergency withdraw bound the blast radius.
Cardano eUTXO congestion, DEX slippage on Minswap V2 routes, or temporary Blockfrost/Ogmios indexing delays can postpone — not prevent — deposit / withdraw / compound. Funds remain on-chain throughout.
Full risk disclosure: Whitepaper §5 · Protocol docs (LLM-friendly) · Vulnerability reporting
A smarter way to earn yield on your stablecoins without the complexity of manual DeFi farming.
Your funds are held by on-chain smart contracts, not by us. Withdraw anytime with your wallet — no permission needed.
Yields are harvested and reinvested automatically. Your share value grows over time without any manual action.
15 immutable fields, exact-value validation, and role separation. All critical operations enforced by Aiken PlutusV3 validators.
A risk-aware strategy engine allocates across multiple DeFi protocols to maximize risk-adjusted returns.
Works with any CIP-30 wallet — Vespr, Eternl, Nami, Lace. Server-side TX building means no WASM on your device.
Smart contracts are open source under Apache 2.0. Verify the code, audit the logic, trust the math.
V1 is a Cardano DeFi public-goods reference implementation. Direct entry points for technical readers.
Review history: V1 docs went through 9 external-reviewer feedback cycles + multi-round internal audit coverage A–F summarised in docs/audit-scope.md. Active project log mirrors are in the private development tree.
Everything you need to know about OptiVaults.
From smart contract development to a fully decentralized yield protocol.
App launches after external audit (target Q2-Q3 2027). Read the design, review the code, join the community.