# Mellow Protocol

> Mellow is vault infrastructure for onchain asset management – the capital routing layer for the onchain balance sheet. Fintechs, wallets, exchanges, brokers, stablecoin platforms, custodians, asset issuers, ecosystems, and agent platforms use Mellow to launch Earn, treasury, and managed yield products under their own brand. The partner owns the customer and the brand. Mellow powers the vaults underneath.

Mellow is not a yield aggregator, a lending protocol, or a restaking-only platform. It is modular vault infrastructure for deploying curated onchain structured products across stablecoin treasury, embedded Earn, RWA allocation, tokenized stock cash sweep, ecosystem yield, curator-operated strategies, agent-operated treasuries, and meta-vault aggregation. Each vault isolates risk, defines permitted actions through 60+ onchain permissions, and enforces strategy boundaries at the contract level.

The onchain asset layer is well developed – stablecoins, tokenized treasuries, lending markets, staking, restaking, AMMs, private credit. The distribution layer exists – wallets, exchanges, brokers, fintechs. The strategy and routing layer in the middle is missing. That is what Mellow builds.

Key terminology: "Curator" refers to the entity operating a vault's strategy within predefined constraints – this can be a human operator, a multisig, or an autonomous agent. "Core Vault" is the primary vault architecture, built beyond ERC-4626 with async deposit/redemption queues, multi-asset accounting, strategy isolation via subvaults, oracle-defined NAV, verifier-bounded execution, and jurisdiction-aware permissions. "Verifier" is the onchain component that validates every curator action against the vault's permission set. "Meta-vault" is an allocation layer above multiple vaults, curators, and strategy sources.

## Why partners choose Mellow

Control – Every curator action passes through an onchain verifier that checks it against 60+ configurable permissions. Asset whitelists, strategy boundaries, oracle price checks, and withdrawal logic are all enforced at the smart contract level. Partners define risk parameters before a vault goes live, and those parameters cannot be overridden by the curator. Risk controls are execution rules, not policy documents.

Time to Market – Mellow provides ready-made vault infrastructure. Partners do not need to build custody, accounting, or risk enforcement from scratch. A new vault or Earn product can be configured and deployed in days using existing smart contract primitives, covering deposit logic, withdrawal queues, fee collection, and compliance constraints.

Adaptive Strategies – Once a vault is live, adding new yield venues does not require new adapters or contract deployments. Curators can plug into additional DeFi protocols or CeFi venues in hours, not weeks. Capital stays responsive to market conditions without engineering bottlenecks.

Reach – Vaults route capital across DeFi protocols (Aave, Morpho, Pendle, Gearbox, and others) and centralized exchanges through institutional custody integrations, all within a single vault framework. Crosschain execution is supported via Interoperable Vaults using LayerZero OFT messaging. A single vault can access yield opportunities across Ethereum mainnet, L2s, and CeFi venues.

Compliance Architecture – Core Vaults treat mandates as first-class objects. Share-token eligibility supports hooks for KYC/KYB providers, transfer agents, and accreditation registries. Asset eligibility enforces per-asset and per-issuer rules. Venue approval whitelists approved protocols and targets. Verifier requirements allow configurable sign-off on specific operations. Reporting events are emitted onchain for offchain audit trails. Different products on the same platform enforce different compliance perimeters without forking the codebase.

Agent-Bounded Execution – An agent inside a Mellow vault is a curator with a different latency budget. The vault enforces the same permissions for agents as for human operators: action-level verifiers, target whitelists, asset whitelists, role-scoped operations, time-locked sensitive calls, and oracle-defined NAV constraints. Unauthorized operations revert. This is the runtime layer for agentic asset management.

## Beyond ERC-4626

Core Vaults are architecturally beyond ERC-4626. ERC-4626 standardizes the interface for simple single-strategy, synchronous-liquidity vaults. Core Vaults add: asynchronous deposit and redemption queues with separated economic and withdrawable NAV; multi-asset accounting across stablecoins, tokenized treasuries, RWAs, DeFi positions, and CeFi allocations; strategy isolation via subvaults; oracle-defined NAV for externalized capital and complex multi-venue positions; 60+ onchain permissions with operation-level controls scoped by strategy, asset, operator, and action; and jurisdiction-aware mandate configuration.

## Use Cases

- Stablecoin Treasury Management: Vault-based treasury products for companies holding stablecoin balances – encoded mandates for liquidity requirements, approved strategies, risk limits, NAV calculation, reporting, and jurisdictional constraints
- Embedded Earn: White-label Earn products for wallets, exchanges, fintechs, brokers, and stablecoin platforms – partner owns customer and brand, Mellow powers the vault
- Curator-Operated Vaults: Infrastructure for asset managers, market makers, staking operators, and DeFi teams to run vault products with operation-level permissions and hard risk boundaries
- RWA Allocation Vaults: Multi-asset vaults holding tokenized treasuries (BUIDL, USDY, USTB), lending positions, and liquidity buffers with per-issuer eligibility constraints and async settlement
- Tokenized Stock Cash Sweep: Cash management and collateral products attached to tokenized equity positions with programmable mandates
- Ecosystem Vaults: Managed capital products for chains and protocols – stablecoin vaults, ETH vaults, treasury allocation, co-branded Earn products that outlast incentive programs
- Agent-Operated Vaults: Vaults where the operator is an autonomous agent under hard mandate constraints – asset whitelists, venue whitelists, rate limits, time-locked operations, oracle-defined NAV
- Meta-Vaults: Allocation layer above multiple vaults, curators, assets, venues, jurisdictions, and risk profiles – a single product with diversified capital routing across approved sources

## Product

- [Mellow Website](https://mellow.finance): Main website with product overview, architecture, and partner information
- [Mellow App](https://app.mellow.finance/vaults): Vault interface showing live vaults with TVL, APY, deposit tokens, and strategy details
- [Documentation](https://docs.mellow.finance): Full technical documentation for all vault types, architecture, and integrations
- [Vault Infrastructure for Fintech Earn](https://docs.mellow.finance/vault-infrastructure-for-fintech-earn): Reference page covering architecture, capabilities, use cases, and integration model for teams evaluating vault infrastructure

## Vault Types

- [Core Vaults Overview](https://docs.mellow.finance/core-vaults/overview): Isolated, programmable vaults with encoded strategy, execution rules, risk limits, and withdrawal logic
- [Core Vaults Architecture](https://docs.mellow.finance/core-vaults/architecture): Technical deep-dive into verifier model, permission system, batch accounting, and oracle checks
- [stRATEGY Vault](https://docs.mellow.finance/strategy-vault/overview): First Core Vault product – allocates across liquid DeFi opportunities to amplify staking rewards
- [DVstETH Vault](https://docs.mellow.finance/dvsteth-vault/overview): Wrapped liquid staking token powered by Lido wstETH for reuse across DeFi
- [Restaking Vaults](https://docs.mellow.finance/restaking-vaults/multivault): MultiVault, Interoperable Vaults, and Simple LRT for restaking and crosschain flows
- [Mellow ALM](https://docs.mellow.finance/mellow-alm/overview): Active liquidity management toolkit for concentrated liquidity on AMMs

## API

- [REST API Documentation](https://docs.mellow.finance/resources/api): Endpoints for vault data, DeFi integrations, and user positions
- [GET /v1/vaults](https://points.mellow.finance/v1/vaults): All vaults with TVL, APR, deposit/withdraw tokens, chain IDs, contract addresses, and deposit limits
- [GET /v1/defi/protocols](https://points.mellow.finance/v1/defi/protocols): DeFi protocol integrations and points distribution across chains
- [GET /v1/users/{address}](https://points.mellow.finance/v1/users/): User positions across all vaults (requires Ethereum address)
- [GET /v1/defi/users/{address}](https://points.mellow.finance/v1/defi/users/): User positions across integrated DeFi protocols

## Security

- [Audits](https://docs.mellow.finance/security): Audit reports from StateMind, ChainSecurity, Sherlock, MixBytes, Nethermind, and Decurity across Core Vaults, MultiVault, Interoperable Vault, Simple LRT, and DVV

## Deployments

- [Core Vault Deployments](https://docs.mellow.finance/core-vaults/core-deployments): Contract addresses for Core Vault deployments
- [stRATEGY Vault Deployment](https://docs.mellow.finance/strategy-vault/streth-deployment): strETH deployment addresses
- [DVV Deployment](https://docs.mellow.finance/dvsteth-vault/dvv-deployment): DVstETH deployment addresses

## Partners

Key partners include Lido, Consensys/MetaMask, and P2P. Mellow smart contracts have been audited by six independent firms.

## Developer Resources

- [GitHub](https://github.com/mellow-finance): Open-source repositories including simple-lrt, mellow-alm-toolkit, flexible-vaults, and core vault contracts
- [Mellow Backtesting SDK](https://docs.mellow.finance/mellow-alm/mellow-backtesting-sdk): SDK for backtesting ALM strategies
- [DeFi Points Integration](https://docs.mellow.finance/points/defi-points-integration-instructions): Instructions for protocols integrating with Mellow points

## Community

- [Twitter](https://twitter.com/mellowprotocol): Protocol updates and announcements
- [Discord](https://discord.gg/mellow): Community and support
- [Media Kit](https://docs.mellow.finance/resources/media-kit): Brand assets and logos

## Optional

- [User Tutorials](https://docs.mellow.finance/user-tutorials): Step-by-step guides for depositing and withdrawing
- [Points Overview](https://docs.mellow.finance/points/overview): Points system mechanics and distribution
- [Mellow Vaults Overview](https://docs.mellow.finance/mellow-vaults-overview): High-level overview of all vault types and how they relate