Upshift vs Mellow vs Lagoon: vault platforms compared

All three let a team launch a vault and hand the strategy to a professional curator. They differ most in where the assets sit, what stops the manager from going outside the mandate, and how a depositor gets out.

Upshift, Mellow and Lagoon are vault infrastructure providers: each supplies the contracts, roles and tooling a fintech, exchange, asset manager or chain needs to run a yield product with a curator making the allocation decisions. They get shortlisted together because the product looks similar from the outside, a deposit token that earns a strategy's return. Underneath, they make different choices about custody, manager controls and exits, and those choices decide which one fits a given product.

Upshift is one of the three. Every figure below is sourced inline and was checked on 25 September 2026. For the same comparison against Veda, Midas and Morpho, see how Upshift, Veda, Midas and Morpho compare for stablecoin yield.

What each platform is built for

Mellow and Upshift both sell to fintechs, exchanges and asset issuers building Earn and treasury products under their own brand, and both deploy alongside the partner. Lagoon separates the contract from the launch: a curator can deploy a vault through its interface permissionlessly, while a listing on Lagoon's own app is approved at Lagoon's discretion and setup help comes as a paid service, Lagoon Solutions. Its visible book spans 23 distinct curators. The open model and the configured model suit different buyers, since a regulated distributor usually wants a named counterparty behind the deployment while an independent manager wants to ship without one.

How much each platform holds

Each figure comes from the provider's own public API, read on 25 September 2026, because aggregator listings for all three cover only part of their books. Vault counts exclude test and dust vaults by counting only those holding more than $100,000.

Concentration differs as much as size. Mellow's largest vault, Lido Earn ETH, holds $222.8M, about two thirds of its total, and a further ~$30M may be counted twice because one Lido Earn USD vault allocates into another. Lagoon's largest vault holds $26.1M, and its largest curator, Tulipa Capital, runs about $41M across several vaults. Upshift's book spreads across DeFi yield, CeFi lending, RWA and credit, and card-program vaults.

Where do depositor assets sit, and what limits the curator?

This is where the three differ most, and it is the first question a risk team asks. Each platform gives the curator authority to allocate, and each places the boundary on that authority in a different layer.

Upshift and Mellow enforce the mandate in contracts the platform deploys, so a call outside the approved set fails before it executes. Lagoon moves assets to the curator at settlement and leaves the controls to whatever custody the curator chose, which in Lagoon's own words means the strategies a curator can run "are exclusively limited by the curation solution he used". That model gives an experienced manager the most room and puts the burden of checking the custody configuration on the allocator.

Admin control sits with multisigs on all three. An Upshift vault owner is a multisig shared by Upshift, the curator and the partner, with the curator holding a trader role and no admin access. Mellow's Lido Earn deployment splits roles across separate Safes, such as a 5-of-8 proxy admin. On Lagoon, contract upgrades are opt-in and must wait out a delay of 24 hours to 30 days set by the vault admin.

Can a vault restrict who deposits?

All three support permissioned vaults, which matters for any product that must limit holders to onboarded clients.

The trade-off is composability. A share token that can only move between approved wallets can't be posted as collateral or traded on open markets, so a permissioned vault gives up distribution for control. Our piece on segregated vs co-mingled vault accounts covers when a regulated allocator needs that trade.

How does a depositor get out?

Queued exits exist because a curator's positions take time to unwind, and a vault that promised instant liquidity on every dollar would have to hold much of its capital idle. The practical difference is who controls the timing. On Lagoon the curator triggers settlement, while Upshift processes every claimable redemption daily and Mellow ties processing to its oracle reports. Always make sure to do your own research and be aware of the above and any other risks before depositing.

Which strategies and venues can each reach?

All three reach the major DeFi lending and trading protocols. The difference is centralised venues, which a basis trade, an OTC position or an institutional loan needs.

• Upshift combines DeFi and CeFi strategies in one vault through its prime stack, which draws on August Digital's institutional lender network, trading and pricing engines, and credit lines with DeFi/CeFi cross-margin.
• Mellow runs live CeFi integrations through Copper ClearLoop and Ceffu, covering off-exchange settlement on venues including Binance, Bybit, Deribit, OKX and Kraken.
• Lagoon reaches centralised venues through the curator's custody, since a Safe-based curator can bridge funds to exchanges, and it documents no native off-exchange settlement integration.

Audits and fees

How to choose between them

The choice usually follows from three questions about the product being launched. The first is who needs to control custody: an allocator that must see the mandate enforced in platform contracts will look at Upshift or Mellow, while a manager that wants to run its own Safe or MPC setup has the most freedom on Lagoon. The second is whether the strategy needs centralised venues, which Upshift and Mellow reach natively and Lagoon reaches through the curator. The third is the exit the end customer expects, since a card program or an exchange Earn tab needs instant or atomic redemption while a fund-style product can run on a batch cycle.

Chain coverage is the other practical filter. Upshift runs vaults on more than 30 chains, including Solana and Stellar outside the EVM, while Mellow's API shows vaults on 10 chains and Lagoon's shows 5, with 13 listed in its docs.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Mellow and Lagoon?

Mellow keeps assets in its own vault and subvault contracts and checks every curator action against onchain permissions. Lagoon sends assets to the curator's own Safe, MPC or single-key wallet at settlement, and the curator's custody setup sets the limits. Mellow deploys alongside partners, while Lagoon lets any curator deploy permissionlessly.

Is Lagoon permissionless?

Deploying the contract is. Lagoon's documentation says curators can deploy and manage vaults permissionlessly, and its homepage says no approval or upfront fee is needed. A listing on Lagoon's own app requires an application that Lagoon approves at its discretion, and Lagoon sells paid support for custody, permissions and valuation setup.

Which vault platforms can allocate to centralised exchanges?

Upshift and Mellow both reach centralised venues natively, Upshift through its prime stack and Mellow through Copper ClearLoop and Ceffu off-exchange settlement. Lagoon reaches exchanges only through the curator's custody setup.

Can vaults on these platforms restrict depositors to KYC'd clients?

Yes. All three support depositor whitelists. Mellow offers an optional transfer whitelist on the share token, Lagoon checks transfers in its blacklist mode, and Upshift enforces its whitelist in the vault contract on deposits and every redemption route.

How much TVL do Upshift, Mellow and Lagoon hold?

On 25 September 2026, read from each provider's own API: Upshift $411.0M, Mellow $339.7M and Lagoon $114.9M in its visible vaults. Counting vaults above $100k, Upshift runs 36, Mellow 25 and Lagoon 52; above $1M the counts are 30, 16 and 17. Two thirds of Mellow's total sits in a single vault, Lido Earn ETH.

How fast can a depositor withdraw?

It depends on the vault. Upshift processes claimable redemptions daily and offers instant redemption from a liquidity buffer for a fee. Mellow's Lido Earn quotes about three days for withdrawals, and Lagoon's cadence is set by each curator, with optional instant exits at a haircut of up to 20%.

Keep reading

• Upshift, Veda, Midas and Morpho compared: chains, vault counts, strategies and curators across four platforms.
• Segregated vs co-mingled vault accounts: when an allocator needs its own vault.
• How onchain yield vaults are secured: the controls behind a curated vault.
• Who does what in an onchain vault: the roles of owner, operator, curator and depositor.