Gauntlet, one of the leading providers of decentralized finance (DeFi) risk management tools, has seen its total value locked (TVL), a measure of assets deposited in its vaults, decline sharply over the past seven days, falling 22.84% to $1.325 billion.
The dollar-value has lost about $380 million, according to DeFiLlama data, from a peak of about $1.72 billion a week ago. The decline intensified on Thursday with a single-day decline of 7.57%.
According to Gauntlet, the primary driver was the conclusion of OKEx’s pre-deposit campaign on Katana, a DeFi-focused blockchain. Pre-deposit campaigns – where users are encouraged to park capital before protocol launch – can produce sharp TVL spikes that quickly unravel when the campaign ends or the token is airdropped. The chart shows this: Gauntlet’s TVL rose sharply around March 2 and then reversed just as sharply.
Gauntlett said asset outflows are primarily stablecoin-based.
The scale of this move is remarkable considering what the Gauntlet actually does. Think of it as a risk management consultancy for DeFi – the firm helps the protocol understand, for example, what percentage of a borrower’s collateral would be at risk of liquidation if ETH dropped 30% overnight. It does not own money; Instead, it sets parameters that govern how lending markets and vaults behave.
Its TVL is a measure of the capital held within the system that Gauntlet is responsible for protecting. When that number falls sharply, it could reflect either market stress or, as in this case, the mechanical end of the stimulus program.
Gauntlet, which received a valuation of $1 billion in 2022, currently manages three vaults – essentially pooled deposit accounts where users lock capital in exchange for yield. The vault holds USDC, BTC and WETH respectively. The USDC vault is the most liquid, offering an APY of 4.86%, while others offer between 2% and 2.3%. Outflows may also reflect DeFi traders diverting capital to higher-yielding alternatives – for example, SOL-based protocols like Zito, currently offering 5.69%.
Gauntlet has faced major capital fluctuations in the past. In October 2025, its USDT vault absorbed $775 million single-transaction deposits – a 40x TVL increase – and returned to pre-deposit levels within ten days through active reallocation and new collateral market additions. The firm framed this week’s outflow in similar terms, noting that incentive campaign expirations, token generation events, and changes in market conditions regularly create short-term fluctuations in either direction.
“Institutional risk managers manage through these events,” the company said in a statement to CoinDesk. “Working to maintain rates, preserve capital supplied in treasury, and keep pace with market conditions.”
Oliver Knight contributed reporting to this story.
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