Everything you need to know about deposits, yields, security, and how the Grove Finance protocol operates day to day. Still have questions? Visit our documentation or head back to the dashboard.
Grove Finance is a credit protocol built on Ethereum that connects onchain stablecoin capital with institutional credit markets. The core problem it addresses is simple: billions of dollars in stablecoins sit idle or earn minimal returns because there is no transparent, trust-minimized bridge between DeFi liquidity and real-world credit demand.
The protocol routes deposited USDS and USDC into a set of curated vaults — each targeting a specific risk-return profile — backed by real credit activity such as repo markets against blue-chip collateral. Yield is generated by actual borrowing demand, not by inflationary token emissions. That distinction matters a great deal when evaluating long-term sustainability.
Currently the platform accepts USDS and USDC. USDS is the Sky-issued stablecoin that replaced DAI following the Sky rebrand; USDC is Circle's dollar-pegged token widely used across DeFi. Both are accepted by the Grove Savings product and the suite of Steakhouse vaults accessible through the dashboard.
Plans to support additional stablecoins depend on liquidity depth and the credit strategies available at any given time. Check the official docs for the most current list of accepted collateral.
Yield comes from two main sources. The Sky Savings Rate (SSR) is funded by Sky's own revenue streams — primarily fees collected from DAI and USDS issuance, lending markets, and treasury activities. That revenue is distributed back to USDS holders who participate in the savings module.
On top of SSR, the protocol's credit vaults deploy capital into short-duration repo transactions secured against high-quality collateral such as US Treasuries or major crypto assets. Repo markets are a well-established institutional instrument; the Grove Finance platform makes them accessible onchain without requiring a prime brokerage account. No governance token emissions are involved in either mechanism.
At launch, four vaults are live. The USDC Prime Instant Vault targets repo markets backed exclusively by blue-chip collateral — Bitcoin, Ether, and US Treasuries. Lower collateral diversity means tighter risk but typically a more conservative yield. The USDC High Yield Instant Vault broadens the collateral set to include a wider range of assets, accepting more counterparty diversity in exchange for higher potential returns.
The Agora USD Turbo Vault takes a leverage-based approach through a noncustodial structure using AUSD as the base asset. For users who prefer fixed-term exposure, the AUSD High Yield Term Vault locks capital until a set maturity date, offering a term premium over instant-access alternatives. Each vault is managed by Steakhouse Financial on behalf of the protocol.
It depends on the vault. The two Instant vaults — Prime Instant and High Yield Instant — allow withdrawals at any time subject to available liquidity. There is no fixed lock-up, though large redemptions during periods of market stress could face brief delays if the underlying repo positions need to unwind.
The Term Vault is different. Deposits are locked until the vault's stated maturity date. Early exit is not guaranteed and may not be possible without a secondary market. Read the vault parameters carefully before depositing if short-term liquidity is a requirement for you.
Smart contracts are audited before deployment. The vault architecture inherits from the ERC-4626 tokenized vault standard, which has extensive battle-testing across the DeFi space. Vault management logic is handled by Steakhouse Financial, a dedicated risk team with a track record in Morpho and Sky-adjacent protocols.
That said, no onchain system is risk-free. Credit risk exists if borrowers default; smart contract risk exists regardless of audits; liquidity risk applies if repo counterparties cannot return collateral on time. The dashboard displays real-time TVL and vault-level health metrics so depositors can monitor positions continuously. Diversifying across vaults is a straightforward way to avoid concentration in a single strategy.
The Sky Savings Rate (SSR) is an interest rate set by Sky governance and paid to users who hold USDS in the savings contract. It represents the base return available to all USDS holders, funded by Sky's protocol revenue rather than by minting new tokens. Rates have historically tracked close to short-term US Treasury yields — in the range of 4–6% during 2024–2025.
Grove Finance's savings product wraps SSR access into a simple deposit interface. Users who deposit USDS through Grove Finance Savings receive the SSR automatically, with no manual staking required. The protocol's credit vaults then offer an additional yield layer on top of the base rate, allowing depositors to choose their own risk appetite across the return spectrum.
No. Grove Finance is a noncustodial protocol. You connect an Ethereum wallet — MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, or any WalletConnect-compatible option — and interact directly with smart contracts. No email address, name, or government ID is required for basic deposit and withdrawal functions.
Geographic restrictions may apply depending on your jurisdiction. Certain regions are blocked at the interface level due to regulatory requirements. Check the Terms of Service for the current list of restricted territories. Even in restricted regions, the underlying contracts are permissionless; only the front-end interface applies geo-restrictions.
The relationship is structural. Sky is the issuer of USDS and the entity that defines the Sky Savings Rate. Grove Finance builds on top of Sky's infrastructure: it accepts USDS as a primary deposit asset, passes the SSR through to depositors, and deploys excess capital into credit strategies that complement Sky's own treasury diversification goals.
Think of it as a specialist layer — Sky provides the base monetary infrastructure, and Grove Finance adds credit routing, vault management, and institutional demand generation on top of that foundation. The two protocols are separate entities with separate governance, but their incentives are closely aligned around growing stablecoin adoption in credit markets.
Grove Data (data.grove.finance) is a read-only analytics dashboard that tracks protocol-wide metrics: total value locked, vault-level TVL, historical yield rates, collateral composition, and borrower activity. It does not require wallet connection.
The main app (app.grove.finance) is where you actually deposit funds, manage positions, and interact with vaults. Data is intended for researchers, risk analysts, and anyone who wants a transparent view into what the protocol is doing with deposited capital before committing funds. Both products sit alongside each other in the broader Grove Finance interface, reachable directly from the dashboard.
Yields are variable. Repo rates fluctuate with broader short-term interest rate conditions, credit demand from institutional borrowers, and the volume of capital competing for the same trades. When central bank policy rates rise, repo yields generally follow; when they fall, vault returns compress accordingly.
The Sky Savings Rate is set by governance vote and can change as frequently as governance decides — typically tracked to prevailing money market conditions. Term vault rates are effectively locked at deposit time for the duration of the term, which is one of the advantages of that structure if you expect rates to decline. Instant vault rates update continuously based on current market conditions.
Yes. The USDC Prime Instant Vault and USDC High Yield Instant Vault both accept USDC directly. You do not need to swap to USDS first. USDC depositors access repo-backed credit strategies without touching the Sky infrastructure at all.
For USDC holders who want the Sky Savings Rate, the path involves swapping USDC to USDS — this can be done via Sky's own interface or through DEX aggregators like Cowswap or 1inch at minimal cost. The Grove Finance app does not currently include a native swap widget, so that step happens externally before depositing into the Savings product. Learn more about the different vault strategies on the About page.
Fee structures vary by vault. Performance fees are charged as a percentage of generated yield — not on principal. The exact fee split between the vault manager (Steakhouse Financial) and the protocol is disclosed in each vault's parameters and visible in the Grove Data dashboard.
There are no deposit fees or withdrawal fees on the instant vaults under normal conditions. Gas costs for Ethereum transactions are paid by the user and depend on network congestion at the time of interaction. During periods of high network activity, gas costs can be meaningful relative to small deposit sizes; larger positions benefit more from the fee structure on a proportional basis.
Your individual positions are visible in the main app after connecting your wallet. The dashboard shows current balance, accrued yield, and vault allocation in real time. Transaction history is available on-chain via Etherscan for any wallet address.
For protocol-level data — total deposits, vault utilization, counterparty exposure, historical yields — Grove Data provides a comprehensive view without requiring wallet access. The protocol currently reports over $3.3B in total TVL and $5.4B in Grove Savings TVL, giving a sense of scale relative to other credit-focused DeFi protocols. Both figures update continuously as on-chain activity occurs. More background on the protocol's structure is available on the Grove Finance About page.
Looking for a deeper overview of how Grove Finance is built and who is behind it? Visit the About page for context on the protocol's architecture and approach.
Return to Dashboard