Is Aevo Safe?
Risk Grade: C (49/100)
Aevo is rated as elevated risk — multiple novel mechanisms and notable interaction risks.
Elevated risk — recent oracle exploit plus centralized order matching and sequencer create serious trust concerns for a derivatives platform
An options and perpetual futures trading platform that runs on its own custom blockchain. It holds $22M in deposits and raised $17M in funding. Its C- grade reflects a $2.7M exploit in December 2025 caused by a price feed precision error, plus centralization risks from its privately run blockchain and matching engine.
TVL
$20M
Mechanisms
7
Interactions
5
Value Grade
D+
Key Risks for Aevo Users
A $2.7M hack in December 2025 happened because a price feed upgrade mixed up decimal places, letting an attacker set fake prices and drain money from options vaults.
The trading engine matches orders on a private server before settling on-chain. The operator can see your orders before everyone else, creating potential for front-running.
If the custom blockchain goes down during a big options expiry, you cannot close your positions and your options could expire at the wrong price.
Top Risk Factors
- •December 2025 oracle exploit drained $2.7M from legacy Ribbon DOV vaults via precision mismatch and access control flaw in the proxy-upgradeable oracle stack.
- •Custom proxy-upgradeable oracle infrastructure creates ongoing precision and access control attack vectors when new assets are added or decimal configurations change.
- •Centralized matching engine on custom L2 rollup creates information asymmetry where the operator can observe orders before on-chain settlement.
How Aevo Compares to Peers
Aevo ranks #49 of 53 Derivatives protocols (bottom quartile — among the riskiest). At a risk score of 49/100, it's 10 points riskier than the sector average of 39/100.
Adjacent peers: Hyperliquid HLP (C, 47/100) is ranked just safer, and Hyperliquid (C-, 52/100) is ranked just riskier.
See the full Derivatives sector leaderboard or the Aevo vs Antarctic comparison.
Common Questions about Aevo
Plain-English answers based on Aevo's scores across Hindenrank's 8 risk dimensions. The highest-scoring (riskiest) dimension is Interaction Severity (14/20).
Has Aevo ever been hacked or exploited?
Aevo has had some operational issues or moderate incidents in its history. The track record dimension scored 10/15 — not catastrophic, but enough to flag. Look at the specific events and whether they were addressed by the team before drawing conclusions.
How much money is at stake in Aevo?
Aevo currently holds roughly $20M in user deposits. Smaller TVL means individual depositors carry a larger share of any loss event, and it can be harder to exit a position quickly during stress.
What's the worst-case scenario for Aevo?
Hindenrank has identified specific collapse scenarios for Aevo. The most prominent: "Oracle Precision Exploit Cascade". The trigger condition is A proxy oracle upgrade introduces another precision mismatch on a newly listed asset with $5M+ in active options positions. Reading through the full scenario list on the protocol page is the single best way to understand the actual failure modes — generic "smart contract risk" is rarely the thing that takes a protocol down.
Is Aevo regulated or insured?
Aevo has some regulatory exposure (5/10), typical of mid-sized DeFi protocols. There is no specific enforcement action on record, but the structure includes elements that regulators have flagged in similar protocols. No DeFi protocol carries FDIC-style insurance — even with low regulatory risk, depositors are not protected in the way bank customers are.
What are the biggest red flags for Aevo?
Hindenrank's retail-focused risk audit flagged: A $2.7M hack in December 2025 happened because a price feed upgrade mixed up decimal places, letting an attacker set fake prices and drain money from options vaults. The trading engine matches orders on a private server before settling on-chain. The operator can see your orders before everyone else, creating potential for front-running. If the custom blockchain goes down during a big options expiry, you cannot close your positions and your options could expire at the wrong price. On the technical side, 1 critical-severity interaction risk has been identified.
Should beginners deposit into Aevo?
Aevo's C grade puts it in the elevated-risk band. This is not a beginner-friendly protocol. Anyone depositing here should treat the position as speculative and avoid concentrating significant savings in it.
How does Aevo compare to safer Derivatives alternatives?
Aevo is one protocol in Hindenrank's Derivatives coverage. The safest Derivatives protocols on the leaderboard tend to share three traits: a long incident-free track record, conservative mechanism design, and high-quality public documentation. Compare Aevo against the full Derivatives ranking before committing capital.
For the full 8-dimension score breakdown, the radar chart, and dependency graph, see the Aevo risk report.
Read the Full Aevo Risk Report
This protocol has 2 collapse scenarios. 1 critical and 1 high-severity interaction risks identified. See the full mechanism classification, interaction matrix, and deep-dive recommendations.
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