Is Clearpool Safe?
Risk Grade: B- (31/100)
Clearpool is rated as moderate risk — some novel mechanisms, generally well-understood.
High risk — lending without collateral to crypto firms means a single borrower bankruptcy can wipe out your entire deposit
A lending platform where you lend crypto to institutional borrowers like trading firms without requiring them to post collateral. It holds about $27M in deposits with $3M in funding. Its C- grade reflects the fundamental risk: if a borrower goes bankrupt, you lose everything with zero recovery from collateral.
TVL
$36M
Mechanisms
6
Interactions
5
Value Grade
C
Key Risks for Clearpool Users
Borrowers don't post collateral. If a trading firm goes bust like Three Arrows Capital did, you get nothing back. Recovery means suing in court, which can take years and return close to zero
The last major code update was July 2024. Long gaps between updates mean security patches could be missing and new vulnerabilities may go unnoticed
All institutional borrowers are crypto-native firms whose solvency depends on crypto prices. In a market crash, every borrower gets stressed at the same time
Top Risk Factors
- •Uncollateralized institutional lending means zero recovery on defaults; protocol relies entirely on borrower reputation and legal agreements
- •Low development activity (last major GitHub commit July 2024) suggests potential maintenance and security update gaps
- •Concentrated exposure to institutional crypto-native borrowers whose solvency is highly correlated with crypto market conditions
How Clearpool Compares to Peers
Clearpool ranks #23 of 90 Lending protocols (top quartile — safer than most). At a risk score of 31/100, it's 6 points safer than the sector average of 37/100.
Adjacent peers: Lista Lending (B-, 30/100) is ranked just safer, and Spark Protocol (B-, 31/100) is ranked just riskier.
See the full Lending sector leaderboard or the Clearpool vs Spark Protocol comparison.
Common Questions about Clearpool
Plain-English answers based on Clearpool's scores across Hindenrank's 8 risk dimensions. The highest-scoring (riskiest) dimension is Regulatory Risk (5/10).
Has Clearpool ever been hacked or exploited?
Clearpool has a fairly clean operational history. The track record dimension scored 3/15, indicating minor or no significant incidents on record. A clean track record is a positive signal but it does not guarantee future safety, especially as protocol complexity grows.
How much money is at stake in Clearpool?
Clearpool currently holds roughly $36M 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 Clearpool?
Hindenrank has identified specific collapse scenarios for Clearpool. The most prominent: "Institutional Borrower Default Contagion". The trigger condition is A major institutional borrower defaults on an uncollateralized Clearpool loan during a crypto market downturn, triggering confidence collapse across all borrower pools. 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 Clearpool regulated or insured?
Clearpool 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 Clearpool?
Hindenrank's retail-focused risk audit flagged: Borrowers don't post collateral. If a trading firm goes bust like Three Arrows Capital did, you get nothing back. Recovery means suing in court, which can take years and return close to zero The last major code update was July 2024. Long gaps between updates mean security patches could be missing and new vulnerabilities may go unnoticed All institutional borrowers are crypto-native firms whose solvency depends on crypto prices. In a market crash, every borrower gets stressed at the same time On the technical side, 1 critical-severity interaction risk has been identified.
Should beginners deposit into Clearpool?
Clearpool is rated B-, which is acceptable for users who understand the protocol's mechanism. Beginners should read the full risk breakdown and only deposit after they can articulate the top three failure modes. If you cannot explain how the protocol works, do not deposit.
How does Clearpool compare to safer Lending alternatives?
Clearpool is one protocol in Hindenrank's Lending coverage. The safest Lending protocols on the leaderboard tend to share three traits: a long incident-free track record, conservative mechanism design, and high-quality public documentation. Compare Clearpool against the full Lending ranking before committing capital.
For the full 8-dimension score breakdown, the radar chart, and dependency graph, see the Clearpool risk report.
Read the Full Clearpool Risk Report
This protocol has 2 collapse scenarios. 1 critical and 2 high-severity interaction risks identified. See the full mechanism classification, interaction matrix, and deep-dive recommendations.
View Full Report →Get risk alerts before it's too late
Weekly grade changes, downgrade alerts, and new protocol risk findings. Free.