Is Save Safe?

|Lending
B-

Risk Grade: B- (32/100)

Save is rated as moderate risk — some novel mechanisms, generally well-understood.

Moderate risk — survived a major whale crisis and improved, but rapid product expansion into stablecoins and staking adds untested risk on top of a legacy codebase

A Solana lending protocol (formerly Solend) where you deposit crypto to earn interest or borrow against it. It holds $300M in deposits. Its B- grade reflects a near-catastrophe in 2022 when a single whale held 95% of pool deposits and a controversial governance vote tried to seize their funds.

TVL

$76M

Mechanisms

8

Interactions

5

Value Grade

C-

Key Risks for Save Users

1.

One whale once held 95% of the pool. Despite a $50M borrow cap introduced afterward, large accounts can still dominate pools and create liquidation bottlenecks

2.

Newly launched sUSD stablecoin and saveSOL staking token expand the attack surface without the years of battle-testing the core lending product has

3.

Losing market share to Kamino and Jupiter Lend while maintaining legacy code increases the chance of bugs going unfixed

Top Risk Factors

  • Historical whale concentration risk — a single account once held 95% of pool deposits, and concentration monitoring remains the protocol's critical vulnerability
  • Newly launched sUSD stablecoin and saveSOL LST expand attack surface without extensive battle-testing
  • Losing market share to Kamino and Jupiter Lend while maintaining legacy codebase from Solend era increases technical debt risk

Risk Score Breakdown

Save's highest risk area is Vitality Risk (7/10). Here's how each dimension contributes to the overall 32/100 score:

Mechanism Novelty0/15
Interaction Severity7/20
Oracle Surface3/10
Documentation Gaps3/10
Track Record4/15
Scale Exposure3/10
Regulatory Risk5/10
Vitality Risk7/10

Read the Full Save Risk Report

This protocol has 2 collapse scenarios. 3 high-severity interaction risks identified. See the full mechanism classification, interaction matrix, and deep-dive recommendations.

View Full Report →

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Ratings use Hindenrank's eight-dimension risk rubric. Lower score = lower risk. Grades range from A (safest) to F (riskiest). This is not financial advice.