Is Save Safe?
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
$81M
Mechanisms
8
Interactions
5
Value Grade
C-
Key Risks for Save Users
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
Newly launched sUSD stablecoin and saveSOL staking token expand the attack surface without the years of battle-testing the core lending product has
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
How Save Compares to Peers
Save ranks #28 of 90 Lending protocols (above-median). At a risk score of 32/100, it's 5 points safer than the sector average of 37/100.
Adjacent peers: YeiLend (B-, 31/100) is ranked just safer, and Morpho (B-, 32/100) is ranked just riskier.
See the full Lending sector leaderboard or the Save vs Morpho comparison.
Common Questions about Save
Plain-English answers based on Save's scores across Hindenrank's 8 risk dimensions. The highest-scoring (riskiest) dimension is Vitality Risk (7/10).
Has Save ever been hacked or exploited?
Save has a fairly clean operational history. The track record dimension scored 4/15, 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 Save?
Save currently holds roughly $81M 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 Save?
Hindenrank has identified specific collapse scenarios for Save. The most prominent: "Whale Concentration Triggers Cascade Liquidation". The trigger condition is A single whale account representing >20% of lending pool deposits faces liquidation during a rapid SOL price decline, overwhelming liquidator capacity and leaving the protocol with bad debt. 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 Save regulated or insured?
Save 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 Save?
Hindenrank's retail-focused risk audit flagged: 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 Newly launched sUSD stablecoin and saveSOL staking token expand the attack surface without the years of battle-testing the core lending product has Losing market share to Kamino and Jupiter Lend while maintaining legacy code increases the chance of bugs going unfixed
Should beginners deposit into Save?
Save 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 Save compare to safer Lending alternatives?
Save 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 Save against the full Lending ranking before committing capital.
For the full 8-dimension score breakdown, the radar chart, and dependency graph, see the Save risk report.
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.
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