Symbiotic

Symbiotic receives a C+ risk grade (38/100) from Hindenrank, where lower scores indicate lower risk. Moderate risk — Paradigm backing and $1B TVL signal confidence, but permissionless vault creation with custom slashing rules is a novel attack surface with no precedent A restaking protocol backed by Paradigm (9M raised) that lets you restake any token (not just ETH) to secure external services. TVL has declined from a $2.7B peak (Dec 2024) to $336M currently. Its C+ grade reflects a permissionless design where anyone can create vaults with custom slashing rules, and a growing product suite (relay infrastructure, RWA settlement) adds complexity for depositors to assess.

The key risks identified for Symbiotic are: (1) Anyone can create a vault that accepts any token with custom rules for when your deposit gets slashed. A bad actor could design a vault that looks attractive but is engineered to slash your deposit and pocket the proceeds (2) If a validator securing multiple services gets penalized on one, their shared collateral drops below the minimum for the others. This triggers a cascade of penalties across all services they run (3) The protocol has not launched its governance token yet. Right now, the founding team makes all the decisions. The token economics and governance rules are still undefined

Symbiotic scores 38/100 across eight risk dimensions: Mechanism Novelty: 9/15, Interaction Severity: 11/20, Oracle Surface: 0/10, Documentation Gaps: 3/10, Track Record: 5/15, Scale Exposure: 5/10, Regulatory Risk: 2/10, Vitality Risk: 3/10. The highest risk area is Mechanism Novelty at 9/15.

Among 27 rated Restaking protocols on Hindenrank, Symbiotic ranks #12 by safety (lowest risk score = safest). Its 38/100 risk score and C+ grade place it in the middle tier of Restaking protocols.

Symbiotic scores 5/15 on the Track Record risk dimension, indicating some history of security incidents or exploits. Higher scores reflect more severe or frequent incidents. Review the full risk report for details.