Mantle is pushing its real-world asset strategy deeper into decentralized finance with the expansion of Mantle Vault, bringing a previously centralized yield product into an on-chain, non-custodial environment.
The new DeFi version of Mantle Vault combines infrastructure from Grove, CIAN, and Fluxion, giving stablecoin holders direct access to yield strategies tied to institutional-grade assets. The expansion follows the vault’s success on Bybit, where Mantle says the product surpassed $200 million in assets under management before moving into broader DeFi distribution.
The move highlights a wider shift in the real-world asset, or RWA, sector. Instead of simply tokenizing traditional financial instruments, networks are increasingly trying to make those assets usable inside DeFi protocols, where they can interact with liquidity markets, decentralized exchanges, and yield products.
Mantle Vault Moves From CeFi to DeFi
Mantle Vault was initially designed around centralized distribution through Bybit. Its latest expansion changes that model by giving users on Mantle direct access to the strategy without relying on a centralized exchange as the primary gateway.
Users can deposit USDC or USDT0 into the vault and receive variable yield generated by the underlying strategy. The structure includes exposure to sUSDS, the yield-bearing version of Sky Protocol’s USDS, while avoiding leverage. CIAN developed the vault strategy in coordination with Grove, while Fluxion provides the DeFi access and liquidity layer.
That non-leveraged structure could be particularly important for users seeking stablecoin yield without taking on the liquidation risks commonly associated with leveraged DeFi strategies.
However, the absence of leverage does not eliminate risk. Participants still face potential smart contract vulnerabilities, fluctuations in underlying yields, stablecoin risks, protocol dependencies, and liquidity constraints.
Grove, CIAN, and Fluxion Power Different Parts of the Vault
The three partners play distinct roles in bringing Mantle Vault on-chain.
Grove provides the capital and yield foundation through Grove Savings, which connects the product to the Sky Savings Rate. The rate is determined through Sky governance and can change as market conditions and governance decisions evolve.
CIAN handles portfolio construction and yield infrastructure. The company also built the earlier Mantle Vault implementation for Bybit, allowing Mantle to extend an existing strategy into a non-custodial DeFi format rather than creating an entirely new product from scratch.
Fluxion, meanwhile, acts as the liquidity and distribution layer. The Mantle-native platform focuses heavily on RWA markets and allows stablecoin holders to access the vault directly within the Mantle ecosystem.
The structure demonstrates how RWA products are increasingly becoming multi-protocol systems. Asset sourcing, yield generation, portfolio management, liquidity, and user distribution can each be handled by separate infrastructure providers.
GROVE Incentives Target Up to 6.5% APY
Mantle is also supporting the DeFi expansion with a dedicated incentive program involving 5.14 million GROVE tokens.
Combined with the underlying strategy, the program is targeting returns of up to 6.5% APY, although Mantle stresses that rates, program terms, and incentives can change depending on market conditions and are not guaranteed.
Token incentives could help Mantle attract early liquidity, but the more important metric will be what happens once those incentives decline.
DeFi protocols have repeatedly demonstrated that high introductory yields can generate rapid deposits without necessarily creating sustainable liquidity. For Mantle Vault, long-term adoption will depend on whether users continue holding capital in the strategy because of its underlying yield rather than primarily because of token rewards.
Mantle’s RWA Ecosystem Continues to Grow
The vault launch comes as Mantle increases its exposure to tokenized real-world assets.
According to figures released with the announcement, RWA TVL on Mantle increased from $22 million to $257 million over the past year, while the network’s broader DeFi TVL climbed above $755 million.
That growth gives Mantle a stronger foundation for positioning itself as an infrastructure layer connecting traditional capital markets with decentralized finance.
RWAs have become one of DeFi’s most important growth narratives as developers search for sustainable sources of yield beyond crypto-native lending, liquidity mining, and token emissions. Treasury-linked products, private credit, tokenized equities, commodities, and other financial instruments are increasingly being brought on-chain.
The next phase of competition may be less about issuing those assets and more about making them liquid and composable.
Why Composability Matters for Real-World Assets
Many early RWA products recreated traditional financial structures on blockchain rails but remained relatively isolated from the wider DeFi ecosystem.
That approach can simplify compliance and risk management, but it limits what holders can do with their assets.
A genuinely composable RWA product can potentially become collateral, move between protocols, participate in liquidity markets, or serve as the foundation for other yield strategies.
Mantle Vault’s move into DeFi therefore represents more than another stablecoin savings product. It tests whether institutional-style yield can function inside open financial infrastructure while maintaining acceptable levels of transparency, liquidity, and risk management.
If successful, that model could make tokenized financial assets considerably more useful.
It also creates new dependencies.
The performance of the vault no longer rests on a single provider. Users are exposed to a stack involving Mantle, CIAN, Grove, Sky-related infrastructure, Fluxion, stablecoins, and the smart contracts connecting those systems.
Composability increases flexibility, but it can also increase the number of potential failure points.
Institutional Yield Meets Permissionless Access
The broader significance of Mantle Vault is the attempt to combine two markets that have historically operated differently.
Institutional capital typically prioritizes predictable execution, controlled risk, compliance, and deep liquidity. DeFi prioritizes open access, programmability, transparency, and interoperability.
RWA platforms increasingly want both.
By moving Mantle Vault beyond its Bybit-centered model, Mantle is effectively testing whether an institutional-style strategy can be distributed through permissionless infrastructure without losing the characteristics that made it attractive to larger investors in the first place.
The answer will depend heavily on how the product performs during less favorable market conditions.
Periods of falling interest rates, large withdrawals, stablecoin volatility, or smart contract stress will provide a much better measure of the vault’s durability than its initial deposit numbers.
What to Watch Next for Mantle Vault
The most important metric will be new capital inflows.
If Mantle Vault attracts stablecoin holders who previously kept their funds outside the Mantle ecosystem, the expansion could represent genuine growth in the network’s addressable market.
If deposits mainly come from existing Mantle users moving liquidity between protocols, the impact will be more limited.
Investors should also watch the relationship between organic yield and GROVE incentives. A vault that maintains liquidity after promotional rewards decline would provide stronger evidence that users value the underlying strategy.
Redemption performance will matter as well. RWA-based DeFi products must prove that users can exit efficiently when market conditions deteriorate, not only when liquidity is abundant.
For Mantle, Grove, CIAN, and Fluxion, the launch is therefore an important infrastructure test.
Mantle Vault has already demonstrated that there is demand for the product through centralized distribution. Its expansion into DeFi will determine whether the same institutional-grade yield concept can work at scale in a more open, composable, and user-controlled financial environment.
