PANews published a market analysis column by Rightsideonly outlining five early DeFi projects the author is watching closely: Mezzanine, INFINIT, IRIS, RISEx and Boros. The article says the projects are still highly uncertain and readers should make their own risk assessments.
Mezzanine plans structured vaults with multiple tranches
According to the article, Mezzanine is building structured vaults around a single asset or a single yield strategy, then splitting each vault into different tranches. Junior capital takes losses first and receives a larger share of upside. Senior capital sits behind the buffer and earns less. A mezzanine tranche can also be added, usually with a longer withdrawal period.
Each vault also includes a non-yield-bearing base token in a super-senior position that absorbs losses last. Deposits are first converted into that base token and then routed into a selected tranche through the app.
Mezzanine has not launched yet, but the first vault has already been described in its documentation, and the strategy components are already running elsewhere, the article says. The initial vault is expected to support USDC or wYLDS deposits on Ethereum. The strategy would rotate funds into Hastra PRIME and AUTO, then loop through Morpho and Kamino. Aave, Exponent and Pendle are listed as possible venues as well.
The reserve fund is set at $50,000 and funded by the asset manager, with one month of vault yield placed in a custody account. On security, the project says it has completed audits by Sherlock and ChainSecurity and formal verification by Certora. Its website lists Pendle, Kamino, Upshift and RedStone as partners.
The split between senior and junior tranches has not been disclosed. The documentation says the vault page will show the base reward and risk-premium allocation once it goes live.
INFINIT reports live vault performance on Hyperliquid
INFINIT runs managed trading vaults on Hyperliquid. External strategy managers operate the vaults and must commit their own capital as first-loss protection, according to the article.
The first vault is APEX MultiStrategy from APEX Quants, which began trading on July 30. Based on $506,100 in USDC deposits, the vault gained 7.18% over 82 days. As of Oct. 20, the app showed an annualized APR of 31.94%.
The strategy trades both long and short on Hyperliquid across crypto assets, equities, commodities and indexes. It uses market-state recognition to decide when to trade and stays in cash when no instrument clears its scoring threshold.
Backtest figures cited in the article show a 163% annualized return over an 84-day window and a maximum drawdown of 10.5%, though the piece explicitly says backtests should not be treated as equivalent to live performance. It also notes that the 31.94% live APR is below the manager's own conservative estimate of 40% to 90%, but above most DeFi farming yields.
The IN token is described as distributing part of execution fees to stakers, unlocking app functions and carrying governance rights. Vault 1 is scheduled to open for redemption on Oct. 28, while the deposit window for Vault 2 is planned for Oct. 28 to Nov. 11.
IRIS adds fixed-rate, fixed-term loans on top of existing lending markets
IRIS is designed to add fixed-rate, fixed-term lending on top of existing lending venues rather than building a new rate market from scratch. The article says it is built on Morpho Blue and Aave V3, which means it does not need to bootstrap liquidity from zero.
Its mechanism works through offchain quotes signed by market makers, referred to as solvers. Once a borrower accepts a quote, the borrowing rate is locked until maturity, while the underlying venue still charges a floating rate. The solver posts margin to cover the gap between the fixed rate and the floating rate, then earns the spread plus collateral yield, minus protocol fees.
Each loan is placed into a one-time isolated pod, where collateral and debt are ring-fenced from other loans. Positions can also be refinanced across whitelisted venues.
The article says IRIS has not disclosed TVL, loan volume or a token and remains in an early stage.
RISEx keeps the order book, matching and settlement onchain
RISEx is an order-book perpetual futures DEX deployed on RISE EVM. The article says RISE runs on an Optimistic Rollup L2. RISEx does not use an offchain matching engine. Order placement, matching and settlement all happen as onchain state, allowing other contracts to read that state and trade against it within the same transaction.
RISEx is currently tracking 43 perpetual markets, with open interest of about $39 million. Major assets support leverage of up to 25x, with USDC used as collateral.
The article also says RISE has raised $8 million, including $4 million from Galaxy Ventures in June 2025. Seed investors include Vitalik Buterin and Stani Kulechov.
RISEx does not have a token yet. The piece cites the project's own description that the RISE chain and RISEx are "one team, one vision, one token." Mainnet access is still restricted through invitations or a waitlist.
Boros is building rate markets, starting with perpetual funding rates
Boros is trying to build markets for different kinds of rates, with its current focus on perpetual funding rates. The article says users can go long or short Yield Units with leverage to convert floating funding rates into fixed implied APR.
On Oct. 15, Boros launched spread markets for ETH and BTC based on the difference between Hyperliquid funding rates and Gate funding rates. A single position tracks the spread between the two venues. At launch, quoted short-side pricing was around 25% to 35% fixed APR.
The article says a trader can short the spread and hedge with perpetuals on both venues to build a delta-neutral position and earn a fixed implied APR of roughly 25% to 35%. Going long the spread means collecting the realized spread at each settlement, as long as the realized spread stays above the fixed rate paid.
It adds that arbitrageurs repeatedly shorting the spread would push fixed rates lower, while long-side buyers would be able to enter more cheaply, with both sides affecting volume over time.
Users can also execute fixed-rate trades through the CrossEx terminal, described in the article as a free, open-source application that runs locally. It scans Boros markets, compares them with Gate CrossEx perpetuals and calculates net annualized returns after fees and slippage. After selecting a market, users can lock the fixed-rate side on Boros first and then hedge the perpetual side on Gate in the required order. The interface shows the locked fixed APR, margin, whether the position remains delta-neutral and the estimated return at maturity.
The article also cites a post by user @gabavineb, who said a 9.19 ETH long-spread position held for 25 days earned 1.96 ETH, or about 21%, and included the trading steps. The article says that example should not be treated as representative performance.
For readers who want to understand the mechanics before allocating capital, the article points to Boros Academy materials covering rate speculation, hedging funding costs and delta-neutral arbitrage, then suggests trying the product with a small position.
Article ends with a risk reminder
The piece closes by saying it is only an observation and information roundup. Because many of the projects are still early, uncertainty remains high and readers should make independent judgments and pay attention to risk.