Euler Labs
UK-based crypto lending protocol letting anyone build permissionless vaults for borrowing and lending.
On the record
Checkpoint: DAO vote on cutting protocol fees to zero, plus Stream Finance litigation outcome (Stream Trading Corp. v. McMeans)
The call
Euler survived one $200M hack and a second $137M-plus contagion event, lost its founders, and is now betting an unproven institutional pivot can outrun Aave and Morpho before the money runs out.
Euler lets people lend and borrow cryptocurrency, similar to how a bank works but run by code instead of humans. It is very easy to copy or replace because bigger competitors like Aave and Morpho Blue do the same thing better and have kept their users, while Euler lost almost all of its money twice due to hacks and problems with another company called Stream Finance. The one thing that could change everything is if Euler's new leadership team can prove they can survive without taking fees from users and can win back trust from big investors and institutions, but the lawsuits from Stream Finance and the departure of the original founders in early 2026 suggest this is an uphill battle.
Why
01
AI pressure: None apparent. AI is not the predator here. Crypto contagion, code exploits, and better-funded rivals are what's eating Euler. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.
02
Bigger players: Aave and Morpho Blue. Aave holds $15B+ TVL and Morpho runs the same modular vault design with less blowup history, leaving Euler squeezed on both sides. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.
03
What protects it. None strong. A new Securitize partnership for institutional RWA vaults is unproven and TVL has already collapsed 90% from peak.
What would change this call
Outcome of Stream Trading Corp. v. McMeans litigation and any new bad-debt disclosures. Would show whether Euler's curator/vault model has more hidden losses to surface.
DAO vote on cutting protocol fees to zero. Would show whether Euler has any revenue mechanism left or is surviving on cost-cutting alone.
Securitize permissioned-RWA vault TVL trend over next 2-3 quarters. Would show whether Euler's institutional pivot is gaining sticky deposits or failing to attract them.
DAO vote on cutting protocol fees to zero. Would show whether Euler has any revenue mechanism left or is surviving on cost-cutting alone.
Securitize permissioned-RWA vault TVL trend over next 2-3 quarters. Would show whether Euler's institutional pivot is gaining sticky deposits or failing to attract them.
Key numbers
- TVL fell from $4B+ to $277.7M
- EUL token down 92-94% from 2025 high
- Both co-founders departed early 2026
Named risks
- Ongoing Stream Finance creditor litigation may surface further bad debt disclosures.
- New CEO and CTO mid-transition Hard Reset with unproven execution on institutional pivot.
- DAO considering zero protocol fees, removing Euler Labs's own revenue mechanism.
- Permissionless vault model depends on curator judgment, admitted weak link after Stream Finance near-miss.
- EUL token dilution continues linearly through 2027 with ~12 percent supply still unlocking.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Aave | losing to | Aave TVL $15B+ vs Euler's $277.7M as of July 12, 2026, a roughly 50x gap |
| Morpho | losing to | Morpho Blue described as having captured Euler's targeted modular-lending mindshare and TVL, per May 6, 2026 comparison |
| Compound | contesting | Compound holds ~$2B+ TVL as secondary incumbent versus Euler's sub-$300M, July 2026 |
Questions people ask
- Has Euler Finance been hacked more than once?
- Yes. Euler suffered a $195 to $200 million exploit in 2023, then in November 2025 got caught in the Stream Finance contagion with an estimated $137 to $285 million in bad debt exposure, prompting creditor litigation filed December 8, 2025 in N.D. Cal.
- Is Euler Labs still run by its founders?
- No. Founding CEO Michael Bentley announced stepping back on January 13, 2026, and per Euler's own April 7, 2026 blog post, both co founders left Euler Labs in early 2026, replaced by a new CEO and CTO amid a stated 'Hard Reset.'
- How does Euler's TVL compare to Aave?
- As of July 12, 2026, Euler's v2 TVL was about $277.7 million versus Aave's $15 billion plus, a roughly 50 to 1 gap. Euler's TVL had peaked above $4 billion in 2025 before the November 2025 Stream Finance contagion.
- Is the EUL token a good investment right now?
- EUL traded around $0.95 to $1.05 in mid to late July 2026, down 92 to 94 percent from its July 2025 all time high near $15.6 to $15.8, per CoinGecko, with roughly 12 percent of supply still unlocking linearly through 2027.
- Could AI replace the risk curators that manage Euler's vaults?
- Euler's own April 7, 2026 retrospective blamed its 2025 Stream Finance near miss partly on a human risk advisor overriding another's endorsement, a judgment call that third party AI risk monitoring vendors like Chaos Labs increasingly market themselves to automate.
- Is Euler Labs profitable?
- Unclear and likely no by design: as of its April 7, 2026 retrospective, Euler Labs was recommending its DAO cut protocol fees to zero to remove a competitive cost disadvantage, dismantling its own fee based revenue mechanism rather than growing it.
Timeline
- 2026-07-17Euler deploys on HSK Chain via HashKey Group integration
- 2026-06-11Launches Securitize permissioned RWA vaults; absorbs HypurrFi HyperEVM market coverage
- 2026-05-01Integrates Unlink privacy layer for institutional lending
- 2026-04-07Q1 retrospective; Euler Labs recommends DAO cut protocol fees to zero
- 2026-01-13Founding CEO Michael Bentley steps down; both co-founders exit early 2026
- 2025-12-08Stream Trading Corp v. McMeans creditor lawsuit filed in N.D. Cal.
- 2025-11-01Stream Finance contagion exposes Euler to $137M to $285M bad debt
- 2025-10-01EUL becomes Binance's 51st HODLer Airdrop project
- 2025-08-26EulerSwap AMM launches atop Euler vaults using Uniswap v4 hooks
- 2024-09-01Euler V2 mainnet launches after 18-month rebuild, 45+ audits
Revision history
21 July 2026
First assessed. Little protection left. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- EULER LABS LTD (12863550) - Company Information
- Introducing Euler (2020-12-16)
- What Is Euler Finance? DeFi Lending Protocol on Ethereum (2025-11-02)
- Fundraising Rounds, Investors & Unlock Schedules (2026-07-14)
- Euler's Founding CEO Steps Down as Protocol Refocuses on Institutions (2026-01-13)
- Euler Q1 and a Retrospective: The Protocol Works. Here's What Did Not. (2026-04-07)
- How Euler overcame 'fragilities' and came back from a $200m hack (2026-04-02)
- 4.7% 24h Rally on Elevated Volume Momentum (2026-07-12)
- EulerSwap: AMM Liquidity Inside Euler Vaults (2025-08-26)
- Euler blog (2026-06-11)
- HSK Chain Integrates Euler Finance to Boost On-Chain Capital Efficiency (2026-07-17)
- Euler Labs LinkedIn (2026-02-20)