The short answerGearbox lets you borrow against a position and deploy it into whitelisted strategies, with each leveraged position isolated in its own credit account. The engineering is careful; leverage on top of a yield strategy still means a depeg or bad harvest becomes a liquidation.
Best forLeveraged farming with contained liquidation risk
Strategy disclosureweight 25%
8.0avg 8.0
Contract securityweight 25%
7.5avg 7.5
Net yieldweight 20%
7.0avg 7.4
Risk controlsweight 15%
7.0avg 7.5
Feesweight 15%
7.5avg 7.4
this service category average across 15Score = Σ mark × weight. Works well for a specific use case, weaker outside it. Methodology.
| Criterion | Mark | What we found | Source | Checked |
|---|
| Strategy disclosure | 8.0 | not sourced yet | not sourced yet | — |
| Contract security | 7.5 | not sourced yet | not sourced yet | — |
| Net yield | 7.0 | not sourced yet | not sourced yet | — |
| Risk controls | 7.0 | not sourced yet | not sourced yet | — |
| Fees | 7.5 | not sourced yet | not sourced yet | — |
What we liked, and what fell short
Liked- Credit accounts isolate each leveraged position
- Whitelisted protocols limit where borrowed funds can go
- Extensive audits and a long-running bug bounty
Fell short- Leveraged farming amplifies every underlying risk
- Complexity makes the true exposure hard for most users to calculate
Why the marks landed where they did
Leveraged yield farming has a long history of catastrophic failure, usually because the leverage and the strategy shared a pool and one bad position took everyone down. Gearbox isolates each position in its own credit account — a separate contract holding one user's collateral and borrowed funds.
How the safety model works
Credit accounts can only interact with whitelisted protocols and assets, so borrowed capital cannot be deployed into arbitrary contracts. Health factors are monitored per account and liquidated individually. Passive lenders supplying the borrowed capital are exposed to the aggregate quality of those liquidations rather than to any single position.
What leverage does to yield risk
A 5% strategy at three times leverage is not a 15% strategy — it is a 15% strategy where a 10% adverse move in the underlying wipes the position. Yield strategies fail through depegs, bad harvests and oracle glitches, all of which are survivable unlevered and terminal levered. Users consistently underestimate this.
Record
Extensive audits, a long-running bug bounty, and no protocol exploit to date across several years. The complexity is high, which is the standing concern for any composable leverage system.
Who should use it
Experienced users running specific levered strategies who have modelled the liquidation scenario, and passive lenders wanting yield from a well-designed borrowing market. Not a product for anyone who would describe their strategy as farming.
FAQ
What is a credit account?+
An isolated contract holding one user's collateral and borrowed funds, which can only interact with whitelisted protocols. It contains each leveraged position separately.
Is leveraged yield farming safe on Gearbox?+
The architecture is careful, but leverage amplifies every underlying risk. A depeg or failed harvest that would be survivable unlevered becomes a liquidation.
Has Gearbox been exploited?+
No protocol-level exploit to date, with extensive audits and an active bug bounty.
Can I lend passively on Gearbox?+
Yes. Passive lenders supply the capital borrowers use and earn interest, exposed to the quality of the liquidation system rather than to individual positions.
