ERC-4626
An Ethereum token standard defining a common interface for yield-bearing vaults, making it easier for other protocols and interfaces to integrate with any vault that follows it.
ERC-4626 is a token standard that defines a common, standardized interface for yield-bearing vault (see Kaavon's "Vault (DeFi)" glossary definition) contracts — specifying consistent functions for depositing assets, withdrawing them, and calculating a vault's share price — so that any vault built to the standard automatically works with any other tool, aggregator, or interface designed to support ERC-4626, without needing custom integration work for each individual vault. Before this standard existed, each DeFi vault typically implemented its own bespoke deposit and withdrawal interface.
By standardizing this interface, ERC-4626 significantly reduces the integration effort needed for yield aggregators, front ends, and other protocols to support a new vault, and reduces the risk of integration bugs that could otherwise arise from reimplementing similar logic slightly differently each time. The standard has become widely adopted across DeFi lending and yield protocols specifically because standardized composability is central to how DeFi's different protocols are able to build on top of each other efficiently.
Examples
- A yield aggregator can integrate with any ERC-4626-compliant vault using the same standard deposit and withdrawal logic, rather than writing custom code for each individual vault.
- Before ERC-4626 existed, DeFi protocols often had to build bespoke integrations for each vault they wanted to support, since there was no shared standard interface.