This page explains the method behind our articles in more detail than our editorial policy. It is here so you can judge how much weight to give what we write.
Reading the primary documentation
For every protocol or lender we cover, we read the official documentation and terms, not just the marketing pages. For DeFi protocols this includes collateral parameters, liquidation rules, oracle sources and who can change them. For centralized lenders it includes the legal entity, licensing, custody arrangements and what happens to customer assets if the company fails.
Checking the numbers ourselves
- We recalculate liquidation prices, loan-to-value ratios and effective borrowing costs instead of copying them.
- Where we quote rates or yields, we note when they were checked and whether they are variable.
- Hypothetical examples use round numbers and are labeled as hypothetical.
Listening to users
Before writing, we collect questions and experiences from community discussions and reader messages. This tells us where people get confused or lose money, and it shapes what we explain. Community posts help us find the questions; they are never used as proof of a factual claim on their own.
Looking at what already exists
We review the articles that currently rank for a topic and note what they cover, what they get wrong and what they leave out. Our article has to close at least one of those gaps, otherwise we do not write it.
Risk assessment
When we describe a product we look at the same risk categories every time: market and liquidation risk, counterparty and custody risk, smart contract and oracle risk, stablecoin and depeg risk, and regulatory risk. Our guides to crypto-backed loans, crypto lending and stablecoin lending explain each one.
Keeping articles current
Crypto lending changes quickly. We keep a review schedule for our most important pages, re-check figures when products change, and record significant changes in an update note at the end of the article.
What we cannot do
We cannot audit smart contracts or verify a company’s solvency ourselves. When we rely on audits, attestations or third-party data, we say so and link to them, so you can see exactly what our statements are based on.