Universal Token Ratings Bring Wall Street-Style Grades to Crypto
Over 100 tokens so far have received AAA through CCC grades, according to the announcement shared with Bitcoin.com News. The system is dubbed Universal Token Ratings (UTR) and the two firms explain that ratings are not static. UTR is updated regularly and Defillama and Forgd say “a project’s rating can deteriorate in near real time when its market structure falters, even if its disclosures remain unchanged.”
Looking at the UTR dashboard, the DeFi crypto asset uniswap (UNI) is the top contender with the only AAA rating. Meteora (MET), curve dao (CRV), raydium (RAY), olexchange (O), jito (JTO), ether.fi (ETHFI), dogecoin (DOGE), zama (ZAMA) and pyth network (PYTH) hold AA rankings. The dashboard also shows other performance metrics and market caps. As of Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, Defillama’s UTR highlights 128 unique assets.
“Defillama’s mission has always been surfacing honest, unbiased data,” Ryan Celaj, Head of Research at Defillama, explained. “Ratings that are calculated from live market data are a natural extension of that mission, and give our users a fast, standardized way to identify projects that deliver.”
From Moody’s to Crypto: A Century-Old Rating Model Gets a Remix
The UTR has similarities to what credit agencies like Moody’s Ratings, Standard & Poor’s (S&P), and Fitch Ratings have been leveraging for decades to assess default risk. Moody’s started doing this with bonds in 1909, Fitch initiated the process years later in 1924, and S&P followed Fitch’s path roughly around the same timeframe. A triple A score is considered the highest quality credit, while triple C and below are often referred to as “junk.”
Moody’s and S&P are also involved in the digital asset industry in regard to adding their own evaluation frameworks. Moody’s has a dedicated Stablecoin Rating Methodology, and S&P utilizes a 1-to-5 Stablecoin Stability Assessment to measure the creditworthiness and risk associated with specific stablecoin assets. Forgd and Defillama’s new UTR aims to be the “first rating standard in digital assets that continuously verifies whether a token project’s real-world market performance aligns with its public disclosures.”
Forgd Says Token Ratings Must Be Earned, Not Simply Awarded
“Crypto has had transparency checklists, but the industry has never had a continuously updated rating system,” Shane Molidor, Founder and CEO of Forgd said during the announcement. “Our rating tells you whether the market is functioning right now. Universal Token Ratings are designed so that a score is something you have to keep earning.”
Defillama and Forgd Bet Ratings Can Build Institutional Confidence
The companies say that the launch arrival comes at a time when institutional awareness toward crypto assets, blockchains, and applications is at a peak. Defillama and Forgd believe that an industry-set standard similar to bond ratings should help boost confidence and accountability. The teams further noted that newly launched coins from Token Generation Events (TGEs) “carry a provisional rating” at the get-go.
