Zest V2

Rejected venues wait the longest for re-review; a rejection has to earn another look before the scheduled date.

Zest is an open-source lending protocol on Stacks that lets holders earn on or borrow against BTC. At $57M TVL at the 2026-08-14 survey it sits below our $100M materiality line. Rejected on size: an advisory book moved into a venue this size on the same research becomes the exit crush, whatever the protocol’s quality. A reopened memo would also require Stacks to pass chain-level vetting, which it has not: nothing deployed on an unapproved chain is reachable for client money regardless of protocol quality.

Kill criteria: the events that revoke this verdict
• TVL sustained above $100M for 30 days
• The Stacks review resolves to approved

The research file

Mechanism applicability

Zest V2 is an onchain Stacks lending market. Suppliers deposit assets into asset-specific vaults and receive zTokens; borrowers post collateral and draw debt subject to pair-specific risk groups, loan-to-value and liquidation parameters. sBTC exposure also imports the Stacks Bitcoin-asset and chain assumptions. This establishes class applicability, not individual approval.

Protocol-specific operating evidence

Zest describes the code as open source and a V2 security review is publicly available through Clarity Alliance. Those are relevant evidence pointers, but the materiality gate stops this batch before validating deployed code, authorities, oracle construction, audit remediation, incidents or market-by-market parameters. Historical protocol documentation citing deposits above $100M does not satisfy a current 30-day threshold.

Exit consequence

A supplier’s zToken represents a claim on an asset vault; withdrawal capacity depends on liquid assets not currently borrowed, while borrowers must repay or face liquidation under their risk group. DefiLlama’s current API record is about $58M TVL, with a much smaller borrowed balance. A client allocation could still be material to the venue, and Stacks or sBTC disruption would add another exit dependency.

Why the class rule decides

The v1 below-materiality dossier requires at least $100M of current TVL sustained for 30 days. Zest V2 is below that line despite its documented historical peak, so the individual control, incident and liquidity review remains deferred. Reopening also requires an approved Stacks chain review; neither threshold crossing nor an audit alone would confer approval.

Sources

The claims above trace to these. Where a number could not be independently verified, the thesis says so.

• Zest Protocol Docs — protocol overview · primary · accessed 2026-08-14
  Supports: Stacks lending, supported assets, open-source code, historical deposits
• Zest Protocol Docs — V2 borrowing and risk groups · primary · accessed 2026-08-14
  Supports: collateral, risk groups, loan-to-value, liquidation, repayment
• Zest Protocol Docs — V2 asset vaults · primary · accessed 2026-08-14
  Supports: asset-specific vault, zTokens, lending liquidity, interest accrual
• Clarity Alliance — Zest Protocol V2 security review · secondary · accessed 2026-08-14
  Supports: V2 security review, audit scope
• DefiLlama — Zest V2 survey record · secondary · accessed 2026-08-14
  Supports: current TVL, borrowed value, chain, lending category

Inherited controls

The verdict above grades the protocol layer. Every position also inherits the asset it holds and the chain it settles on. The least safe layer sets the position’s grade, and the position table names which one that is.