When something changes.
Downgrades, investigations and removals, on the record. Most ratings sites hide this. We publish it.
On April 18, three treasury wallets controlling $7.7M in user-attributable funds were drained by a single actor exploiting a governance frontend that did not enforce the protocol's documented 72-hour timelock. The timelock was implemented in the UI dashboard only; calling the governance contract directly bypassed it. NovaPlay's published governance documentation claimed contract-level enforcement. This is a Category-A misrepresentation under Onyx methodology §13 (Removal criteria) and triggers immediate revocation.
On-chain evidence (initial distribution audit, completed May 18) shows 38% of the STRA token supply was transferred to wallets attributable to undisclosed team members in the 72 hours before public launch. This is materially different from the team's published token distribution schedule. Onyx has opened a formal investigation and suspended the Verified rating pending response. Provisional rating restored if disclosure becomes complete.
EmberSwap's Q1 2026 governance proposal #18 modified protocol fee distribution to redirect 40% of fees to a previously-undisclosed wallet. The proposal was passed and executed within 4 hours without the 72-hour discussion window required by the team's published governance process. Rating downgraded from Listed (64) to Provisional (41). Removed from category leaderboard pending governance process audit.
Synapse Protocol's cross-chain bridge has converged to 3 of 9 validators handling >85% of message volume over Q1 2026. This violates the team's stated decentralization commitment (≥5 validators handling balanced load). Downgraded to Listed pending validator set rebalancing.
YieldNest's previously-disclosed operating entity (YieldNest Labs Ltd, Singapore) was dissolved March 2026. The team has not communicated a successor entity or contact. Onyx has been unable to reach the disclosed contact addresses. Rating revoked under §13 (Removal criteria).
DriftPump is a Solana memecoin launchpad whose name and UI heavily mirror Drift Protocol (an Onyx-Verified perpetuals DEX). Onyx is investigating whether this constitutes deceptive practice sufficient for category removal. Existing rating suspended pending review.
Q1 2026 governance change to vault fee structure was initially flagged as potentially insufficient disclosure. Investigation concluded that the change was within the team's documented governance authority and was disclosed via forum 7 days before execution. No action; rating unchanged.
Polter Finance suffered a $2.4M reentrancy exploit November 17, 2025. Six months later, affected users have not been reimbursed. Team statements have shifted from 'we will make users whole' to 'protocol cannot afford reimbursement' without a transparent treasury accounting. Rating revoked under §13 (User outcomes).
Lumen Stake operating team executed a 60% reduction in TVL via privileged contract function March 12, 2026. The reduction was not preceded by any public communication. Within 72 hours, all team-attributable communications channels went silent. Rating revoked.
Recent governance proposals at Spark DAO have repeatedly passed with quorum met by a single large delegate. Investigation underway into whether this constitutes effective single-party control, which would require methodology category recalibration.
Trove Finance's most recent contract audit (Halborn, October 2024) has now exceeded the 12-month methodology requirement. Despite multiple Onyx outreach attempts, no new audit has been commissioned. Downgraded from Listed (68) to Provisional (54).
LI.FI was placed on watchlist following the September 2025 router exploit ($11.6M, fully reimbursed). Six-month post-incident review concluded that the team's response (full reimbursement within 9 days, public post-mortem, methodology adoption changes) materially exceeded category baseline. Rating restored from watchlist to Verified (76), a 2-point increase from pre-incident score.