OpenZeppelin Founder Advises Exiting All DeFi Positions

OpenZeppelin founder Manuel Aráoz said he now considers all of DeFi unsafe. In a statement that has circulated across crypto security circles, Aráoz revealed he has been privately advising friends and family to exit all DeFi positions. The remark carries unusual weight because OpenZeppelin is the dominant smart contract audit firm behind the ERC-20 standard and has reviewed hundreds of protocols.

Why the OpenZeppelin Founder's View Carries Weight

OpenZeppelin audits are a de facto seal of approval for many DeFi projects. A protocol that passes an OpenZeppelin review can market itself as having passed a rigorous security screen. When the founder of that firm tells his inner circle to exit the space entirely, he is essentially saying the audit model itself cannot guarantee safety. The signal is not about any single exploit. It is about the structural inability to secure composable, upgradeable smart contracts against an evolving attack surface.

Aráoz did not cite a specific hack or vulnerability. His blanket statement implies that the risk is systemic, not episodic. For traders who rely on audit status as a filter, this undermines a key due-diligence shortcut. If the top auditor doubts the entire category, then the premium investors assign to audited protocols becomes harder to justify.

Affected Assets: DeFi Tokens and the Audit Premium

DeFi tokens across Ethereum, Solana, and layer-2 networks face a new source of skepticism. Uniswap, Aave, Compound, MakerDAO, and other blue-chip protocols are not directly called out. Aráoz's warning applies to the entire category. The immediate risk is not a price crash from the statement alone. The risk is that institutional allocators and yield-seeking capital begin to demand a higher risk premium for DeFi exposure, compressing valuation multiples.