Pickle Finance
score
Fees: Performance fee on jar/farm yield
Pickle is mainly of interest to users tracking DeFi history or specific legacy strategies. The key caveat is a serious past exploit and diminished scale and liquidity today. This is not financial advice.
What Pickle Finance is
Pickle Finance is an early DeFi yield protocol from 2020 built around auto-compounding 'jars' and 'farms' that reinvest rewards from underlying strategies. It later collaborated with Yearn on strategy development and runs on open-source code with community governance, but today it operates at a far smaller scale than the current market leaders.
Where it lands on our criteria
Pickle is the lowest-rated service in this group. Its best marks are fees at 6.5 and transparency at 6, reflecting open strategies and modest costs, but security is weak at 4.5, with track record 5 and yield sustainability 5. Returns have leaned heavily on emissions with limited organic yield, and liquidity is thin.
Fees
Pickle charges a performance fee on jar and farm yield and avoids the heavier fee load of some legacy managed vaults, which is why fees rate 6.5/10. Cost is not really the problem with Pickle; scale and security history are.
The main caveat
The standout risk is its exploit history: Pickle lost roughly $20M in a November 2020 attack on a DAI jar, which drives the low security score. Since then its relevance and TVL have faded well below the leaders, leaving thin liquidity and emission-dependent returns. This is a protocol carrying real historical baggage.
Who it's for
Pickle is mainly of interest to users tracking DeFi history or specific legacy strategies rather than those seeking a primary yield venue. Most users wanting scale, depth and a clean security record will be better served elsewhere. This is not financial advice.
Overall 5.3 / 10 — the weighted average of the criteria above. How we score →
- + Early auto-compounding jars with later Yearn strategy collaboration
- + Open-source strategies and community governance
- + Lower fees than legacy managed vaults
- − Lost ~$20M in a November 2020 exploit of a DAI jar
- − Faded relevance and thin TVL versus current market leaders
- − Emission-dependent returns with limited organic yield
Is Pickle Finance safe?
+
Security is our lowest score for it at 4.5/10, driven largely by a roughly $20M exploit of a DAI jar in November 2020. That history, plus thin liquidity today, makes it a high-caution option.
What are Pickle Finance's fees?
+
Pickle charges a performance fee on jar and farm yield and is lighter on fees than some legacy managed vaults, earning 6.5/10. Cost is one of its stronger points, unlike security and scale.
Is Pickle Finance still active?
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It still operates with open-source strategies and community governance, but its relevance and TVL have faded well below current market leaders, leaving comparatively thin liquidity.
Is Pickle Finance a good yield aggregator?
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We rate it 5.4, the lowest in this set. It is mainly of interest for its DeFi history and specific legacy strategies rather than as a primary yield venue.
What are Pickle jars?
+
Jars are Pickle's auto-compounding vaults that reinvest the rewards from underlying strategies. They are the core product, later developed in part alongside Yearn strategies.