> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.atlasyield.club/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Pillars and factors

> Four pillars, sixteen factors, one 0–100 number.

Every covered vault is scored 0–100 across four pillars built from sixteen underlying
factors. Fifteen factors contribute additively within their pillar; the sixteenth,
exploit history, acts as a **multiplier on the entire Safety pillar** — a protocol with a
serious prior incident cannot average the damage away.

The pillars combine into the composite in a way that punishes imbalance: a vault cannot
paper over a weak pillar with a strong one. A fragile vault paying a huge yield stays a
fragile vault.

<Info>
  On purpose, AtlasYield does **not** publish exact weights, formulas, or thresholds:
  a score you can game is a score no one should trust. The factors below are described at
  concept level.
</Info>

## Pillar 1 — Yield

Not just how much a vault pays, but how trustworthy that yield is.

| Factor          | What it measures                                                                                                                    |
| --------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Yield level     | Current payout, read in the context of its asset class — a high headline number is weighed against the risk taken to earn it.       |
| APY stability   | How steady the yield has been; wild week-to-week swings read as lower quality.                                                      |
| APY persistence | Whether the yield has endured rather than spiking briefly and collapsing.                                                           |
| Yield source    | Where the return actually comes from — real lending demand, trading fees, or temporary incentives — and how legible that source is. |

## Pillar 2 — Safety

How likely the vault is to lose principal to a failure, an exploit, or bad governance.

| Factor             | What it measures                                                                                    |
| ------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Audit quality      | Depth and credibility of the protocol's security reviews — who did them and how thorough they were. |
| Protocol maturity  | Time live holding real money — evidence that survives no other test.                                |
| TVL depth (safety) | How much capital sits in the vault; deeper pools are harder to manipulate.                          |
| TVL stability      | Whether deposits are steady or prone to sudden flight.                                              |
| Admin topology     | How much power admins and multisigs hold — upgradeability, timelocks, who can move funds.           |
| Exploit history    | Whether the protocol has been broken before. Works as a multiplier on the whole pillar.             |

## Pillar 3 — Liquidity

How reliably you can get your money back out — quickly, in full, and at size.

| Factor                | What it measures                                                                                   |
| --------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Withdrawal type       | Instant on demand, or through a queue, cooldown, or lock-up.                                       |
| TVL depth (liquidity) | Whether the pool is deep enough to exit a real position without moving the price against yourself. |

## Pillar 4 — Sustainability

Whether the yield is built to last — or quietly living on borrowed time.

| Factor                  | What it measures                                                                                     |
| ----------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Yield source durability | Whether the yield's underlying engine is structural or a temporary anomaly.                          |
| Emission dependency     | How much of the return leans on token incentives that can be cut at any time.                        |
| Asset risk              | The risk of the underlying asset itself — even a flawless vault inherits the fate of what it holds.  |
| Utilization health      | For lending markets, whether utilization sits in a healthy band rather than pinned dangerously high. |