Decentralized finance platform Defillama and Web3 investment bank Forgd have announced the launch of Universal Token Ratings (UTR), a new evaluation system for digital assets that mirrors the framework used by traditional credit rating agencies like Moody's and Fitch.
Introduced on Wednesday, the system evaluates over 100 tokens with grades ranging from AAA through CCC. The ratings are not static and are updated regularly, meaning a project's grade can deteriorate in near real time if its market structure falters, even if its disclosures remain unchanged.
As of Wednesday, August 26, 2026, the UTR dashboard tracks 128 unique assets. Uniswap (UNI) holds the top position as the only asset with a AAA rating. Meanwhile, Meteora (MET), Curve DAO (CRV), Raydium (RAY), Olexchange (O), Jito (JTO), ether.fi (ETHFI), Dogecoin (DOGE), Zama (ZAMA), and Pyth Network (PYTH) hold AA rankings.
“Defillama’s mission has always been surfacing honest, unbiased data,” said Ryan Celaj, Head of Research at Defillama. “Ratings that are calculated from live market data are a natural extension of that mission, and give our users a fast, standardized way to identify projects that deliver.”
The UTR framework draws inspiration from traditional bond rating models used by agencies such as Moody's Ratings, S&P, and Fitch Ratings, which have assessed default risk for decades. While Moody's and S&P have previously introduced stablecoin-specific evaluation methodologies, Forgd and Defillama state that UTR aims to be the first standard that continuously verifies whether a token project's real-world market performance aligns with its public disclosures.
“Crypto has had transparency checklists, but the industry has never had a continuously updated rating system,” said Shane Molidor, founder and CEO of Forgd. “Our rating tells you whether the market is functioning right now. Universal Token Ratings are designed so that a score is something you have to keep earning.”
The companies launched the initiative amid high institutional awareness toward crypto assets, blockchains, and applications, noting that newly launched coins from Token Generation Events receive a provisional rating initially. The creators believe an industry-set standard modeled after bond ratings will help enhance accountability and boost institutional confidence.
