Auto-compounding vaults whose share price we can read at historical blocks, in venues whose withdrawal liquidity we have measured. Incentives count only when they arrive in an asset we would hold anyway.
A curated vault delegates allocation to a manager who spreads deposits across lending markets. What we buy is that judgement, and what we verify is whether it has paid: share price at historical blocks answers the question exactly, net of fees, net of losses, net of everything.
This is also where advertised numbers fail most often. A curated vault quoted at 7.20% measured 4.08% from its own share price in our last review. Neither number was fabricated; they answer different questions. Only one of them is the return.
Emissions are counted when they arrive in an asset we would hold anyway. Several venues pay rewards in stablecoins rather than governance tokens, which makes them real income rather than a token to sell. Where rewards are paid in a volatile token, the sleeve is judged on its base rate alone.
Share-price verification is blind to rewards claimed separately. Where a vault pays outside the share price, both legs are stated and the reward leg is labelled unverified.