Methodology

This page documents how the data on AprScope is sourced, processed, and presented. We update it whenever the pipeline changes substantively.

Data sources

All on-chain data on this site comes from DefiLlama (api.llama.fi and yields.llama.fi), the primary public aggregator for DeFi metrics. We use the following endpoints:

Endpoint	What we get	Refresh cadence
/protocols	Protocol catalog, current TVL, audits, chains supported	Hourly
/chains	Chain catalog, current TVL per chain, gas token, EVM compatibility	Every 6 hours
/pools (yields.llama.fi)	All active yield pools, APY breakdown, IL flags, predictions	Hourly
/chart/{pool_id}	Historical daily APY and TVL per pool	Daily, top 200 pools by TVL

When DefiLlama updates a value, our hourly ingest reflects that update on the next cycle. There is no manual delay or curation between DefiLlama’s data and what you see on the site.

We do not currently use:

• Direct on-chain queries (Etherscan, Arbiscan, etc.) for primary data
• Centralized exchange APIs (CoinGecko, CoinMarketCap) for current pricing
• Subgraph queries (The Graph) for historical data

These may be added in future phases for redundancy and to fill gaps in DefiLlama’s coverage.

Pool slug stability

Every pool gets a URL-safe slug at first ingest, in the format {protocol-slug}-{chain-slug}-{symbol}[-{pool-meta}]. For example, the Aave V3 USDC pool on Ethereum is at /yields/pool/aave-v3-ethereum-usdc.

Once assigned, a slug never changes, even if the underlying protocol rebrands or the symbol displayed by DefiLlama is updated. This ensures bookmarks and external links remain valid indefinitely. If two pools would generate the same slug (rare but possible for similar pool variants), the second receives a stable hash suffix derived from its DefiLlama pool ID.

What “soft delete” means

Pools that disappear from DefiLlama’s /pools response (because the underlying contract was paused, deprecated, or migrated) are marked is_active = false in our database rather than deleted. This preserves their history for users following links from search engines or external sites. They are excluded from the homepage, top-N lists, and protocol/chain detail pages, but their dedicated URL continues to load with the most recent data we have.

Risk profile generation

The “Risk profile” block on every pool page is rule-based and deterministic. The bullets are derived directly from structured data:

• Smart-contract risk is shown on every pool, with the same generic warning text. We do not attempt to rank specific contracts as more or less safe; this would require an audit-level review per pool that we cannot provide at scale.
• Impermanent loss is shown if and only if DefiLlama flags the pool with il_risk = "yes" (i.e., the pool holds multiple assets that can diverge in price). The 7-day IL figure is taken directly from DefiLlama if available.
• Depeg risk is shown for pools flagged as stablecoin pools by DefiLlama.
• Yield variability is shown on every pool. The current vs. 30-day-mean APY comparison is computed from our snapshot data.
• DefiLlama yield prediction is included only when DefiLlama provides a predicted_class and predicted_probability for the pool.

There is no editorial freedom in what appears here. The same input data always produces the same output text.

Pool overview generation

Where you see an “Overview” block on a pool, protocol, chain, or asset page, the text is composed from the structured data shown on that same page. The pipeline is constrained to:

1. Read a single database row (for a pool: protocol, chain, symbol, current APY breakdown, TVL, IL risk, exposure type, predicted class).
2. Compose a short factual paragraph using only those fields. No values are invented, no claims are extrapolated, no external sources are consulted.
3. Validate the output before publication: length between 80 and 220 words, forbidden phrases blocked (e.g. “guaranteed return”, “risk-free”, “best investment”, “you should invest”). Failed outputs are discarded and the page falls back to the rule-based risk profile only.
4. Store the validated text in our database with a generation date. Re-generation runs weekly for new entities and quarterly for freshness.

If a value is missing from the input, the overview will say “data unavailable” rather than guess. The generation date is shown at the bottom of every overview block, alongside a link back to this methodology page.

Editorial content

Hand-written content (blog posts, the About page, this Methodology page, optional protocol overrides) lives in markdown files in our git repository. Authors are real, named individuals; the byline and bio on each post link to a profile page. Editorial content overrides the auto-composed overview on the rare protocol pages where we’ve published a hand-written description.

What we don’t claim

The following is not something we attempt:

1. Independent audit verification. When we display “audit count” for a protocol, that’s the number reported by DefiLlama or the protocol itself. We do not read audit reports or assess findings; that’s beyond the scope of an aggregator.
2. APY prediction. The “DefiLlama yield prediction” we surface is DefiLlama’s model, not ours. We show it because users find it useful; we do not stand behind it.
3. Best-pool recommendations. Sorting pools by current APY is mechanical. Choosing the right pool depends on your risk tolerance, position size, time horizon, and tax situation. None of that is something we can or should do for you.
4. Real-time data. Our refresh cadence is hourly for current snapshots, daily for history. Pools whose APY changes minute-to-minute are not represented at sub-hour resolution. For real-time, go to the protocol’s own dashboard.

Limitations we know about

• Pool history coverage. We have rich daily history for the top 200 pools by TVL. The long tail of pools shows current snapshots but no historical chart, because the upstream /chart/{pool_id} endpoint at DefiLlama is rate-limited in a way we don’t yet have a workaround for. We’re considering The Graph subgraphs and direct on-chain indexing as future fallbacks.
• Asset modeling. Currently asset pages are derived from pool.symbol, which works for single-asset pools (USDC, ETH, stETH) but treats LP pair symbols (USDC-ETH) as separate “assets”. A proper asset model with contract addresses and CoinGecko-linked metadata is planned.
• Chain coverage gaps. A handful of DefiLlama chain identifiers (BSC, Gnosis, OP Mainnet) use different names in /pools than in /chains, causing approximately 19 pools to be skipped during ingestion. We have a planned alias mapping to fix this.

If you find a data error or a pool that’s incorrectly tagged, the contact page is open.

Source code and reproducibility

The ETL pipeline (Python), the database schema (PostgreSQL), and the frontend (Astro) are all version-controlled. The data lineage from DefiLlama API → our database → page render is straightforward and inspectable.

Last updated

This methodology page was last reviewed on 2026-05-13. Substantial changes will be reflected in the lastUpdated field at the top of the page.