Catenaa, Monday, June 23, 2025-Leading Ethereum developers and security firms have unveiled Web3SOC, a new industry framework aimed at assessing a decentralized finance (DeFi) project’s readiness for institutional collaboration.
Uniswap Labs, Morpho, Maple Finance, Kiln, and Steakhouse Financial partnered with security experts Cantina and Secureum to create the standard, announced Friday. The framework introduces a self-assessment tool and a tiered rating system — known as “maturity tiers” — to measure operational, regulatory, security, and financial readiness.
Web3SOC is designed to address institutional concerns over risk and compliance by offering a structured benchmark for due diligence. Its four-tier system evaluates whether DeFi projects meet criteria to be considered enterprise-grade or remain in early stages of development.
Developers said the goal is to build trust and enable scalable partnerships between decentralized protocols and traditional financial entities. The framework draws inspiration from established System and Organization Controls (SOC) standards used in traditional finance.
Web3SOC arrives as Ethereum pushes its pitch as the global financial “settlement layer,” supported by advocates and research forecasting significant institutional demand. Lobbying group Etherealize recently claimed Ethereum could underpin a multitrillion-dollar digital economy.
Backers of Web3SOC say the framework will standardize compliance evaluation across the DeFi sector and give institutional players clear pathways to onboard decentralized platforms.
The initiative reflects growing maturity in the DeFi ecosystem, which increasingly seeks regulatory clarity and operational accountability to secure mainstream legitimacy.
