Every asset that enters a KPK vault has already been through a structured review: the same discipline, whether the collateral is a liquid DeFi token or a tokenised real-world instrument. As KPK's vaults take on more real-world asset (RWA) exposure, that review needs to answer questions that a DeFi-native framework was never built to ask. KPK is adding independent risk ratings from Particula to close that gap.

Every asset earns its way into a vault

Before KPK deploys into any market, the asset, the market, and the counterparty behind it go through KPK's due diligence framework: more than 150 checks across 12 risk dimensions, from smart contract design and oracle mechanics to counterparty standing and balance sheet quality. The review runs in four stages: 

1. An on-chain assessment of contract and market mechanics

2. An off-chain validation of governance and operational history

3. A pass-through external risk signals from independent providers

4. A scored outcome across all 12 dimensions

The scoring is deliberately conservative. An asset's overall rating is set by its weakest dimension, not an average across the strongest ones, and where the evidence is thin, that gap counts against the asset rather than for it. That discipline applies to both a governance token and a tokenised treasury bill. What differs is what each one actually needs to be checked for.

DeFi risk and RWA risk are different problems

A DeFi-native token's risk lives onchain: contract design, upgrade paths, oracle dependencies, liquidity depth, and behaviour under stress. That risk moves with the market, which is one reason independent ratings of DeFi collateral need to be refreshed often to remain useful.

A tokenised real-world asset carries that onchain layer too, but it wraps something else underneath it: a bond, a fund, a credit instrument, a claim on an issuer. Tokenisation doesn't remove that underlying risk; it adds a layer on top of it. The questions that matter most for an RWA token often sit offchain and are less affected by crypto volatility: is the issuer's claim legally enforceable, is the token holder's position bankruptcy-remote, is the collateral actually verified and custodied the way it's represented to be, and what happens to the token if redemption breaks down. Those risks change on a slower cycle than onchain market data: an issuer's standing shifts on the back of an audit or a regulatory filing, not a block. But they're much harder to see from onchain data alone. A token can look completely healthy onchain while the legal and operational structure behind it is not.

That's a distinct problem from grading a DeFi asset, and it calls for a distinct methodology.

Particula joins KPK's external risk signals

Particula's risk framework, PDARF, is built for exactly that gap. It's a rules-based, quantitative methodology that scores a tokenized asset across 129 individual risk attributes, grouped into three pillars: counterparty risk (the issuer's regulatory standing and financial resilience), structural risk (token design, investor protections, and how the issuance itself is put together), and underlying asset risk (the credit quality of what backs the token and the reliability of custody). Those pillars roll up into a single rating on an AAA-to-D scale.

The scale carries hard caps, not just weighted averages: a missing license, a lack of bankruptcy remoteness, a contractual rather than direct claim on the underlying assets, or unverified reserves all cap the rating regardless of how the rest of the token scores. A structural gap can't be averaged away. Alongside the rating, PDARF produces a Data Confidence Score across 199 data points: a signal for how much certainty sits behind the number.

Tokenised assets sometimes don't fail the way DeFi-native assets do. The risk usually sits in the issuer, the legal structure, or how redemption actually works in practice, not just in market pricing. Our job is to turn that into something KPK's risk curation can act on: a consistent framework, verified documentation, a PDARF-based rating, and a monitoring feed that updates with any change. - Timm Reinsdorf, Managing Director, Particula

Where this fits in KPK's process

Particula's ratings become part of the external risk signals stage of KPK's due diligence framework, specifically for RWA collateral, the same role independent ratings already play for KPK's DeFi-native assets. It doesn't replace KPK's own review. KPK's judgment still decides what gets listed and at what size. What it adds is an independently derived, standardised read that KPK's own assessment can be measured against: one built on observable data and applied consistently to every instrument on the scale.

Each asset, market, strategy, or counterparty undergoes a structured review under KPK's due diligence framework, which covers more than 150 checks across 12 risk dimensions. Adding Particula's ratings is a further step in making that analysis stronger and more independent. - Giel Detienne, Head of Curation, KPK

What's next

Particula ratings will go live in the KPKApp, starting with the Securitize vault on Euler, the forthcoming Instant Liquidity vault on Symbiotic, and a dedicated RWA vault on Morpho.

About Particula

Particula is the prime rating provider for digital assets, transforming on- and off-chain data into actionable insights. The company delivers next-generation risk ratings and comprehensive analyses across issuer and counterparties, issuance structure, technical implementation and underlying risk – providing the clarity and confidence needed to navigate the complexities of digital finance.

About KPK

KPK is a non-custodial onchain asset manager for DAOs, institutions and capital allocators, actively managing capital across DeFi since 2020. Over $8bn deployed onchain, more than 16,000 transactions and zero funds lost.