Castle Labs Review
Program assessments and retention analysis
of 10
Castle Labs is a research and advisory firm working for crypto protocols. Posting as Castle Capital, it assessed Arbitrum DAO's incentive programs with DefiLlama Research as the DAO's research member, and it publishes retention analyses of incentive programs backed by public Dune dashboards.
No money changes hands. This is a non-commercial project: no advertising, no sponsored placements, and no affiliate or referral links. Links to the services below earn us nothing. Every overall score is the plain average of the criteria shown on the page, so you can check the arithmetic yourself — see our rating methodology and how the site is funded.
By Dan Reyes · Updated Sep 22, 2026
Role
Program evaluation
Website
castlelabs.io
Criteria with nothing published
0 of 6
Sources last read
2026-09-22
Scores
Each criterion carries equal weight. The overall score is the average of these 6 scores — (10.0 + 10.0 + 10.0 + 5.0 + 5.0 + 5.0) ÷ 6 = 7.5.
Pros
- Names each Arbitrum program with its period and ARB amount, and covers programs on zkSync, Sonic, Optimism and Avalanche
- Uses a stated four-part evaluation framework and defines its retention measure
- Publishes a public Dune dashboard for its retention case study
Cons
- Its conflict disclosure is a general statement, with no client list set against it
- Lists Arbitrum ecosystem projects among clients of its paid research while evaluating programs they take part in
- Sybil and farming risk is covered only in passing
What does Castle Labs do?
Castle Labs is a research and advisory firm working for crypto protocols. Posting as Castle Capital, it assessed Arbitrum DAO's incentive programs with DefiLlama Research as the DAO's research member, and it publishes retention analyses of incentive programs backed by public Dune dashboards.
In this ranking it is listed under program evaluation.
How Castle Labs scores, criterion by criterion
Each mark comes from a fixed scale published on our methodology page, and each links to the page it was read from.
| Criterion | Mark | What we found | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Named programs | 10 | The assessment covers Arbitrum STIP (October 2023 to January 2024), STIP Backfund (November 2023 to January 2024), LTIPP and STIP Bridge (both June to September 2024) and DRIP, plus external programs on zkSync, Sonic, Optimism and Avalanche. | forum.arbitrum.foundation, read 2026-09-22 |
| Disclosed volume | 10 | Amounts are stated per program: STIP 50 million ARB, STIP Backfund 21.4 million, LTIPP 35.66 million, STIP Bridge 37.6 million, DRIP 80 million, zkSync Ignite 325 million ZK. | forum.arbitrum.foundation, read 2026-09-22 |
| Impact report | 10 | The retention study defines retained and inactive wallets over six-month windows and reports results for Compound's 1.8 million ARB LTIPP grant; the Arbitrum assessment applies a stated four-part framework. | research.castlelabs.io, read 2026-09-22 |
| Abuse protection | 5 | The assessment notes that fraud detection by another firm prevented wash trading in two programs; it describes no detection mechanism of its own. | forum.arbitrum.foundation, read 2026-09-22 |
| Open data | 5 | The retention case study has a public Dune dashboard; the main assessment draws on third-party dashboards and publishes no dataset of its own. | dune.com, read 2026-09-22 |
| Independence | 5 | Its Arbitrum application states it has no active conflicts of interest and commits to disclose any to the Supervisory Council, but gives no list of client relationships. | forum.arbitrum.foundation, read 2026-09-22 |
Who it suits
DAOs that want an outside assessment of past incentive programs, and specifically of whether users stayed after the rewards ended.
Who is behind Castle Labs?
Castle Labs formerly posted as Castle Capital, which its Arbitrum application describes as a decentralised research collective; its site lists the team by handle.
How it compares
Gitcoin
Public-goods funding rounds
Metrom
KPI-linked liquidity campaigns with open data
Merkl
On-chain incentive distribution at scale
Questbook
Milestone-based DAO grant programs
Thrive Protocol
Milestone-based ecosystem grants
Blockworks Advisory
Statistical program retrospectives
OpenBlock Labs
Incentive efficacy and sybil analysis
Galxe
Quest campaigns and airdrops with identity checks
Turtle
Liquidity campaigns through a vetted LP network
Karma
On-chain grantee accountability
Layer3
Quest campaigns with on-chain rewards
Boost
Self-serve on-chain reward campaigns
Sources
Scored from published primary sources rather than hands-on use. Every figure above comes from one of the pages below, on the date shown. Manufacturers change prices and specifications without notice — if something here no longer matches the source, tell us and we will correct it.
- 1.Castle Labs: Named programs, Disclosed volume, Abuse protection — checked
- 2.Castle Labs: Impact report — checked
- 3.Castle Labs: Open data — checked
- 4.Castle Labs: Independence — checked
- 5.Castle Labs: Company details — checked
Frequently asked questions
What does Castle Labs do for chains and DAOs?
Castle Labs is a research and advisory firm working for crypto protocols. Posting as Castle Capital, it assessed Arbitrum DAO's incentive programs with DefiLlama Research as the DAO's research member, and it publishes retention analyses of incentive programs backed by public Dune dashboards.
How is Castle Labs's score of 7.5 calculated?
It is the plain average of six marks, each from a fixed published scale: named programs 10, disclosed volume 10, impact report 10, abuse protection 5, open data 5, independence 5. (10 + 10 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 5) ÷ 6 = 7.5.
Nothing here is financial advice. Editorial policy · How we score · How we're funded.