‘DeFi is dead’: Maple Finance’s CEO says onchain markets will swallow Wall Street

‘DeFi is dead’: Maple Finance’s CEO says onchain markets will swallow Wall Street The Maple Finance CEO says institutions will stop distinguishing between DeFi and TradFi as private credit moves onchain, and stablecoins process $50 trillion in payments. What to know: Maple Finance CEO Sid Powell argues “DeFi is dead” as a separate category, predicting all capital market activity will eventually settle on blockchains. Tokenized private credit, not tokenized treasuries, will be the main growth engine for onchain finance, with DeFi market cap on track to reach $1 trillion. Powell expects a high-profile onchain credit default and a surge in stablecoin payments to $50 trillion in 2026, driven by small businesses and neobanks seeking lower fees. “DeFi is dead.” That’s how Maple Finance CEO and co-founder Sid Powell summarizes what he sees coming for crypto over the next few years. ‘DeFi is dead’: Maple Finance’s Sid Powell says onchain markets will swallow Wall Street by 2026 However, this doesn't mean the end of decentralized finance; rather, it is the end of treating DeFi as something separate from traditional markets. See all newsletters “In a couple of years, institutions won’t distinguish between DeFi and TradFi at all,” Powell explained to CoinDesk in an interview. “Eventually, all capital markets activity will take place onchain.” Think of it this way: before the internet, people would buy goods and services the traditional way - by going to merchants physically. After the internet and e-commerce revolution, people are still shopping, but the majority is done with just a click or two. In Powell's view, blockchains will play a similar role in the financial services sector. Onchain finance is simply the next technology layer on which global markets will settle, much like the internet changed how people shop. Most people and businesses are now relying more on e-commerce platforms like Amazon or Alibaba to shop for their goods and services because it's an easier, efficient and sometimes cost-effective way to find the best product or value. Powell expects a similar shift in the legacy financial services sector, where crypto becomes the infrastructure for capital markets, with the majority of transactions clearing and settling using public ledgers rather than legacy systems. He also sees more debt capital markets adopting crypto-native structures, including BTC-backed mortgages and other asset-backed securities tied to crypto loans, as well as crypto card issuers whose receivables can be securitized and sold into the capital markets. Of course, a proper regulatory framework will need to be established before this pivot occurs. And who will use this new financial system? Sovereign wealth funds, pension managers, insurers and large asset managers, or “the managerial class that controls the world’s financial markets,” as Powell puts it, will be the primary holders of this new “onchain paper.” This is what Powell means when he says, "DeFi is dead," where the blockchain technology becomes the dominant infrastructure layer, without even thinking twice that people are using a new technology to conduct their everyday financial transactions The $50 trillion reason...

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