Maple Finance is quietly re-rating to the blue chip of on-chain credit for Institutions.
Arete Capital core thesis since fund inception has been focusing on Institutional DeFi as this is where meaningful TVL and traction is set to take place across the next 5 years.
Fixed-term lending remained our core focus and Maple is offering overcollateralised loans to leading Institutional players.
They are now running $650M in outstanding loans with over $1.65B in TVL and expected to hit $4B in TVL by the end of 2025.
There is a real overlap between the tokenisation of real world assets and institutional DeFi Protocols:
> Apollo has launched in partnership with Gauntlet tokenised access to the Apollo private credit fund leveraging Securatize for tokenisation and Morpho for back-end lending enabling leveraged exposure.
> Enables on-chain users via USDC to get access to TradFi vehicles increasing fund AUM.
> Offers enhanced yield via looping not available to TradFi.
The above is is where a huge amount of AUM and Institutional activity is going to come from in the coming years.
Holding HYPE is better than holding equity in any CEX the assisstance fund purchased $3M of HYPE on secondary yesterday and $1.5M looks to be the base daily purchase.
Someone should make a digital currency that is a basket of the Swiss Franc (CHF), Singapore Dollar (SGD) and any other currencies that are viewed to be safe haven flights from the US Dollar.
If there are real concerns regarding a US debt crisis then believe something like this would provide simple access for crypto native users to diversify their US dollar exposure.
Sell crisis insurance and i'm sure it would do very well for the paranoid of which the world is increasingly turning to that type of mentality.
I think a bunch of variables are setting up to make 2026 an amazing year for risk especially crypto.
I think 2025 is a traders market and requires more active management which is difficult to nail every single move.
Dispersion is still very much prevalent in the longer tail and it's never been more important to identify high growth opportunities, exceptional teams that hit product market fit in high attention verticals.
The game is harder but there are returns to be made.
I think markets may end up moving up given FED is data dependent could have a risk-on summer.
That stops as soon as negative data comes out regarding deterioration in labour market from tariff policies. Latter half of the year could see a meaningful correction.
This leads into a FED pivot in policy and ends up cutting rates by 50-100 bps coupled with tax cuts and deregulation.
Positive tailwinds for 2026 especially since Trump mid-terms are Nov 26 and bragging about the stock market and Bitcoin price.
Bitcoin went from $15k after the FTX Crisis to $110k whilst rates were held at 4.25-4.5% all driven through Institutional adoption and validation that Bitcoin is a global non-sovereign store of value to preserve purchasing power and flee capital controls.
It doesn't require rates to come down to continue its parabolic asset driven by Institutional adoption.
The main crux to successful TGEs in this space is that price discovery is still very much happening on the primary markets.
By the time a token hits secondary it suffers from extractive behaviour from tier 1 CEX listings and is trading at valuations no one has interest in allocating.
Key in liquid is avoiding this predatory behaviour at all costs.
Even if Ethereum is able to navigate its current crisis in leadership and roadmap this will not be represented in the chart for another 12 months maybe longer.
There is just no reason to have exposure there when Bitcoin is on a parabolic ascent to heaven and Hyperliquid exists.
I think BTC lending is going to be the biggest emerging narrative for DeFi lending protocols over the next 12-18 months.
Every single family office and high networth Individual I've spoken with in recent weeks have said they are all looking for 4-8% APY on their BTC holdings.
Some interesting liquid opportunities will emerge from this.