Onchain credit, the new lending architecture

Long confined to the crypto-native sphere, onchain credit is now emerging as one of the most dynamic areas of decentralised finance. After an initial phase marked by over-collateralised loans between traders, a new generation of players is seeking to link DeFi to the real world. Regulated stablecoins, tokenised bonds, institutional funds: the lines between traditional finance and onchain finance are beginning to blur.

Protocols such as Maple, Morpho, Figure and Aave Horizon embody this transition. Their ambition: to transform blockchain into a programmable credit infrastructure, capable of financing companies, funds and investors with the same efficiency as the bond markets. While the sector still represents only a tiny fraction of the $200 trillion global credit, it is growing rapidly and attracting more and more regulated players.

This briefing looks back at the main advances of the quarter, the emerging models (from collateralised credit to tokenised private loans), and the forces reshaping financing in the age of tokenisation.

News

👉 Maple accelerates on institutional private credit

After going through a crisis in 2022 with several borrower defaults (notably Orthogonal Trading), Maple Finance has repositioned its model. By 2025, the platform had granted more than $10 billion in loans and is now focusing on onchain private credit for institutional clients. Its new product, Syrup, launched in 2024, aims to standardise loans for funds and asset managers, with greater transparency on the quality of borrowers. The ambition: to capture part of the global private credit market (estimated at $2 trillion according to the US Federal Reserve) that is gradually becoming tokenised.

👉 Morpho and Société Générale: first foray into regulated stablecoin lending

In September 2025, Morpho announced a groundbreaking partnership with SG-Forge, the crypto subsidiary of Société Générale bank. The aim: to enable lending and borrowing in regulated stablecoins (EURCV and USDCV), with crypto assets (wstETH, WBTC) and tokenised sovereign bonds (via French start-up Spiko) as collateral. This pilot, conducted within a strict regulatory framework, is seen as a major step towards the institutionalisation of onchain credit in Europe, until now dominated by protocols outside the regulated field.

👉 Figure hits hard with $10 billion in tokenised loans

In the US, Figure dominates the tokenised private credit segment. With more than $10 billion in outstandings, the fintech leverages its own blockchain, Provenance, to automate loan origination and management. Figure has extended its offering beyond mortgages to include debt refinancing and syndicated credit. Its aim is clear: to compete with large asset managers by transforming the credit infrastructure via tokenisation.

👉 Aave Horizon opens its RWA marketplace

In 2025, Aave officially launched Horizon, a marketplace dedicated to institutional players and tokenised real assets. It allows stablecoins to be borrowed against collateral in tokenised sovereign bonds. The protocol, which has historically focused on crypto-native credit (ETH, BTC, stablecoins), is now moving towards the integration of RWAs to meet institutional demand. Horizon could become a direct competitor to Ondo and Maple in the segment of credit collateralised by real-world assets.

Onchain credit is still only a fraction of traditional credit

A market that is still marginal compared with traditional finance

Compared with the colossal volumes of global credit, onchain credit remains a niche. The global credit market (bonds, household, corporate, private, consumer, mortgage real estate) is estimated at 200,000 billion dollars today. On the other hand, the amounts committed to tokenised lending and private credit protocols peak at around $100 billion, according to estimates by RWA.xyz and DeFiLlama. That's barely 0.05%. Even if the metrics are not directly comparable, the order of magnitude is indisputable: onchain credit still only weighs a fraction of the global debt markets.

A central pillar of DeFi

Within the crypto ecosystem, the dynamics are radically different. Since 2020, lending protocols (Aave, Compound, Maker, Euler, Morpho) have accounted for between 25% and 40% of DeFi's TVL depending on the period. In other words, a considerable proportion of the capital locked up in smart contracts is used to lend or borrow. Unlike traditional finance, where credit is invisible because it is integrated into bank balance sheets, DeFi has put credit front and centre, with rates visible in real time and transparency on collateral.

Stablecoins and RWA as growth engines

The take-off of onchain credit is closely linked to two phenomena:

Stablecoins: used as borrowing currencies (USDC, USDT, EURC, EURCV, etc.), they serve as fuel for all lending markets. By 2025, more than 70% of onchain loans are denominated in stablecoins.

Tokenised real assets (RWAs): the inclusion of tokenised government bonds has opened the door to institutional investors. In 2023, credit was still predominantly intra-crypto (ETH, stablecoins, etc.). By 2025, almost 40% of lending onchain volumes will involve RWAs, according to RWA.xyz.

The main use cases for onchain credit

Crypto-native collateralised credit

Historically, almost all onchain credit was based on this model: depositing a volatile asset (ETH, BTC, stETH) as collateral to borrow stablecoins.

How it works: for example, the user deposits 1 ETH worth $2,500, and can borrow $1,500 in USDC. If the price of the ETH falls, his position is liquidated. Whoever provides the USDC is remunerated with a return.

Main players: Aave ($40bn TVL), Morpho ($8bn), SparkLend ($10bn), Compound ($3bn), Fluid ($2bn), Euler ($2bn).

Limit: this model remains capital inefficient, as it requires overcollateralisation (120-200%). It is aimed primarily at leveraged traders and holders seeking liquidity without selling their assets.

Uncollateralised credit

Since 2021, several protocols have sought to replicate the mechanisms of bank credit, lending without collateral (or with partial collateral).

Main players: Goldfinch, Maple, TrueFi.

Benefit: enables financing of fintechs, emerging companies or trading funds.

Limit: risk management remains complex without a strict regulatory framework. The lack of recovery in the event of default limits confidence.

RWA-backed credit

This is currently the most dynamic driver of onchain credit. Platforms offer to borrow in stablecoins against real-world collateral (RWAs): treasury bills, bonds, trade receivables, etc.

Main players: Centrifuge (SME loans), Figure (tokenised private credit), Aave Horizon (tokenised sovereign bonds).

Interest: attracts institutional capital, as the rates offered are competitive and based on known assets.

Limit: highly dependent on integration with TradFi.

Tokenised private credit

These are direct loans to private companies, syndicated via blockchain and distributed to investors.

Main players: Figure, Maple (via Syrup), Tradable.

Benefit: possibility of making an opaque market (private credit) liquid, currently dominated by funds such as Blackstone or Apollo.

Limit: onchain transparency remains limited by the confidentiality of borrowing companies, and default risks exist as in TradFi.

Onchain or TradFi: what is the cost of money?

In traditional finance

The cost of credit directly reflects the risk-free rate (central banks' key rate) + a risk premium linked to the borrower.

• Investment grade companies: 4-6% currently in the US (T-Bills at ~4.3% + spread 1-2%).
• Consumer credit: often between 8 and 15% depending on the profile.
• Mortgage credit: around 3-4% in the eurozone, 6-7% in the US.
• Private credit (non-bank funds): 10-12% on average, sometimes more for risky SMEs.

In onchain finance

Credit falls into two broad categories:

Collateralised credit (DeFi)

Examples: Aave, Morpho, Compound, etc.

• Rates vary according to demand for borrowing and available liquidity.
• In 2025:
  • Stablecoins against ETH or BTC: 3 to 6% (often indexed to the yield of tokenised T-Bills).
  • ETH borrow rate: 1 to 3%.
  • USDC borrow rate: 4 to 8%.

These are fairly competitive rates, but the borrower has to over-collateralise (deposit 120-150% of the borrowed value). It is therefore not a classic "performing" loan, but an asset-backed loan.

Onchain private credit

Examples: Maple, Goldfinch, Tradable, etc.

• Maple: 9-12% for institutional borrowers (hedge funds, trading desks).
• Goldfinch: 10-14%, mainly for loans to fintechs in Africa and Latin America.
• Tradable: 8-10%, but often overcollateralised in tokenised assets (T-Bills, Treasury bills).

These rates are higher than in traditional finance, because:

• borrowers are riskier,
• liquidity is lower,
• legal and technological risk is still perceived as high.

Direct comparison: who is the cheapest?

Onchain collateralised credit is often cheaper than its equivalent in traditional finance, thanks to the absence of intermediaries and onchain liquidity.

On the other hand, non-collateralised onchain credit remains more expensive because lenders demand a higher risk premium to compensate for the lack of solid legal guarantees.

Medium-term trend

The gap should narrow thanks to:

• the tokenisation of safe assets (T-Bills, bank deposits) used as collateral,
• the entry of regulated players (Circle, Société Générale, BlackRock, etc.),
• and the gradual cut in key rates expected at the end of 2025.

In other words, onchain money is becoming competitive for institutional players, especially for short, fast and programmable funding.

Mapping the main players

Crypto-native pioneers: Aave, Compound, SparkLend

Aave: the benchmark lending protocol. It manages around $40 billion of TVL in September 2025, concentrated on collateralised lending in stablecoins, ETH and BTC. Its new Aave Horizon marketplace is opening up to real-world assets and institutional investors, a sign of diversification.

SparkLend: pivotal in crypto-native lending via its DAI stablecoin. It continues to weigh heavily ($10 billion in TVL), but its complex governance and strategic choices (massive integration of RWAs into its vaults) are moving it away from its initial purely decentralised model.

Compound: another historic protocol, now in retreat with less than $1 billion in TVL. Despite its pioneering role, it has lost ground to Aave and Morpho.

The new optimised generation: Morpho and Euler

Morpho and Euler offer a pool model that optimizes lending/borrowing rates, allowing vault managers to set their own risk parameters. With around $8 billion in TVL, Morpho is emerging as a credible alternative to Aave, followed by Euler ($2 billion).

Key innovation: the introduction of institutional vaults, enabling regulated stablecoins (EURCV, USDSV) and tokenised bonds to be directly integrated as collateral.

Tokenised private credit: Figure and Maple

Figure: dominant US player, with more than $10 billion in loans tokenised via its proprietary blockchain Provenance. It specialises in mortgages, debt refinancing and syndicated loans. It is seeking to establish itself as an alternative to the major private debt managers.

Maple Finance: after a liquidity crisis in 2022, Maple has repositioned itself in institutional lending. Its new Syrup product standardises lending to funds and asset managers.

Traditional financial institutions

Société Générale-FORGE: a pioneer in Europe with its EURCV and USDCV stablecoins, now integrated into Morpho. It is testing tokenised credit markets with sovereign bonds, WBTC and wstETH as collateral.

The Big Whale's analysis

Onchain credit is entering a new phase of maturity. After years of experimentation dominated by traders and over-collateralised products, the sector is beginning to shift towards institutional and productive uses. Signals are multiplying: Morpho and Société Générale are experimenting with the first regulated stablecoin loans, Maple and Figure are standardising tokenised private credit, and Aave Horizon is opening up a market for institutions.

This convergence between decentralised and traditional finance is redefining the very nature of onchain credit.

But it's important to keep things in perspective: with around $100 billion in outstandings, this market is still just a speck of dust compared with the $200,000 billion in global credit. The parallel with the first Eurodollar markets in the 1960s (born outside the regulated banking system) is not accidental: a parallel liquidity space, born on the fringes of the banking system, which could gradually become more widespread as trust, regulation and technology align.

The forces of transformation have been identified. Regulated stablecoins offer a stable, programmable unit of account, while tokenised real-world assets finally provide credible collateral. By combining the two, onchain credit becomes a genuine financing instrument, capable of operating at low cost, in real time, and on a global basis. For institutions, it is an alternative to the operational cumbersomeness of private debt or interbank credit lines.

The battle over the next few years will revolve around three axes.

First, standardisation, with products such as Syrup or Horizon seeking to standardise loan formats and borrower ratings. Secondly, regulation, where Europe, with MiCA and its compliant stablecoins, has a clear but as yet under-exploited framework, while the US is making progress with the GENIUS Act.

What is now at stake is the emergence of a new global financing infrastructure, where the lines between TradFi and DeFi are blurring. If the 2010s were the years of speculation, and the 2020s the years of regulation, the 2030s could well be the years of the tokenisation of credit.

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