‘DeFi is dead’ as trillion dollar market awaits onchain finance, says Maple Finance CEO Powell

Maple Finance CEO Sid Powell asserts that "DeFi is dead," meaning the concept of decentralized finance existing separately from traditional finance (TradFi) will vanish as all capital markets activity moves onchain. He envisions blockchains becoming the dominant infrastructure layer for global finance, similar to how the internet revolutionized commerce. Powell expects major institutions like sovereign wealth funds and pension managers to adopt this onchain system, leading to crypto-native structures like BTC-backed mortgages. A key driver for this shift is the massive potential of stablecoins, which Powell predicts could process $50 trillion in transactions by 2026, eclipsing major card networks due to significant cost savings for merchants. While the current DeFi market cap is small compared to this future potential, Powell believes the growth of DeFi is fundamentally tied to the market capitalization of stablecoins and tokenized assets, ultimately leading to a fully crypto-native financial system.

(Source：CoinDesk)