Compound bets $52 million, new leadership team in switch to institutional focus
DeFi lending protocol Compound is pivoting toward institutional markets by hiring a new leadership team and focusing on real-world asset integration. This strategic shift follows a period of declining market share and a broader industry downturn in total value locked.
Why it matters
The move highlights a significant trend in the cryptocurrency sector where decentralized finance projects are attempting to bridge the gap between crypto-native protocols and traditional institutional finance.
The company said it will now focus on attracting institutional users and will offer real-world assets, partner integration and credit infrastructure for traditional financial markets.
Compound pioneered decentralized lending when it started up in 2018, popularizing the concept of earning yield on crypto deposits without intermediaries. It said it has processed roughly $480 billion in deposits and borrowing volume since its inception. Over the past few years, it has lost ground to competitors such as Aave, which holds more than 11 times its TVL with $14.8 billion , DeFiLlama data shows.
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