The future of finance: The boundaries between DeFi and TradFi will blur faster than we think

According to Sidney Powell, co-founder and CEO of Maple Finance, in the coming years the world of finance will enter a new era where traditional divides between decentralized finance and traditional finance will become completely irrelevant. Blockchain will serve as the fundamental technological layer upon which future capital markets will be built – just as the internet changed the way we shop, the distributed ledger will transform the architecture of global markets.

Capital Markets Moving to Blockchain

Ultimately, all transactions in capital markets will be conducted on-chain, utilizing public ledgers as the settlement infrastructure. Cryptocurrencies will take over the role of traditional clearing and settlement systems – establishing a new standard for financial operations on a global scale. This shift will fundamentally change how investments are recorded, settled, and stored.

New Financial Products Are Already Emerging

The debt capital market is rapidly adopting native blockchain structures, including bitcoin-backed loans and other digital asset-backed loans. Securities linked to cryptocurrency loans, or digital asset-based credit cards, will be securitized and offered on public capital markets – creating a new class of hybrid instruments.

This development shifts the perspective: institutional players will be forced to accept blockchain as part of their operational reality, rather than a niche experiment. The line between TradFi and DeFi will gradually but consistently blur until it ultimately becomes entirely redundant.