The future of vaults: neobanks and invisible DeFi
Kraken’s DeFi Earn shows that DeFi yield can gain traction when hidden behind a familiar, trusted interface: users deposit stablecoins for up to 8% APY without dealing with wallets, bridges, or gas fees. Its rapid growth to 40,000 depositors suggests strong demand for packaged DeFi products. The setup uses centralized distribution on the front end, vault infrastructure in the middle, and institutional risk management and lending protocols underneath. This points to a broader shift toward CeDeFi, where vault creation is becoming commoditized and competition will hinge on curation quality, risk control, and transparency rather than just access. Large fintechs and platforms like Revolut, Coinbase, Robinhood, Stripe, Klarna, and PayPal are already moving in this direction. The next wave of DeFi adoption is likely to come through consumer and institutional apps people already trust, making robust disclosures, monitoring, and strategy discipline essential.
