Merline Egalite, co-founder of decentralized lending protocol Morpho, believes that fintech firms will move to DeFi lending within the next three years, citing superior efficiency, accessibility, and yields.
Speaking to Cointelegraph during EthCC 2025, Egalite said fintech companies are realizing that DeFi integration is no longer optional. “If they don’t do it, they will lag behind others because fintechs are competing on the UX and the product they give to users,” he explained.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols allow users to lend and borrow assets via smart contracts without relying on traditional intermediaries, offering global access and often better returns.
Fintechs are realizing that DeFi can provide a higher rate. It allows them to offer the best financial products in terms of lending and trading.
Why Fintechs are turning to DeFi
Egalite emphasized that DeFi’s permissionless nature gives fintechs an edge over traditional rails. Without dependence on bank APIs or licenses, fintech platforms avoid centralized risks that could halt operations.
In DeFi, you don’t fear that because there are no intermediaries. You just trust the code itself.
He also believes that the introduction of regulated, yield-bearing DeFi products will further accelerate institutional adoption of decentralized lending.
Morpho, currently the second-largest DeFi lending protocol, has over $5.5 billion in total value locked (TVL) across 20 blockchains, according to DefiLlama. It trails only AAVE, which leads the sector with $31.7 billion in TVL, accounting for 47% of the market.
Together, DeFi lending protocols have now reached a cumulative all-time high of $66.7 billion in TVL, marking a major recovery from the CeFi lending crash of 2022–2023, when centralized lenders like Genesis, Celsius, BlockFi, and Voyager collapsed.
DeFi’s global lifeline
Beyond fintech adoption, DeFi lending can serve as a lifeline for the underbanked, providing access to capital in regions where traditional infrastructure is limited.
With TVL rising, fintech firms seeking better yields and operational independence may soon turn to DeFi protocols as their default lending backend, marking a paradigm shift in digital finance.