Wall Street Eyes DeFi Integration with Compliance and Ease

Traditional finance giants like JPMorgan, Fidelity, and Goldman Sachs are increasingly exploring ways to integrate decentralized finance (DeFi) into their services, aiming to bring regulated, user-friendly access to blockchain-based financial tools. The momentum, according to blockchain infrastructure firm Alchemy, was accelerated by the pro-crypto regulatory tone set during the Trump administration.

DeFi allows users to lend, borrow, and earn yields using crypto assets, but has long been limited to tech-savvy individuals using complex tools. That’s changing as financial institutions seek to offer DeFi-powered services under compliant and simplified interfaces. Guillaume Poncin, CTO at Alchemy, describes this growing trend as the “DeFi mullet”—traditional finance in the front, DeFi running silently in the back.

Firms like Robinhood and Revolut are already developing platforms where users can leverage traditional funds, like USD or money market accounts, to access DeFi tools seamlessly. For example, Coinbase users can secure loans by locking up bitcoin—an option previously unavailable to retail investors. Poncin notes that similar capabilities could soon allow Fidelity users to borrow against tokenized money-market funds with a single click.

As asset tokenization expands—from money-market funds to private equity—fintechs are recognizing DeFi as the core infrastructure to unlock utility and liquidity. Alchemy, known as the “AWS of crypto,” has positioned itself as the backend enabler for these integrations. Its developer tools and APIs help companies build invisible, user-friendly wallets and smart contract systems without users needing to interact with clunky interfaces like Metamask.

This shift marks a significant evolution in how digital assets are accessed, signaling a new era where DeFi’s complexity is abstracted away—bringing crypto finance to the mainstream.