Paving the path for trillions in institutional capital to move onchain: introducing Kiln DeFi in the Kiln Dashboard
The institutional adoption of DeFi represents one of the most significant untapped opportunities in digital assets today. While DeFi protocols have matured to handle billions in volume, institutional capital has largely remained on the sidelines – not due to lack of interest, but due to operational complexity, fragmented interfaces, and compliance challenges.
Recent research reveals the depth of institutional appetite: 74% of institutions are seeking to engage in DeFi within two years, compared to just 24% currently active. This demand is driven by concrete yield requirements as institutions increasingly hold digital assets that need diversified return strategies.
Today, that changes.
The institutional yield imperative
While staking has served institutions well for assets like ETH, the growing allocation to Bitcoin and stablecoins has created new yield expectations. These assets – representing the largest share of institutional digital holdings – traditionally don't generate returns through staking, leaving significant capital underutilized.
The demand is clear: 38% of institutions are actively seeking staking opportunities, while 34% are looking to access lending yields. Perhaps most telling, 73% of institutions holding stablecoins plan to leverage them for yield generation.
Breaking down the institutional DeFi barrier
Accessing DeFi yields has required navigating a range of disparate protocols, each with unique interfaces, risk profiles, and operational requirements. This fragmentation creates operational risk, compliance challenges, and resource inefficiencies that make DeFi yields effectively inaccessible despite their attractive returns.
Kiln is eliminating this friction by creating the first enterprise-grade gateway to institutional DeFi.
Introducing Kiln DeFi in the Kiln Dashboard
Building on our proven track record serving institutional clients like VanEck, 21Shares, and CoinShares, Kiln Dashboard now integrates blue-chip DeFi protocols including Morpho, Aave, and Compound, alongside our existing staking infrastructure. Kiln Dashboard is transforming into the ultimate yield management platform designed specifically for institutional requirements.
Yield opportunities across asset classes
Through Kiln Dashboard, institutions can now generate yield on their core digital asset holdings:
Stablecoins (USDC, USDT): Access lending yields from battle-tested protocols like Aave and Morpho, where your stablecoins earn interest by providing liquidity to borrowers – typically generating 3-8% APY depending on market conditions.
Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH): Deposit BTC and ETH into yield-generating vaults, where wrapped assets generate returns through lending strategies while maintaining exposure to the underlying asset.
The yield sources are transparent and battle-tested: lending interest from borrowers, liquidity provision rewards, and protocol incentives from the most established DeFi platforms with billions in proven track records.
In the upcoming months, Kiln is expanding the range of assets available for institutions to generate yield on.
Enterprise-grade security and risk management securing $15B in AUM
Every integrated protocol has undergone rigorous institutional evaluation, including smart contract audits, economic security assessments, and operational risk analysis. Kiln Dashboard offers a unified interface across all yield sources, providing a comprehensive portfolio view with both real-time and historical tracking of performance.
Our SOC 2-aligned infrastructure extends to DeFi operations, ensuring institutional clients maintain their compliance posture while accessing onchain yields. This includes reporting, audit trails, and the same regulatory standards that have made Kiln the trusted staking partner for major institutions.
What this means for institutions
Unified operations: Instead of managing separate interfaces for staking ETH, lending USDC on Aave, and supplying BTC to Compound, institutions now access all yield opportunities through a single, familiar dashboard. The same interface, the same compliance stack, the same operational workflow – whether you're staking or lending.
Enterprise-grade reporting: Real-time and historical tracking across all positions eliminates the manual reporting errors that plague multi-protocol strategies. Every yield position, from staking rewards to lending interest, flows into comprehensive portfolio analytics that support informed, risk-adjusted decisions.
Compliance without compromise: Our infrastructure ensures institutional clients maintain their compliance posture while accessing onchain yields, with integrated sanctions, financial crime and Know Your Customer (KYC) checks powered by TRM and Kiln’s compliance team reviews.
The path forward
With the introduction of Kiln DeFi for institutions, we are paving the way for institutions to move their capital onchain and manage funds efficiently. We anticipate seeing hundreds of billions in institutional capital flowing into DeFi protocols over the next 24 months, and are excited to enable our existing partners and welcome new institutions onchain.
Ready to explore institutional DeFi opportunities?
