Maple Finance CEO Declares 'DeFi is Dead,' Predicts Onchain Markets Will Dominate Wall Street

Sidney Powell, the CEO of Maple Finance, has made a bold proclamation about the future of finance, stating that decentralized finance (DeFi) as a standalone concept is "dead." However, this declaration is not a bearish signal but a vision of evolution. Powell argues that the core innovations of DeFi—transparency, efficiency, and accessibility—are being absorbed into a broader, more powerful trend: the rise of onchain capital markets. He predicts these blockchain-native markets will ultimately "swallow" traditional Wall Street institutions by offering superior technology and infrastructure for global lending, borrowing, and asset management. This shift signifies a move from niche DeFi protocols to institutional-grade, compliant onchain financial systems that can handle real-world assets (RWAs) and large-scale capital.