• And more than two-thirds plan to start using it within a year
• 38% of investors expect dramatic growth in staking of cryptos over the next three years as more investors use them to earn an income
• 32% believe lending of cryptos will increase dramatically and 17% forecast dramatic growth in borrowing
• 18% expect dramatic growth in the use of digital assets as collateral such as using Bitcoin to borrow US dollars over the next three years while 69% expect slight growth in collateralisation.
• Most institutional investors believe the risks of not participating in DeFi outweigh the risks of participation

Its study among professional investors working in eight major economies for institutions holding more than $1 trillion in assets under management in total found nearly a third (30%) of those investing in digital assets are currently using DeFi, while another 68% plan to do so within a year with 39% doing so within six months.

However, VALK says in most cases those already using DeFi are ‘testing’ the market in terms of how it works, its infrastructure and liquidity.

Growing use of DeFi is driving investment in digital and crypto assets, the research found, with 40% of those questioned expecting a dramatic increase in the level of investment and 52% expecting the level of investment to increase slightly.

Almost all the investors questioned in the UK, US, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and Brazil believe the risks of not participating in DeFi outweigh the risks of participation with 28% saying they strongly agree and 67% saying they slightly agree.

The research for VALK, which has developed Merlin, a DeFi smart wallet, and the unique Aggregator portfolio management system, enabling institutions to manage their DeFi portfolio on one interface on a smart account and is due to launch it in January 2022, found professional investors expect strong growth in the value of digital assets locked in DeFi. Merlin, the DeFi smart wallet, allows investors to monitor their DeFi positions by calculating the value of all assets held across protocols, as well as daily PNL, yield generated and a digestible description of the investor's performance. VALK’s DeFi Aggregator platform creates pools to act as a non-custodial portfolio management system for digital asset managers and funds and is an API for all protocols, connecting financial institutions to all crypto markets and enabling a variety of yield-generating strategies to be deployed.

On average investors believe the total value locked will grow to nearly $200 billion by the end of next year compared with over $80 billion in May this year and less than $1 billion in 2019. Around 14% of investors expect the value to rise to more than $300 billion by the end of 2022.

Antoine Loth of VALK said: “Institutional investors are already making use of DeFi, and adoption is progressing rapidly with most expecting to make full use of DeFi to maximise the returns and usage from their crypto and digital assets

“VALK’s aggregator is ideally suited to serve the growing institutional interest in the use of DeFi and bridges the gap between traditional financial institutions and DeFi, by solving current issues in the industry, including the regulatory landscape and security concerns surrounding DeFi.” added Elie Azzi of VALK.

The research found nearly two-fifths (38%) of investors expect dramatic growth in staking of cryptos over the next three years as more investors use them to earn an income. Around a third (32%) believe lending will increase dramatically and 17% forecast dramatic growth in borrowing.

Around a fifth (18%) expect dramatic growth in the use of digital assets as collateral such as using Bitcoin to borrow US dollars over the next three years while 68% expect slight growth in collateralisation.

The fast growth and success at Valk, which is backed by leading venture capital funds and strategic financial investors such as SIX Group, Ascension Ventures and Metavallon, has been recognised by inclusion in the Financial Conduct Authority regulatory sandbox and Tech Nation’s Fintech 4.0.

It has won awards for its first technology solution which enables clients including investment banks, hedge funds, family offices, fund managers and asset managers to digitise processes and assets to become more profitable and target new opportunities through secondary trading and access to exchanges

The brainchild of founders Antoine Loth and Elie Azzi, VALK, which launched in 2019, aims to make global private markets digital and connected by offering a seamless end-to-end solution which improves processes and transforms how private transactions are conducted.

VALK has won Best Distributed Ledger Technology Project at the 2021 Sell-Side Technology Awards 2021 and was highly commended as Technology Provider of the Year at the 2021 Asset Management Awards. It has also been nominated for the FStech Awards.

Notes to Editors
• * Independent research company PureProfile interviewed 100 professional investors working for institutional investors, hedge funds, fund managers, pension funds, investment banks, private equity and venture capital in the UK, US, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and Brazil in October 2021
• *** https://cointelegraph.com/news/institutional-investors-dominated-the-defi-scene-in-q2-chainalysis-report

About VALK
VALK is building decentralized infrastructure for capital markets. Our solution allows financial institutions to transform their business by making their transaction processes and workflows 100% digital, tokenizing their assets on Corda. On top of this, our platform connects clients to a wider ecosystem of financial institutions as well as innovative DeFi products, liquidity, and portfolio management solutions. Today VALK is used by more than 80 investment banks, hedge funds, asset managers, family offices, fund managers and individual private companies (large, SME, start-ups) in more than 20 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America, and South America. VALK has supported more than 4bn USD worth of deals in the last year and is integrated with the main DeFi protocols.

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