Multicoin says DeFi 1.0 tools were built for volatile crypto, not tokenized traditional assets
Multicoin Capital argues that the core machinery of DeFi 1.0 was designed around the traits of native crypto assets such as BTC, ETH, SOL and HYPE: high volatility, heavy speculation, long-tail token supply and permissionless access. In that setting, automated market makers, perpetual futures, overcollateralized lending and floating-rate pools made sense, even if they looked inefficient through a traditional finance lens. The firm’s latest market structure essay says that logic breaks down as tokenized U.S. Treasuries, equities, corporate credit, commodities and FX move on-chain in greater size.
The paper lays out what it calls a DeFi 2.0 stack. For lower-volatility assets with tighter spreads, defined maturities, predictable cash flows, stronger collateral and more identifiable borrowers, Multicoin sees central limit order books, RFQ systems, propAMMs, fixed-rate lending, rate derivatives, options, repos, dark pools, dated futures and portfolio margin becoming much more important. It also argues that value capture will not be limited to one layer. Blockchains, core protocols, aggregation and prime-brokerage functions, and customer-facing applications that control order flow could all benefit if RWA activity expands on-chain. In Multicoin’s view, the next phase after tokenization is making those assets actually useful once they are on-chain.
