Under-Collateralized Crypto Lending Brings Credit Risk Onchain

Credit risk has moved onchain. Active on-chain private credit rose from roughly $0.40 billion at the start of 2025 to $2.29 billion by March 31, 2026, and that surge is overwhelmingly concentrated in a single venue: Maple Finance, which expanded its active loan book from $0.21 billion to $2.13 billion over the same period, or about 93.1% market share. The numbers come from CoinGecko’s sector reporting based on DeFiLlama data, which shows the step change in scale and concentration across protocols through the end of Q1 2026 (CoinGecko 2026 RWA Report). That shift is timely because on-chain private credit relies on borrower underwriting and real counterparty performance, not only on-chain collateral. CoinGecko also highlights that Maple’s recent growth is driven by loans to crypto-native market makers and trading firms, a borrower mix whose balance sheets can be tightly coupled to crypto market volatility. Correlation risk is therefore embedded in the leading venue for this activity (CoinGecko). At the same time, the yields on offer have been compelling. Maple reported its High Yield Secured product delivered a 16.83% net APY during 2024, with secured pools remaining overcollateralized through the year, a partial liquidation executed in August 2024, and 61 margin calls cured on average within roughly three hours (Maple Yield Performance 2024). These datapoints, alongside raw on-chain dashboards that catalog private-credit assets and TVL by product line, such as DeFiLlama’s RWA listings where Syrup USDC shows an active market cap above $1.3 billion, indicate both scale and investor appetite (DeFiLlama RWA dashboards). From overcollateralized DeFi to concentrated on-chain credit What changed is not just growth, but composition. Early DeFi lending skewed to overcollateralized, algorithmic markets. The current expansion routes more capital through credit underwriting and borrower performance, often with limited or offchain collateral. CoinGecko’s analysis shows this activity has not diversified evenly across protocols; it has concentrated in Maple, and within Maple, in crypto-native credit exposures (CoinGecko). Maple’s own disclosures show a platform that scaled meaningfully before the broader sector inflected: the protocol said TVL reached as high as $600 million during Q4 2024 and loans outstanding grew 23% quarter over quarter that quarter (Maple Q4 2024 Treasury Report). As liquidity migrated into private credit strategies, on-chain datasets tracked by DeFiLlama captured an expanding roster of RWA and private-credit products, making the growth legible to the market in near real time (DeFiLlama). The data: $2.29B in loans, with Maple at ≈93% The clearest evidence is the loan book arithmetic through March 31, 2026. Sector totals and Maple’s share, as compiled by CoinGecko from DeFiLlama’s on-chain metrics, point to a market that grew and centralized at the same time.