Compound, one of the oldest DeFi lending protocols, has overhauled its leadership and approved a record $52 million budget as it pivots to serving institutional clients.

The plan centers on real-world assets, partner integrations and credit infrastructure built to meet TradFi compliance and technical standards. It comes as Compound tries to revive growth after its total value locked slid to $1.2 billion from a $12 billion peak in 2021, leaving it far behind Aave's $14.8 billion. Compound says it has processed about $480 billion in volume since 2018.

The new bench pulls executives from Near, Maple Finance, Coinbase Custody, Anchorage and HSBC, part of a broader DeFi shift toward institutions as the sector leans on tokenized real-world assets for its next leg of growth.

Get Your Instant BTC Cashback | Your Gateway To Crypto | Arcus Private Whitelist