DeFi for the Masses? Alchemy Says Wall Street Is Quietly Growing a ‘DeFi Mullet’
According to blockchain infrastructure giant Alchemy, some of the biggest names in banking and fintech—think Fidelity, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Revolut, and Robinhood—are now moving full speed ahead toward bringing decentralized finance (DeFi) to the masses. But they’re doing it in a way you might not expect.
“We call it the ‘DeFi mullet,’” says Guillaume Poncin, CTO of Alchemy. “It’s TradFi in the front, DeFi in the back.”
What Is a “DeFi Mullet,” Anyway?
The term might sound playful, but it describes a serious shift in how financial services are delivered. On the surface, users interact with sleek, regulated platforms that feel just like the apps and banks they’re used to. But under the hood, DeFi protocols are doing all the heavy lifting—automated lending, borrowing, and yield strategies—all without users ever having to think about smart contracts or crypto wallets.
Also read: How to Invest in DeFi: A Guide to Decentralized Finance
This approach is a far cry from the early days of DeFi, when users had to brave the wild world of MetaMask, gas fees, and risky interfaces. Now, companies are abstracting all of that complexity away. “If you’re Nike or Stripe, you want to provide crypto wallets to your users they don’t even know about,” said Poncin. “They’re completely invisible under-the-hood wallets.”
The Big Players Want In
According to Poncin, traditional firms are no longer on the sidelines—they’re actively building. “I see firms like Fidelity, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Revolut, and Robinhood, who are all at different stages of evolution, but who all want to allow their users to take their funds—like their USD or fiat—and use DeFi tools,” he said.
A standout example of this trend is Coinbase. The U.S.-listed crypto exchange has made it simple for users to take out loans using their bitcoin as collateral. It’s a type of margin loan that’s usually reserved for more sophisticated investors—but now, it’s just a click away.
Also read: From Banks to Blockchain: The Rise of Decentralized Finance
Poncin believes that use case could soon be replicated across traditional asset classes. “Now it should be possible for Fidelity to offer these types of margin loans against your money-market fund account,” he said. “You want a loan against your Vanguard holdings? Here is a loan. It’s that easy.”
The Tokenization Boom
At the heart of this transition is tokenization—converting real-world assets like money-market funds, private equity, or even real estate into blockchain-based tokens. Once tokenized, these assets can be plugged into DeFi protocols for instant utility.
“A lot of fintechs are looking at that as a great proof of concept of what can be done,” said Poncin. “If you’re tokenizing your money-market fund or your other assets, eventually what you want is to give your users utility over that. And the utility vehicle is DeFi.”
Also read: How RWA Tokenization Could Disrupt Financial Markets by 2030
Building the Infrastructure
Alchemy, often described as the “AWS of crypto,” has played a key role in making this infrastructure possible. The company began about five years ago as a developer platform for large-scale blockchain builds. Since then, it has rolled out APIs that allow developers to seamlessly integrate data indexing, smart contract automation, and user-friendly crypto wallets into their apps.
And these aren’t your typical wallets that require Chrome extensions and 12-word seed phrases. “The old school way with blockchain wallets would involve installing MetaMask, but that’s a very cumbersome process,” Poncin explained.
Now, the goal is frictionless UX. “We want wallets that feel invisible and intuitive,” he said. And that’s exactly what Alchemy is delivering to fintechs and Fortune 500s alike.
DeFi: The Utility Layer for the Future
While DeFi started as a playground for crypto-native users, its next act may be powering the backend of the entire financial system—without most people even realizing it.
As regulation opens doors and tech platforms like Alchemy smooth out the user experience, DeFi is no longer just a niche experiment. It’s becoming a utility layer for everything from borrowing against your mutual fund to paying for your next pair of sneakers.
And whether you call it a “DeFi mullet” or just the next phase of fintech evolution, one thing is clear: Wall Street and Silicon Valley are ready to let DeFi quietly take the wheel.
