From experimental to essential: Stablecoins as the first bridge for institutional capital

Source: Galaxy Digital Asset Management, The Investable Universe 2.0: Institutional Adoption in Motion (Oct 2025)

Stablecoins have quietly become the most credible bridge between traditional finance and DeFi. According to Galaxy’s 2025 Investable Universe 2.0 report, global stablecoin supply now exceeds $275 billion, up from $125 billion two years ago, reflecting accelerating adoption by trading firms, corporates, and institutions seeking liquidity and yield. This isn’t retail-driven growth anymore, it’s a sign that institutional capital is finally settling onchain.

Stablecoins: the liquidity foundation of DeFi’s next chapter

Stablecoins have evolved from speculative instruments into core settlement assets. Galaxy’s data shows that stablecoins now represent the majority of onchain transaction volume, making them the functional base layer of crypto’s financial infrastructure.

Their appeal is straightforward: transparent, dollar-denominated liquidity that moves natively across blockchains without reliance on traditional intermediaries.

Yet while institutions are comfortable holding stablecoins, deploying them productively remains a missing piece. Yield fragmentation across protocols like Aave, Morpho, Euler, Maple, Compound, Sky, Spark, and others means allocators must constantly rebalance positions to maintain competitive, risk-adjusted returns.

The Lazy Summer protocol addresses this challenge by providing automated exposure management and continuous portfolio rebalancing across strategies curated by independent risk managers such as Block Analitica. Through the Summer.fi institutional interface, professional allocators can access that automation via a single integration, with the ability to configure custom parameters, access controls, and reporting.

The institutional stablecoin stack

The institutional adoption curve for stablecoins follows a familiar path:

1. Custody & compliance - regulated custodians and administrators enable secure fiat-to-chain operations.
2. Liquidity management - Corporations and funds adopt stablecoins for operational cash and settlement.
3. Yield strategies - allocators deploying stablecoin reserves into onchain credit and collateralized lending.
4. Automated vault strategies - capital is deployed through structured, policy-driven vaults with optional automation and oversight.

The Summer.fi Institutional Vaults automate the third step curating, diversifying, and optimizing yield access across decentralized markets, with configurable exposure rules. Institutions can choose between public vaults (curated by independent risk managers) and self-managed vaults, where access is restricted to whitelisted addresses and strategy logic can be fully customized.

For skeptics: why this matters

As institutional participation grows, yield spreads will inevitably compress. That’s precisely when automation becomes essential.

Rebalancing, a key component of the Lazy Summer Protocol, continuously reallocates capital across approved strategies when conditions change, preserving efficiency without requiring manual repositioning. Each movement occurs within parameters set by governance and independent risk curators, ensuring accountability and predictability.

This approach mirrors institutional treasury systems designed to maintain performance not by chasing returns, but by intelligently managing exposure.

“Stablecoins have become the connective tissue between DeFi and traditional finance.”

-Galaxy Digital, The Investable Universe 2.0

What this means for DeFi’s future

As stablecoins become standard infrastructure, yield generation will shift from opportunistic farming to efficient credit allocation. The protocols that abstract away operational complexity, without sacrificing transparency, will dominate. In that world, Lazy Summer’s approach is simple: let institutions bring the liquidity, and let automation deliver the optimization.

The future of institutional DeFi

As stablecoins mature into standard infrastructure, yield generation is shifting from opportunistic farming to data-driven, automated credit allocation. The winning protocols will be those that abstract operational complexity without sacrificing transparency or control.

In that environment, the Lazy Summer Protocol provides the foundation, while Summer.fi offers the access layer—non-custodial, configurable, and built for institutions that require security, oversight, and efficiency.

Automation is not the strategy. It’s the infrastructure that powers it.

Interested in integrating?

Getting access to on-chain yield no longer needs to be complicated. If you’re interested in discovering how Summer.fi Institutional would work for you and your clients, get in touch with a member of the team.
🌐 Website: https://summer.fi/institutions
📅 Book a call: https://calendly.com/summer-fi/summer-institutional

Disclaimer: Oazo Apps Limited functions solely as a front-end interface (Summer.fi) provider and it does not act on behalf of any user. Oazo Apps Limited did not launch nor does it operate or control the Lazy Summer Protocol. The Lazy Summer Protocol is accessed through Summer.fi. The information provided herein is provided on behalf of the Lazy Summer Foundation which launched the Protocol for informational purposes only and it does not constitute investment advice. Oazo Apps Limited and the Lazy Summer Foundation are not soliciting or recommending any transaction or guaranteeing any specific returns. Users interact with the Protocol at their own risk. T&C for the use of Summer.fi apply.