Clearpool Prime, Clearpool’s revolutionary institutional – grade credit marketplace, has gone live on Optimism’s OP Mainnet. The first loan on Clearpool Prime has been initiated by Portofino Technologies, a crypto-native HFT market-making institution that uses its cutting-edge technology to reduce the frictions of buying and selling digital assets across exchange and OTC markets. The lender in this first transaction on Clearpool Prime is Azure Tide, a digital asset lender that counts many traditional family offices and institutions as clients.
“Traditional money is predominantly still waiting on the sidelines due to concerns around compliance and security,” said Benjamin Zhu from Azure Tide. “Clearpool Prime offers a comprehensive solution addressing these concerns with the integration of KYC providers and non-custodial smart contracts that minimize counterparty risks.”
“Clearpool Prime represents a significant step towards restoring confidence in on-chain credit markets. We are excited to collaborate with institutions like Azure Tide, which are seeking compliant ways to allocate into digital asset credit for KYC’d borrowers. As traditional private credit migrates on-chain, we look forward to seeing Clearpool Prime scale and become a prominent platform over the coming years,” said Jae Park, CFO of Portofino Technologies.
The New Frontier of Private Credit
Clearpool Prime marks the new frontier of private credit, seamlessly bridging the gap between the traditional private credit market (currently $1.5 trillion and expected to reach $2.3 trillion by 2027, according to Morgan Stanley) and decentralized lending ecosystems. Clearpool Prime represents the next evolution of pools specifically designed to cater to the growing demand from institutions following the launch of Clearpool’s first permissioned pool in partnership with Jane Street and BlockTower last year and Portofino Technologies and Azure Tide this year.
“The launch of Clearpool Prime is a significant milestone in bridging the gap between traditional private credit and DeFi, catering to the growing demand from institutions. With a focus on compliance and security, Clearpool Prime empowers established institutional non-crypto borrowers and lenders to navigate the complexities of DeFi credit and pave the way for a more efficient and inclusive financial system powered by blockchain technology.” – Jakob Kronbichler, CEO & Co-founder of Clearpool.
Built to Solve TradFi’s Challenge of Compliant Access to DeFi
Over the past year, institutions have had increasing demand for compliant access to DeFi. Clearpool Prime was built, tested, and audited to address this challenge and solve many systemic problems that led to risk in the CeFi lending market in 2022.
Prime enables institutions to transact through non-custodial smart contracts in a fully compliant, KYC’d environment. Whitelisted borrowers can launch pools with tailored terms and invite similarly whitelisted lenders to participate, increasing capital efficiency, transparency, and security. The development of Clearpool Prime was completed in April 2023 and has been rigorously tested by institutions over the past few months.
Driving Demand for CPOOL
Clearpool Prime, like Clearpool’s permissionless protocol, secures revenue from the loans originated through the marketplace. The revenue generated from Prime will follow the same improved revenue model where 50% will be allocated to the purchase and subsequent burning of CPOOL, while the remaining 50% will accrue in the Clearpool Treasury. The launch of Clearpool Prime is a significant step that bolsters the Protocol’s unit economics and augments the CPOOL token’s intrinsic utility.
Leading Partnerships Creating a Secure Environment
Clearpool is thrilled to partner with Securitize iD, a leading platform for expanding access to real-world asset classes consistent with U.S. regulations. Securitize iD has been selected as the official Know Your Business (KYB) provider for Clearpool Prime. Their fast, compliant, and reliable identity verification process ensures a secure environment for Clearpool Prime. Hacken, one of the leading and most respected blockchain security auditors globally, has conducted the smart-contract audit of the Clearpool Prime protocol, providing an additional layer of security.
About Clearpool
Clearpool is the leading decentralized finance credit marketplace. A permissionless protocol enables institutions to raise unsecured liquidity directly from DeFi markets. At the same time, a separate, fully permissioned platform, Clearpool Prime, further meets the compliance needs for wholesale borrowing and lending of digital assets by institutional market participants. Liquidity providers on Clearpool earn attractive yields, with pool interest rates enhanced by additional rewards paid in CPOOL — the protocol’s utility and governance token. Clearpool LP tokens, called cpTokens, are the building blocks for a system of tokenized credit and on-chain risk management.
Launched in March 2022, Clearpool has originated over US$440 million in loans with a growing user base spanning both crypto and TradFi institutions such as Wintermute, Jane Street, Fasanara Digital, CoinShares, and others. The protocol launched on the Ethereum mainnet in March 2022, followed by the expansion to Polygon PoS in July 2022, to Polygon zkEVM in July 2023, and to Optimism in October 2023.