Blueprint Finance has completed a strategic funding round led by Polychain Capital to expand Concrete, its on-chain vault infrastructure for institutions, protocols, and asset managers.

Blueprint Finance said on Aug. 19 that Bullish, Keyrock, BitGo, FalconX, G-20, Flowdesk, JPEG Trading, Sentient Capital, Andes and 2Square also participated in the round. The company did not disclose the amount raised or its valuation.

The financing will support further development of Concrete, which Blueprint describes as full-stack infrastructure for creating and managing vaults that deploy capital across on-chain strategies. Its system combines execution, accounting, risk controls, rebalancing and integrations with other protocols within the same vault architecture.

For institutions and asset managers, Blueprint said the structure is intended to reduce the operational work involved in managing strategies across separate DeFi protocols. The company has also been working with asset issuers, networks and institutional allocators on vaults that can support on-chain yield products and provide liquidity infrastructure.

Blueprint Finance funding will support Concrete’s vault infrastructure

Concrete is being developed around vaults that function as programmable capital allocation systems, allowing strategy rules and operational controls to be packaged within an on-chain product.

Blueprint said professional allocators require auditable accounting, defined operational permissions, scalable execution and transparent risk controls alongside access to DeFi markets. The company is positioning Concrete as the infrastructure connecting those requirements with on-chain execution.

“DeFi is moving beyond the era where capital allocation was defined by chasing the highest advertised yield,” Blueprint Finance CEO and co-founder Nic Roberts-Huntley said.

Roberts-Huntley said professional allocators increasingly need “controls, transparency, automation, and risk management” while retaining the features available through on-chain markets. He said the latest investor group brings experience from different parts of the digital asset industry as Blueprint expands Concrete.

Alongside its vault infrastructure, Blueprint is developing AssetCX and concUSD as additional products within the Concrete ecosystem. According to the company, the products are intended to extend Concrete into the development of new on-chain assets, markets and financial products.

The investor list also puts several companies involved in institutional crypto infrastructure behind the project. BitGo operates custody and trading infrastructure, while FalconX, Keyrock and Flowdesk have businesses spanning institutional trading, liquidity and market making.

Institutional DeFi access has added more controls

BitGo, one of the participants in Blueprint’s round, has expanded its own infrastructure for institutions seeking access to DeFi markets.

In June, crypto.news reported that BitGo had opened institutional DeFi access to Aave, Spark and Tesseract through an integration with Narval. Eligible institutions can interact with the protocols while their assets remain in wallets within BitGo Bank & Trust’s qualified custody environment.

Narval checks transaction details, approved smart contracts and internal policy rules before BitGo authorizes wallet signing requests. The setup allows institutional clients to define which protocols, addresses and transaction types can be used before assets interact with supported applications.

BitGo has continued building institutional infrastructure since then. On Aug. 3, the company launched Link, a dashboard that gives institutions a consolidated view of exchange balances, transfers, permissions and settlement across connected trading venues. The platform includes outside exchange accounts alongside assets held at BitGo and calculates buying power across connected venues.

The company also formed an institutional staking partnership with HashKey Cloud in July. Under the arrangement, HashKey Cloud provides non-custodial staking services to BitGo’s institutional clients, adding another service alongside its custody and DeFi infrastructure.

For Blueprint, Roberts-Huntley said the mix of companies in the strategic round was important because the investors operate across several parts of the digital asset market.

“Who participated in this round is as important to us as the capital itself,” he said.

DeFi vault products have expanded in 2026

Other crypto companies have also moved into managed vault infrastructure this year as firms package lending, yield and tokenized asset strategies into products that can be accessed through a single interface.

Wintermute entered the sector on May 19 when it launched the Armitage vault, its first direct move into DeFi vault curation. The trading firm said Armitage was designed to accept collateral types that competing curators may consider too complex or illiquid.

Built around Morpho’s vault model, the product allows an independent curator to determine strategy, collateral requirements and risk parameters without taking custody of depositor funds. Wintermute had not disclosed Armitage’s initial assets under management, targeted annual percentage yields or the specific collateral it planned to accept when the product was launched.

The move extended Wintermute’s operations from market making and liquidity provision into managed on-chain yield infrastructure. Bitwise had entered Morpho’s curator market earlier in 2026 with a product targeting institutional USDC depositors through overcollateralized lending markets.

Tokenized real-world assets have provided another use case for vault infrastructure.

On June 4, Plume and Ether.fi launched a $100 million RWA vault that gives Ether.fi users access to tokenized yield products from within its application. Ether.fi provided an exclusive $100 million allocation to the vault.

Plume said the underlying strategies included institutional assets such as overcollateralized credit pools, collateralized loan obligations and bond exchange-traded funds. Ether.fi said the product was designed for users seeking yield strategies with institutional risk controls and less direct exposure to conventional DeFi strategies.

Vault infrastructure is reaching crypto wallets

Distribution of tokenized yield products has also moved into crypto wallets, giving vault providers another route to reach users without requiring them to navigate individual protocols.

In July, Binance Wallet added Plume’s nBASIS vault, providing access to tokenized products tied to Bitwise and Invesco from within the wallet. The vault connects users with Bitwise’s USCC cash-and-carry fund and Invesco’s USTB tokenized Treasury product.

Plume had previously expanded its vault distribution through Ether.fi and Bybit, creating several access points for tokenized real-world asset yield. Its Binance Wallet integration placed Treasury and market-neutral strategies inside an interface already used for managing crypto assets.

Concrete is focused on the infrastructure used to construct and operate such on-chain vaults. Blueprint said its architecture combines automated execution, accounting, risk controls and quantitative strategy tooling for institutions, protocols, asset issuers and other capital allocators.

Roberts-Huntley said the companies participating in Blueprint’s financing bring experience across liquidity, execution, custody and distribution. Polychain Capital led the round, with Bullish, Keyrock, BitGo, FalconX, G-20, Flowdesk, JPEG Trading, Sentient Capital, Andes and 2Square participating.

Nexo has begun offering regulated, crypto-backed credit lines to eligible customers in Australia, positioning the service as a way to access liquidity without selling digital assets. The company said the rollout follows its registration as a credit representative under Australia’s National Consumer Credit Protection Act.

In an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on Tuesday, Nexo described credit lines that let borrowers take Australian dollars or stablecoins, while posting cryptocurrency collateral. The firm said payouts are typically available within 24 hours and that the products come with flexible repayment structures, no fixed term, and no origination fees.

Key takeaways

• Nexo Australia launched crypto-backed credit lines after becoming a credit representative under Australia’s National Consumer Credit Protection Act.
• Eligible customers can borrow either Australian dollars or stablecoins using cryptocurrency collateral, avoiding asset sales.
• Availability is generally within 24 hours, with flexible repayments and no fixed term or origination fees.
• Interest rates are described as ranging from 0.9% to 21.9%, tied to the selected credit line and the customer’s loyalty tier.
• Nexo cautioned that borrowing against digital assets involves margin-call and liquidation risks if collateral value declines.

What Nexo’s Australia launch covers

According to Nexo, the new credit lines are designed for clients who want to unlock value from their holdings without liquidating them. Borrowers can choose between taking funds in Australian dollars or in stablecoins, with their cryptocurrency acting as collateral.

The firm also said there are two variants—Smart and Standard credit lines. Peter Stanhope, general manager at Nexo Australia, told Cointelegraph that the main differences are in interest rates, which assets can be used as collateral, and how collateral is managed when a borrower’s loan-to-value ratio rises.

Rates, repayment terms, and product differences

Nexo said the credit lines generally have no fixed term and include flexible repayment options, alongside “no origination fees.” It also provided a wide interest-rate range—0.9% to 21.9%—depending on both the particular credit line and the customer’s loyalty tier.

While Nexo did not break down the full pricing schedule in the announcement, its explanation of Smart versus Standard credits focused on practical risk mechanics: the way collateral is handled as leverage increases. That matters for borrowers because crypto markets can move quickly, and changes in collateral value can directly affect whether a margin call is triggered.

Collateral risk: margin calls and possible liquidation

Nexo stressed that borrowing against digital assets carries built-in downside protections for the lender—along with potential losses for the borrower. In its statement, the company said credit products involve margin-call and liquidation risks. If the value of posted collateral falls, clients could lose some or all of their collateral.

For users, this highlights a key trade-off of crypto-backed lending: liquidity is obtained without selling, but the loan structure effectively subjects collateral to price volatility. Borrowers considering the service will need to understand how the loan-to-value ratio is calculated and what thresholds prompt additional collateral demands or liquidation events.

Regulatory milestone and compliance positioning in Australia

Nexo’s move is described as a regulatory milestone in a market where consumer credit rules have been a central theme. The company said its Australian entity is registered with AUSTRAC as a virtual asset service provider and that it is a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). These details place the firm within Australia’s broader compliance and dispute-resolution frameworks.

The launch also arrives after another notable step by a competitor earlier in the decade of Australia’s evolving crypto regulation. In May 2026, Block Earner became the first crypto loans company in Australia to secure its own Australian Credit License from ASIC, according to coverage Cointelegraph previously published here.

That comparison underscores an important distinction in how credit is being structured and authorized across the industry. Nexo’s approach hinges on being a credit representative under Australia’s consumer credit framework, while Block Earner’s earlier milestone involved obtaining a credit license from ASIC. For borrowers, the practical difference can come down to how lending activities are authorized and supervised, and what protections apply.

Why this matters for borrowers and the broader market

Crypto-backed loans have long appealed to users who want to maintain exposure to digital assets while accessing cash for spending or strategy changes. Nexo’s Australian rollout is notable because it frames that familiar model inside a regulated consumer credit pathway, potentially lowering friction for mainstream borrowers who want clearer standards for credit conduct and complaint handling.

At the same time, Nexo’s own warnings make clear that regulated access does not eliminate the core economic risk of lending against volatile collateral. The most consequential factor for customers will remain leverage management—how often and how quickly margin calls could be triggered as market prices change.

Investors and borrowers watching Australia’s credit market should pay attention to how these products perform during periods of volatility—especially around loan-to-value monitoring and the handling of margin events—as well as how other providers navigate the licensing versus credit-representative routes under Australia’s consumer credit regime.

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Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said cryptocurrency had moved beyond the fringes of American finance on Aug. 20, citing an industry-backed estimate that more than 67 million Americans own digital assets.

Garlinghouse made the statement after attending a White House meeting with President Donald Trump, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael Selig and cryptocurrency industry executives.

“Crypto isn’t a fringe industry,” Garlinghouse wrote on X. He also described cryptocurrency owners as an active voting group, although the cited research measured ownership and usage rather than voting intentions.