Automatic yield safes have led to growth as large investors dominated the capital flow.
According to a new report from investment company Keylock and Chain asset manager Maple Finance, the investment company’s Keylock and Chain asset manager, on-chain asset management has been having a strong year, doubling it in 2025 (AUM).
The report found that total AUM across automated collection strategies, discretionary strategies, structured products and chain credits has grown by 118% to $35 billion so far this year.
The three protocols, Morpho, Pendle and Maple themselves, account for 31% of the total. Morpho boasts a total of $7.14 billion in locked (TVL)-on-chain, Pendle’s TVL is $8.3 billion, and Maple’s TVL is $2.7 billion per defilama data.
Most depositors are small investors, called “shrimps,” and hold under $10,000 on on-chain protocols. However, the majority of capital comes from large investors, including “dolfines” (over $100,000) and “whales” (over $1 million).
Additionally, the report identified automated yields as the main entry point for allocators, marking the largest share of AUM at $18 billion.
On-Chain vs. cordfi
The findings show that on-chain strategies are no longer experimental. Instead, they offer competitive returns and are often more transparent and accessible than traditional financial products.
However, the findings highlighted some risks of on-chain strategies, including smart contract exploits, limited market capacity capabilities, and variable returns.
“The evolution of on-chain asset management in 2025 demonstrates that on-chain strategies are a viable and scalable component of the global financial environment,” the report states.
“Onchain Asset Management is a blueprint for the next generation of capital markets, in that it is programmable, transparent and configurable by default.”
Specifically, automatic yield safes outweigh traditional passive investments of around 186bps after fees, the report notes. On the other hand, discretionary strategies offer similar returns to TradFi.
Structured products and on-chain credits are slightly less after the fee, but still perform better. APY of 10.3%, discretionary strategy is 9.7% APY, automated strategy 8%, and on-chain credit 7.5%.
Growth is coming
Looking ahead, the report authors state that the next phase of on-chain asset management will be shaped by the “interactions of innovation, complexity and institutional adoption.”
They predict that AUM could grow from $35 billion to $64 billion in the next cycle, eventually becoming a “built-in infrastructure for global allocators”, driven by stronger governance, deeper liquidity and an increase in institutional investors.
Keyrock is a global crypto investment company specializing in market production, OTC and options trading, and Maple is the $4 billion on-chain asset manager at AUM.
Last week, today, Syrupusd’s Maple’s $200 million pre-deposit deposit deposit, Stablecoin blockchain plasma, which just launched its mainnet beta, was almost instantly filled.