Singapore, Singapore, March 25th, 2026
Edel, a financial technology company focused on blockchain-based capital markets infrastructure, has launched its mainnet, introducing an on-chain lending market tailored to tokenized stocks. The move signals an attempt to reproduce long-standing securities lending and margin finance mechanics within a blockchain environment.
For decades the mechanics that underpin securities lending have been run by large banks and prime brokers behind institutional doors. Those intermediaries have transformed stock portfolios into sources of income by lending shares and extending credit while retaining a substantial portion of the resulting yield. That centralized infrastructure has remained complicated and largely out of reach for most individual investors.
A new wave of blockchain infrastructure firms aims to close that gap. Edel is positioning itself as a credit layer for tokenized equities, a segment of digital finance that platforms and market participants are increasingly experimenting with. The company says its architecture is purpose-built to manage the particular attributes of equities when they are represented as on-chain tokens.
The missing credit layer in tokenized markets
Tokenization has begun to alter parts of the financial system by encoding real-world assets as blockchain-based tokens. Proponents point to programmability, improved transparency, and broader global accessibility as key benefits. Equities are among the asset classes being trialed as tokens on distributed ledgers.
Despite that progress, a crucial piece of market plumbing has been largely absent from these nascent tokenized ecosystems - a functioning securities lending and credit market adapted to equity instruments. Traditional capital markets rely heavily on credit systems that enable investors to borrow against holdings, to take leveraged exposures, or to earn income by lending shares. In decentralized finance to date, lending protocols have been concentrated on crypto-native assets such as Ether or stablecoins rather than stocks.
Equities introduce a distinct set of attributes - scheduled trading hours, dividend distributions, corporate events and stock splits - factors that require different treatment than the always-on, dividend-less world of many cryptocurrencies. Edel says it has built its platform with that reality in mind.
How the platform functions
The platform enables users to deposit tokenized stocks on-chain and earn yield by lending those assets to borrowers. Borrowers, in turn, can use tokenized equities as collateral to obtain stablecoins or to increase exposure through leveraged positions. In effect, Edel seeks to recreate longstanding industry mechanics within a blockchain framework, replacing brokerage accounts and institutional lending desks with a market operated on-chain.
The company highlights a key economic distinction from traditional securities lending: where brokers and intermediaries have historically captured most of the revenue generated in lending markets, Edel’s model routes income back to users who supply liquidity to the protocol.
Designing a protocol for equity-specific complexity
Most decentralized lending markets were not originally engineered for the nuances of equities. Tokenized stocks require systems that can account for dividends, corporate restructurings and other corporate actions, as well as trading schedules that diverge from 24/7 crypto markets. Edel’s technical approach, according to the company, is built to address those equity-specific challenges and to create a lending environment tailored to stock-based assets.
By focusing on these particular requirements, the platform aims to unlock liquidity from stock portfolios without the traditional gatekeepers. Users instead interact directly with a blockchain-based market to lend, borrow and earn yield.
Early traction in test environments
Edel reports significant engagement during its pre-mainnet phase. According to the company, more than 90,000 users participated in its testnet environment, with over 10,000 active users on the Robinhood Chain testnet. The platform also became the first lending market deployed on that network, a milestone the company says helped establish its role in the initial tokenized equity ecosystem.
The company and observers note that testnet participation is not a direct predictor of sustained adoption; testnets rarely translate directly into long-term usage. Still, Edel interprets the substantial testnet numbers as an early indication of investor demand for financial primitives that let equities behave as programmable assets.
Company vision and leadership
At its core, Edel aims to move the credit markets that have historically operated off-chain onto blockchain rails. In traditional markets, securities lending and equity-backed credit make up large global industries where institutional participants routinely borrow against portfolios, generate yield via lending, or employ margin to amplify returns. Much of that infrastructure is centralized, opaque and reserved for professional market players.
"We are building the credit market for tokenized equities," said Andrés Soltermann, co-founder of Edel. "For decades, banks and prime brokers have been the ones unlocking liquidity from stock portfolios. By moving this infrastructure on a chain, we are giving investors direct access to the same financial mechanics in a transparent and global system."
In a notable institutional hire, Edel has added Brad Klaas to its team. Klaas previously served as Global Head of Securities Lending at BlackRock, where he oversaw one of the largest securities lending programs in the world, managing tens of billions in lendable assets and working directly with prime brokers, custodians, and institutional counterparties.
Limitations and signals
While Edel’s mainnet launch formalizes its technical offering, questions about long-term adoption remain. The company’s testnet metrics provide a signal of interest but, as the firm itself acknowledges, do not guarantee sustained usage. The complexities inherent in equity markets - from dividend flows to corporate events and non-continuous trading hours - represent technical and operational hurdles that any on-chain system for stocks must address.
Nonetheless, Edel’s announcement establishes a dedicated on-chain credit market for tokenized equities and places the company among early entrants attempting to bridge traditional securities lending economics and blockchain infrastructure.
Contact and additional information
Website: https://www.edel.finance/
X: https://x.com/edeldotfinance
Contact - Co-founder Andrés Soltermann: [email protected]
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