Aave Announces Its Savings App
Aave, the largest decentralized crypto lending and borrowing protocol, launched a consumer savings app that more people should be excited about. Up to 9% APY on your cash, $1M in deposit insurance, and a balance that updates every second are some of the key features to look forward to.
Aave’s app is powered by crypto infrastructure on the backend but does away with the seed phrases, wallet management, and other friction points that make onboarding to crypto so challenging. Packaged in a slick UI, users will be able to fund their savings account by simply connecting an existing bank account or card. You can join the waitlist here.
Our Take
Aave’s savings app embodies the “DeFi mullet,” an idea that crypto advocates have talked about for years. The concept is simple: an intuitive, consumer-friendly app front-end with a serious crypto infrastructure back-end.
Consumers get something that looks like a normal high-yield savings account, but with features and rates that beat most banks and money market funds.
We expect the “DeFi mullet” will apply beyond new apps from crypto-native companies. Banks and other traditional financial institutions will likely integrate products, like stablecoins, in the same way. Your bank account will look and feel as it does today, but on the back-end, your bank will be hooked into crypto rails that allow for money to move in seconds rather than days.
Texas, Harvard, And The UAE Announce Bitcoin Purchases
November marked another month of Bitcoin’s growing institutional adoption. The State of Texas, Harvard University’s endowment fund, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council all added Bitcoin to their balance sheets.
Texas made history by becoming the first U.S. state to purchase Bitcoin for its newly legislated Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The state made an initial $5 million purchase out of the $10M it is authorized to spend on acquiring Bitcoin.
In the same month, SEC filings revealed Harvard University’s endowment fund had tripled its Bitcoin exposure in Q3. The $326 million in new holdings is a massive vote of confidence from a traditionally conservative asset manager.
Lastly, the Abu Dhabi Investment Council (a UAE sovereign wealth arm) reportedly tripled its Bitcoin exposure, pushing its holdings to over $500 million.
Our Take
Historically, reputational risk has been one of the primary barriers to entry for institutional allocators. If an investment manager bought Bitcoin and it crashed, they were fired. If they ignored it and it rallied, they were "prudent."
When stewards of multi-billion dollar investment funds start buying Bitcoin, it suddenly grants implicit permission for every other investment committees to do the same. Slowly but surely, we expect the narrative will shift from “owning Bitcoin is reckless” to “not having Bitcoin exposure is risky.”
J.P. Morgan Launches JPMD Token On Base
J.P. Morgan has launched its new deposit token “JPMD” on Base, an Ethereum Layer 2. JPMD represents a 1:1 claim on a U.S. Dollar deposit, and it is exclusively for institutional clients (i.e. corporations, asset managers, etc.) who have completed extensive KYC/AML checks.
Unlike a stablecoin, JPMD is a direct bank liability. This means it is subject to the same strict regulatory, capital, and liquidity requirements as a traditional bank deposit. The deposits are also eligible for FDIC insurance, a protection that non-bank stablecoins (like USDC or USDT) simply do not offer.
The launch on Base allows these institutional clients to move dollars between each other 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with settlement in mere seconds. This is opposed to the limitations of traditional bank wires which have cut-off times and are unavailable on weekends.
Clients can use the token to directly interact with the growing ecosystem of Tokenized Real-World Assets (RWA) and other compliant onchain DeFi applications.
Our Take
This is a big deal because it validates:
There is value for institutions to use public blockchains, benefiting assets like ETH, and that their onchain activity won’t be limited to private and permissioned blockchains alone.
Financial institutions see the efficiencies that come with 24/7 settlement via a public blockchain versus legacy financial infrastructure. We see this as a strong signal that institutions will continue to adopt public blockchain infrastructure.
Tokenized real-world assets and DeFi have staying power. While it's too early to tell which trading and liquidity venues will win (we have some ideas and are positioned accordingly), it's clear DeFi has a path to broader adoption within the financial services industry.
We’ll be keeping an eye out to see if other large institutional players follow suit in 2026 and beyond.
About Triple Point Strategy
Triple Point Strategy is a research firm and crypto investment manager. We operate the Marietta DeFi Fund, a crypto investment fund that is focused on capital appreciation and DeFi-native income strategies. It is currently available to U.S. accredited investors. Subscribe below to receive our latest insights directly in your inbox.
For U.S. accredited investors only. Offered under Rule 506(c) of Regulation D. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or tax advice. This is not an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any security. Any investment may only be made through the Fund's confidential offering documents. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of capital. Digital assets are volatile and subject to changing regulations.