Spark Institutional Lending Suite Launches to Channel DeFi Stablecoins
Spark on Wednesday announced the launch of Spark Prime and Spark Institutional Loans to bring its decentralized finance (DeFi) stablecoin portfolio to the institutional lending market.
Spark, a decentralized asset broker whose lead contributor Phoenix Labs previously worked on MakerDAO's stablecoin and risk architecture, said Sweet is designed to allow borrowers to access stablecoin loans without running their own defi operations.
Spark Prime offers margin-style lending and foreign exchange leveraged by Spark's liquidity engine, while Spark Institutional Lending connects Spark-managed marketplaces to qualified custodians such as Anchorage Digital so customers can secure collateral within the regulatory protections it provides.
According to Spark, Spark Prime's early launch partners include Edge Capital, M1 and Hardcore Labs.
Sam McPherson, co-founder and CEO of Phoenix Labs, told Cointelegraph that institutional lending had about $150 million in commitments and “has the potential to reach a billion in the coming months,” while Spark Prime will start at around $15 million and grow gradually as “key security features” are released.
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Spark is supported by Coinbase and PayPal offers
According to data from DeFi Lama, Spark's total value locked (TVL) currently stands at $5.24 billion, down from its peak of $9.2 billion in November 2025, placing it among the largest DeFi money market platforms by assets.
In comparison, Ave currently leads DeFi loans by TVL at $27 billion, while Maple sits at $2.1 billion.
Spark said it provided more than 80% of USDC (USDC) liquidity to Coinbase's Bitcoin-backed lending market at Morpho, helping it grow nearly $500 million in loans in its first three months. Public dashboards show that Spark-connected vaults have deployed more than $600 million to that market.
PyPay's PYUSD stablecoin program leveraged $500 million in liquidity managed by Spark to expand on-chain markets for PYUSD and other stablecoin markets.
Defin's resilience and market background
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The launch also shows how DeFi has fared in terms of token prices. Currently at $96.52 billion, DeFi's total TVL is down from $120 billion at the end of January, which represents a 20% decline compared to the broader crypto market during the recent crypto selloff.
In the same period, Bitcoin (BTC) was $89,000 at the end of January to $66,800 at the time of writing on Wednesday, a decline of about 25%, while Ether (ETH) fell by about $3,000 at the end of January, approximately $1,950, down 35%, according to Coingko data.
McPherson argued that one of the benefits of the Spark model is that “anyone can review the entire portfolio in real-time,” while institutions can write the books above their own limits and exit “if the profile doesn't match their risk controls.”
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