- Daniel Kim went from traditional banking to Crypto, led Maple Finance and co-founder of Volta to improve institutional lending and safety.
- He sees the role of Bitcoin in Defi growth, with BTC derivatives and Lightning Bitcoin that improves institutional loans and liquidity in blockchain financing.
The financial world is constantly changing, but few people have adapted as quickly as Daniel Kim. From his early days in traditional banking until now moving invention in DefiDaniel’s Pad is one of flexibility, courage and ahead. Because he has so much experience, he currently leads the unsecured crypto credit revolution.
Daniel Kim: See further than traditional banking
Daniel developed his talents in the traditional financial sector long before he crypto room. Starting his career at various prestigious companies, including BNP Paribas and State Street, where he focused on fixed -income capital markets.
His time there helped him to have a strong consciousness of how money flows, which manages and how he can best use the financial system.
However, one thing bothered him that everything: traditional financial procedures were overly slow and rigid. Conversely, he began to notice innovation in the crypto room. Daniel gradually began to see the prospect outside the traditional bank structure.
From banking to blockchain leadership
Daniel came to a life -changing decision in 2016. He left the conveniences of banking and joined Gemini exchangeA crypto exchange started by the Winklevoss -Weeling. He was responsible for creating services for institutional customers there, especially with regard to digital assets trade and guardianship.
This promotion has unlocked different doors. After Gemini he joined Itbit (now Paxos), where he played an important role in acquiring his New York Trust Charter. This was an important achievement that ITBIT would run as a regulated financial entity – a rarity in the crypto space at that time.
Yet the actual difficulty started. Daniel wanted more than just to ride on the Golf; Crypto exploded. He wanted to create something that could really transform the financial landscape.
Daniel Kim: Crypto -Loingen again define at Maple Finance
After having worked for various crypto companies for a few years, Daniel joined the American Sfox, a prime brokerage. There he developed an improved liquidity system for institutional investors. Yet his ambitions went beyond that.
He joined Maple Finance as head of the capital markets in 2021. More than just a Defi platform, Maple Finance is a location where companies and institutions can obtain crypto loans that can be free of collateral. Most credit platforms are still based on considerable amounts of collateral, so this approach is very different from them.
Moreover, Maple Finance continued to expand under the direction of Daniel. Expand to the Solana blockchain after the acquisition of Avari, a credit system based on Solanawas one of the most important achievements. Because of this movement, Maple Finance can increase the range -offering and help more projects with the growing blockchain ecosystem.
A new standard for protection against digital assets
Not content with just creating maple financing, Daniel also continued to look for new approaches to increase the security and efficiency of the industry. He was co-founder of the Volta circuit in 2024 together with former Sfox CTO George Melika. Volta is a digital asset security system using non-custodial multi-signature technology using institutional investments.
In the crypto space, security has always been a great issue, especially for large investors who handle huge amounts of money. With Volta, Daniel aimed to fully solve this problem. The project developed market confidence fairly quickly. To help them promote their technology, they indeed obtained $ 4.1 million for seed financing.
Institutional potential unlocking with BTC
Daniel now keeps an eye on the trends in the crypto industry and he finds it use Bitcoin Particularly interesting in the Defi -Ecosystem. He believes that in the near future more credit platforms will use Bitcoin derivatives as collateral and will open more options for institutional investors.
Moreover, he sees Lightning Bitcoin (LBTC) as a development in lowering the counterparty risks and stimulating liquidity. If this tendency continues to expand, Bitcoin can become more important in the financial system -based financial system.
