The new offerings are Spark Prime and Spark Institutional Lending. <\/p>\n
Spark<\/a>, an on-chain capital allocator incubated by Sky (formerly MakerDAO), on Wednesday, Feb. 11, launched Spark Prime and Spark Institutional Lending, two products aimed at institutional borrowers.<\/p>\n The products target the off-chain crypto lending market, which Spark estimates at about $33 billion as institutional participation in crypto continues to rise, according to a press release viewed by The Defiant.<\/p>\n Spark Prime enables institutions to use collateral across both centralized platforms and decentralized finance (DeFi) and supports margin trading and off-exchange settlement. Arkis\u2019 technology handles collateral and risk management, while Spark provides liquidity.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Spark Institutional Lending is designed for firms that want to operate via custodians. Through integrations with entities like Anchorage Digital<\/a>, institutions can borrow from Spark-governed markets while keeping their assets in regulated custody.<\/p>\n \u201cInstitutional lending depends on reliable liquidity,\u201d said Sam MacPherson, co-founder and CEO of Phoenix Labs (a core contributor to Spark). \u201cSpark Prime applies on-chain liquidity in a way that fits how institutions already manage custody, risk, and scale.\u201d<\/p>\n Spark currently allocates more than $9 billion in stablecoin liquidity across decentralized markets, according to the release. The protocol boasts $5.2 billion in total value locked (TVL), making it the ninth-largest DeFi platform. Its lending protocol, SparkLend, accounts for $2.5 billion of Spark\u2019s TVL, according to DefiLlama.<\/p>\n The launch builds on Spark\u2019s earlier collaborations. In early 2025, Coinbase rolled out a Bitcoin borrowing product that used Spark-managed USDC liquidity, with Spark supplying more than 80% of the funds. Borrowing volumes grew by about $500 million over the next three months, per the release.<\/p>\n