Yat Siu, the founder of Animoca, stated that student loans could boost the rise of Decentralized Finance.

Source: Cointelegraph Original: "Animoca founder Yat Siu stated that student loans can boost DeFi growth"

Bringing student loans on-chain will increase the total locked value ( TVL ) of decentralized finance ( DeFi ) by more than four times, significantly boosting the industry, said Yat Siu, chairman of Animoca Brands.

At the Consensus 2025 conference in Toronto, Siu pointed out that the global $3 trillion student loan market is an untapped opportunity for the cryptocurrency industry. He stated that even transferring just 10% of that market onto the blockchain could significantly boost the growth of DeFi.

"You can basically quadruple the TVL of all DeFi," he emphasized, indicating that the industry is still in its early stages.

Siu stated that Web3 financial tools targeted at the education sector could drive the mass adoption of cryptocurrency, especially among young people and the unbanked population.

"The first group of unbanked individuals are children," he said. "If students obtain loans on-chain and repay them on-chain – this is a regulated, higher quality, more efficient, and more economical way – they will be integrated into the cryptocurrency ecosystem for life."

Siu likened the situation to the model of PayPal and Venmo growing by providing basic services to underserved groups. He noted that student loans could become a key gateway for cryptocurrencies to enter the mainstream market.

The executive also emphasized Animoca Brands' recent investment strategy in Pencil Finance, a startup focused on providing crypto-native student loan services. Siu revealed that the project is currently operating in the Philippines and Indonesia, with plans to expand into the U.S. market.

On April 30, Pencil Finance announced the launch of a $10 million student loan financing program aimed at providing more affordable, blockchain-supported loan products.

Siu emphasized in a previous interview that the industry urgently needs these "positive use cases" to help the general public understand. He stated that if students can gain more development opportunities through crypto loans, they will naturally be more supportive of cryptocurrency technology.

At the Consensus conference, Siu explained to the attendees the potential of education as a natural application scenario for Web3. He specifically mentioned applications like YouTube and TikTok, which are typically regarded as entertainment platforms, pointing out that they have actually become the world's largest informal learning platforms.

He emphasized that everything is closely related to education, and Web3 technology can also play an important role in this field. "Education is fundamentally essential, it is an activity we engage in continuously in our daily lives," Siu said.

He suggested that by integrating financial infrastructure into the educational experience, Web3 technology is expected to transform learning communities and reputation networks into capital assets, thus building the infrastructure for a new decentralized financial ecosystem.

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