🤩 The Time Capsule for 8lends in 2025

We’ve created and sealed this time capsule today. It will be opened on December 31. You can follow and receive the notification by email once it's opened.

🤩 The Time Capsule

We’ll see if we managed to live up to your expectations.

If you want to be part of this time capsule and see your message (without your name or any personal information) when it’s opened, feel free to leave it in the form below:

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe4Cw-ji8x4xGWVRfhSQTN_EtSlks8IRlBiW1zjr1r5m_i_mg/viewform?usp=dialog

13 months of 8lends! 🤩

It's been a month since our birthday, and we've already hit the ATH in total funded!

Let's keep it up and take a look at what we've achieved over the last two months:

🔘 Raised this month: $1,704,251
🔘 Total investors: 1655
🔘 Funded loans: $10,175,037
🔘 Loans repaid: $2,832,834

Last year, we built our foundation.

This year, we're planning to build on it. Any suggestions on what's coming in 2026? 😉

🔈 This Week in Spaces

This is your weekly schedule of all the live sessions we’ll be hosting or joining as guests.

Here’s what’s coming up:

🔘 07.04.26 at 13 UTC with integra_layer

Topic: Real Assets, Real Yield: Is It Possible to Invest In Real Estate On-Chain?

Role: Host

Link: x.com/i/spaces/1AxRnambErYxl?s=20

🎁 25 USDC for the two best comments during this Space.

🔘

08.04.26 at 13 UTC with

HoudiniSwap,

OrderlyNetwork,

and

crosscurvefi

Topic

: The Future of Unified DeFi: Liquidity, Routing, Privacy & Capital Efficiency

Role

: Host

Link

: x.com/i/spaces/1aKbdbBqogXJX?s=20

🔘

09.04.26 at 13 UTC with

CryptoRubic,

symbiosis_fi,

and

chimpxai

Topic

: From Cross-Chain Access to Capital Efficiency: What DeFi Still Needs in 2026

Role

: Host

Link

: x.com/i/spaces/1qKDzPOLYZVJV?s=20

Bookmark this post and try to join at least one session!

We’d love to hear your feedback and answer your questions during the Spaces.

See you there! 🫶

Why Do Funds Enter P2P Lending?

Before answering that, let’s look at the situation from the sidelines — the way funds see it.

Slowly but surely, SMEs are moving from banks to lending platforms. Despite being the oldest financial institutions, banks are losing ground as businesses look for faster, more accessible funding.

Why do they choose P2P lending?

Lower operational and administrative costs allow P2P platforms to offer:

🔘 Competitive interest rates
🔘 Faster loan approvals
🔘 Easier access to capital for businesses that may not qualify for bank financing

Funds see this change clearly, and they know what's coming. That's why they invest in this market:

🔘 Carlyle Group & Citigroup

Carlyle has partnered with Citigroup to provide asset-backed financing to fintech lenders. As head of asset-backed finance at Carlyle, Akhil Bansal noted:

"Demand for scalable and tailored asset-backed financing solutions from fintech lenders has increased as they mature and seek efficient ways to fund their growth."

🔘 Citigroup & Apollo Global

Citigroup has also partnered with Apollo Global Management on a $25B private credit and direct lending program. As global head of private credit at Moody's Ratings, Ana Arsov said:

"The partnership is yet another example of the rapid growth of Private Credit into mainstream finance."

🔘 Fortress Investment Group & Prosper Marketplace

Prosper Marketplace, one of the first P2P platforms in the U.S., signed a $500M forward flow agreement with Fortress Investment Group.

Under this agreement, institutional buyers commit to purchasing a portion of loans originated on the platform.

P2P lending is a strong alternative in volatile markets. The market size has already hit $176.50 billion in 2025 and is projected to increase from $222.90 billion in 2026 to approximately $1,602.5 billion by 2035.

Funds allocate capital here because it offers:

🔘 Real collateral
🔘 Transparency
🔘 Predictable cash flow

When institutional money enters a market, you know there's a clear reason behind it. They're not interested in gambling and risking their money.

You, as retail, can start investing in real businesses with as little as 100 USDC, and this market won't let you down.

Smart Money Doesn't Need Complex Strategies ❗️

After years of SPACs, derivatives, algorithmic trading, and tokens with complex tokenomics, smart money is moving the other way round — to simplicity.

Take private lending as an example.

Pension funds, underwriting firms, and major institutions like Citigroup, Apollo Global Management, and Fortress Investment Group are allocating capital to markets with a clear and significant rotation toward private markets.

✅ We already shared the numbers in this post. Now let's discuss the reasons behind the growing interest.

Smart money diversifies across many options with a clear and significant rotation toward private markets (like private lending), international equities, cash (MMFs), and gold.

Why do they choose private markets? Simple, because they're less volatile and more resilient than public markets. According to the BlackRock study 👇

🔘 Alternative assets make up 42% of the average family office portfolio (up from 39%).
🔘 Nearly one-third (32%) of family offices intend to increase their allocations to private credit (32%) and infrastructure (30%) in 2025-2026.
🔘 Institutional allocation to alternatives hits a record 20% average.

Private credit is straightforward:

A business raises funds from investors, provides collateral as a security layer, scales its operations, and repays the loan with interest.

Capital flows into the real economy, supporting real businesses, and news doesn't really impact the way these businesses operate and generate returns.

While most retail investors are looking for the next “big thing,” we prefer simple and time-proven structures that generate consistent cash flow.

I'm afraid to make the first step ❗️

And the reason isn't psychology — it's physiology. There's an amygdala in our brain that stops us from accepting new things. When we encounter a change, this part of our brain triggers a stress response (cortisol and adrenaline) before our conscious brain even realizes what's happening.

Basically, it's our subconscious reaction to new things. It means this is just our short-term survival reaction.

🤩 However, once we realize that some kind of new knowledge isn't threatening, we dive into it, learn it, and receive a positive reaction from the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) and Nucleus Accumbens — we get a small dopamine hit!

This is curiosity, the thrill of the "aha!" moment, and the urge to click the next episode.

Once we step over our short-term reaction and learn something new, we only benefit from it. But making this first step is actually difficult, and most people just can't do it — they decline any changes and stay conservative for their whole lives.

How to overcome this urge to reject new things? Just take a small step toward it, learn a bit, see how it works, and you'll beat this resistance.

🤩 For example, if you feel that starting to learn a new language is impossible and that you won't manage, give it a try. Learn a few new words along with one or two grammar structures. Once you take this small step, you'll get a dopamine hit, and your caution will fade away!

🤩 The same goes for 8lends. If you're afraid of investing in real businesses through our platform, take an easy step and learn how it works.

You can invest just 100 USDC to make this first step. You won't lose this money — you'll be able to walk away with it anyway.

🤩 So, the choice is yours: make the first step or keep restraining yourself.

🔈 This Week in Spaces

Welcome to a new week! We’ve prepared a packed lineup of live sessions — some we’ll host, others we’ll join as guests.

✨ In total: 8 Spaces with nearly 10 different guests.

We’ll discuss real yields, AI, on-chain investments, P2P lending, crypto, tokenization, RWAs, and more!

✖️ All announcements and links will be shared daily on our X account.

We’d love to see you in at least one session and will gladly answer your questions.

See you there!

Life in Debt

The average person in Europe spends 25-31 years paying off a mortgage. A car loan takes nearly 6 years. Debt of honor — never.

Most people work not for themselves, but for banks.
There are only two ways to interact with credit:

🤩 First, to be a borrower. Pay interest your whole life: on a phone, a car, a vacation, or a house.

🤩 Second, to be a lender. Earn interest while someone else uses your money.

Those who’ve already built wealth didn't borrow to consume. They borrowed to scale or launch businesses, and more often, they lend.

These are two sides of the same table.

P2B lending is a chance to look at things from another side of the table. There's no need to be a bank and have $100,000 to lend.

🤔 All you need is to make one simple decision: take a loan or give a loan.