Crypto loans have become the main source of income for MakerDAO, surpassing revenues from Real World Asset (RWA) vaults. Following the bullish sentiment in the crypto market last year, MakerDAO is witnessing a resurgence of interest in loans involving borrowed funds.

According to data from Steakhouse Financial, specializing in cryptocurrencies, DeFi-native loans now account for 50.1% of MakerDAO's projected annual revenue of $243 million. The volume of crypto-collateralized lending has reached $2.4 billion, exceeding the revenues from RWA vaults.

This trend marks a return to MakerDAO's original model, where before the launch of RWA last year, DeFi-based lending generated up to $200 million in annual revenue. After a significant downturn in DeFi lending due to the cryptocurrency "bear winter," including the collapse of Terra Luna and FTX, major DeFi protocols such as Maker and Aave managed to weather the crisis.

Now, the cryptocurrency loan market is recovering amid a rise in the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies to $1.7 trillion. This indicates a renewed interest in risky long bets on future cryptocurrency prices and an increase in demand for crypto-collateralized loans.

MakerDAO earns from both RWA and crypto loans, regardless of whether DeFi rates are higher or lower than the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rates. Maker invested $100 million in RWA through BlockTower Andromeda, most of which was directed towards short-term U.S. Treasury bonds, as part of the protocol's "Endgame" plan presented by founder Rune Christensen.