TBW - Jérôme de Tychey (Cometh): "DeFi will not escape regulation".
The Big Whale: You have just obtained your MiCA approval from the French market authority. Why is this so important?
Jérôme de Tychey: More and more companies want to get a foothold in the world of onchain finance and they want to work with regulated players. So it's become very important to have MiCA. And it has also become a way of segmenting the market: if you are regulated, you can only work with regulated players.
The transition period lasted almost a year: fewer than 10 French companies obtained their MiCA approval in France. That's really not very much.
It's been a long job, even though we were already MiCA-compliant last December, because it took a year to complete our file, with a lot of back and forth with the AMF and the regulators. We're still missing a few small points on the electronic money institution side, but that's in progress.
Today, we're very proud to have become the first player to be able to bring our customers onto DeFi while offering asset custody. The others, such as DeBlock, offer DeFi but on a self-custodial basis, so it's up to their customers to manage the custody and assume all responsibility.
What does your authorisation allow you to do?
From the AMF's point of view, we are authorised to custody and administer cryptoassets on behalf of customers, and we are in the process of becoming an electronic money institution. This will enable us to manage on-ramp fiat ourselves, without going through a third party. Today, we do it via partners, but very soon we will be able to offer it directly.
How would you define Cometh today?
We have a DeFi access infrastructure that complies with European regulations. We manage on-ramp, off-ramp and conservation.
How do you position yourself in relation to Aave, Morpho or Euler? Where do you fit into the value chain?
Many users already have Ledger, Rabby or Metamask wallets and know how to connect to Morpho. But they are often unaware of the risks: for example, a compromised pool or "dirty" money can block their account.
Cometh intervenes at this level: we provide the infrastructure. Our wallet is used non-custodially, but we are involved in security and compliance. Commercial development is now taking place with regulated players, in particular fintechs who are looking for partners to access this market.
We have obtained the MiCA licence to support this type of player, so that anyone can convert euros into MiCA-compliant euros, place them on Aave and get their money back at any time.
Everything I'm describing is materialised in the Louis Finance application that we have created. Today, Louis Finance is an IBAN-to-IBAN rail that offers a savings product paying just over 3%, where the Livret A passbook savings account is at 1.6%.
We are starting from a complex, native infrastructure, i.e. blockchain, and we have found our niche: providing this type of service on a large scale, in compliance with the regulations.
How do you explain the higher return on DeFi compared with traditional finance?
The return comes from collateralised loans on stablecoins. On Louis Finance, we get over 3% by lending on a very short-term basis, with the collateral in stablecoins. It's not zero risk, it's comparable to what you see in traditional finance, but it's more profitable because there are fewer intermediaries.
What do you see as the risks in DeFi?
There are three risks: the counterparty (the stablecoin issuer, like Circle), the protocol (Aave for example) and custody. DeFi works with collateralised short-term, but secure, loans. Custody is also crucial: we have certifications, Smart Accounts and international expertise to secure DeFi interactions. The risk is circumscribed, assessed and controlled, although the return is not guaranteed to the penny.
What specifically attracts fintechs and banks to Cometh?
Our reputation and above all the fact that we take it upon ourselves to go all the way to DeFi, with our own technology. The other players are dependent on external suppliers, which generates additional costs.
We provide flexibility and know-how for millions of users, each with their own wallet and smart accounts. This is crucial for businesses.
What are the costs for customers?
Directly with the user, we only get paid on performance. For fintechs, we discuss the breakdown of margins and KYC/KYB costs, which are incompressible.
Account management includes the deployment of smart accounts, monitoring and compliance.
In an ecosystem where other players are launching their DeFi vaults, how are you positioned?
The grey area will no longer be tenable. Pure wallet players will have to regulate themselves. Consumers are less sophisticated, and regulators will demand compliance. This is precisely why we wanted to anticipate the regulations.
MiCA does not yet regulate DeFi and this is going to be the focus for the next 2 years. How do you think DeFi should be regulated?
We need to distinguish between the blockchain itself (smart contracts) and the front-end. Interacting with a smart contract is almost automatic. But if a player creates a widget, aggregates protocols and takes charges, it has a real degree of involvement: that's where regulation applies. Even a non-custodial player like DeBlock has to check that transfers are compliant.
What are your goals for 2026?
2026 will be our biggest year. We will be collecting deposits to offer secure euro strategies with attractive returns. We will launch the first products accessible from securities accounts, after opening up IBAN - crypto - DeFi access. We will be accelerating this project with various banking partners.
Why is Cometh ahead of other custodians?
We are DeFi-native. The others buy their technology abroad and their systems are often omnibus accounts, which are difficult for DeFi to use. At Cometh, each customer has a separate account, optimised for DeFi. This allows us to respond immediately to the needs of our customers and partners.
