Avalanche Summit: Tokenization Could Cut Out Middlemen in Consumer Lending

Kevin Miao, co-founder and CEO of Tare, made a compelling case for tokenization to revolutionize consumer lending at the Avalanche Summit 2026 in New York City. According to Miao, traditional loan processes are riddled with intermediaries who siphon off a significant portion of every dollar a borrower pays, leaving little value for those providing capital.

Miao's argument is that tokenization can strip out these middlemen and return more value directly to borrowers by rebuilding the lending process onchain. He pointed out that putting a digital wrapper on a traditional loan after it has already been originated, serviced, and structured through conventional channels misses the point. The real gains come from eliminating the layers of intermediaries that currently extract fees at every stage.

Tare is positioning itself as consumer lending infrastructure built natively on the Avalanche blockchain, designed to move the entire lending stack onchain rather than just tokenizing the final asset. Miao's challenge to the industry was straightforward: measure whether onchain methods actually produce better outcomes for borrowers.