Blend Capital has emerged as Stellar’s most significant DeFi protocol, surpassing $120M in total value locked with stablecoin yields reaching 14% — all from actual borrower interest rather than token emissions. A detailed analysis explores how Blend solves DeFi lending’s fundamental governance bottleneck by allowing anyone to deploy isolated lending pools without proposals or votes. The system’s backstop module acts as market-funded first-loss insurance, where depositors earn yield by absorbing risk, with an 80/20 BLND:USDC LP requirement ensuring protocol alignment. A 17-day withdrawal queue prevents capital flight during stress, while isolated pool architecture contains failures to individual pools. The result is a lending primitive that institutions and DAOs can build on — permissionless yet safe, governed by market forces rather than token voting.