Three former executives who held high-profile legal, policy and product roles at crypto exchange OKX have unveiled an easy access decentralized finance connectivity platform called Shredpay, which is aimed at both retail customers and institutions in the U.S.

The Shredpay founding team is made up of CEO Mauricio Beugelmans, the former chief legal officer at OKX; president Melissa Muehlfeld, former OKX global general counsel; and CTO Peter Chang, the ex-VP of product at OKX.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) remains a tricky proposition for the uninitiated. The current market offerings are segmented and include no transparent risk information, making mainstream adoption difficult, according to a press release issued by Shredpay.

Beugelmans and co’s solution is to provide an uncomplicated, easily accessible onchain finance platform with clear risk ratings for DeFi protocols that help new users, the firm said.

The so-called ShredPay DeFi Ratings Index, evaluates protocols across smart contract security, liquidity depth, operational transparency, compliance, governance structure, and historical performance, providing users with standardized risk assessment comparable to traditional credit ratings.

"DeFi seems opaque, but it's not about the technology – it's about information asymmetry," said Beugelmans. "Users often can't easily distinguish between battle-tested protocols and exit scams.”

Shredpay CTO Chang said crypto natives may already know how to assess protocol risk; they read audits, track TVL, monitor governance. “We're packaging that institutional-grade due diligence into a format that works for mainstream users. It expands the addressable market for every protocol we rate,” he said.