<\/p>\n
As DeFi adoption fails to keep pace with its technological sophistication, the question of whether TradFi institutions are DeFi\u2019s competition \u2014 or its white knight \u2014\u00a0is emerging.<\/p>\n
At the Permissionless conference in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday, Compound founder Robert Leshner was unequivocal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a strong view here,\u201d Leshner said. \u201cThe institutions aren\u2019t coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leshner, now the CEO of blockchain finance company Superstate, argued that TradFi institutions want to use DeFi tech without buying into the token economy on which the ecosystem was built. In his view, DeFi\u2019s onboarding of legacy financial firms will require the tokenization of traditional finance assets and a surrender on crypto-native assets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the big divide that is going to define the next ten years of DeFi,\u201d Leshner said.<\/p>\n
Pushing back, Blockworks co-founder Michael Ippolito pointed out that some TradFi institutions have already entered DeFi with crypto asset backing, noting Visa\u2019s use of the Solana blockchain<\/a> for settlement on the credit card giant\u2019s USDC payment program.<\/p>\n The exchange perhaps highlighted a tension at the conference: that the crypto world both needs institutional adoption<\/a> and regards it with suspicion.\u00a0<\/p>\n When asked about Uniswap\u2019s philosophy on its users, Mary-Catherine Lader, the DEX\u2019s chief operating officer, said Uniswap is currently focused on its crypto-native users while building a product that can provide value to institutions in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[Uniswap is] not putting on suits and going to pitch JPMorgan tomorrow,\u201d Lader said.<\/p>\n \u201cNo offense to anyone who\u2019s from JPMorgan,\u201d Ippolito added after a short pause, prompting a laugh from the audience.<\/p>\n Get the day\u2019s top crypto news and insights delivered to your email every evening.\u00a0Subscribe to Blockworks\u2019 free newsletter<\/a>\u00a0now.<\/strong><\/p>\n Want alpha sent directly to your inbox? Get degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance, can\u2019t-miss tweets and more from\u00a0Blockworks Research\u2019s Daily Debrief<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Can\u2019t wait? Get our news the fastest way possible.\u00a0Join us on Telegram<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As DeFi adoption fails to keep pace with its technological sophistication, the question of whether TradFi institutions are DeFi\u2019s competition \u2014 or its white knight \u2014\u00a0is emerging. At the Permissionless conference in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday, Compound founder Robert Leshner was unequivocal. \u201cI have a strong view here,\u201d Leshner said. \u201cThe institutions aren\u2019t coming.\u201d Leshner, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[230,225,221,227,226,228,229,60,223,224,222],"class_list":["post-155122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-brave","tag-coinbase","tag-crypto","tag-decentralised","tag-decentralized","tag-decentralized-exchange","tag-erc-20","tag-featured","tag-meme-coin","tag-robinhood","tag-solana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155122"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155128,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155122\/revisions\/155128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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