Decentralized finance has exploded over the past 12 months. The swapping, staking and yield farming successes have been well touted. The DeFi market cap has reached $45 billion, and there’s over $28 billion total value locked in DeFi today. That’s up from $600 million in January 2020 — a 4,300% increase.
As with all nascent technology, new money flowing into a sector attracts talent, innovation and the best entrepreneurs. Whether we like it or not, the record-high token prices will also attract the attention of mainstream media and Wall Street. This cocktail of factors, coupled with the glitz and glam of DeFi, is the result of the true, silent hero that is enabling this tsunami of capital to flow around. Without this, DeFi would not be possible — I am of course talking about the infrastructure that underpins the decentralized internet, or Web 3.0.