The ‘great convergence’: the encroachment of DeFi into CeFi

Urs Bolt - wealth tech and digital assets expert

The innovator’s dilemma - disruption in an unexpected way?

As is often the case with the advent of innovative technologies, the manifestation of those doesn’t meet the inventor’s expectations. Tim Berners-Lee has a say in this observation, e.g. with Web3 and blockchain, which he wants people to forget about as the hyped-up versions do not fulfil his Web3 project’s goal of bringing the internet back to its original promise. The same seems to be happening with decentralised finance (DeFi). Decentralised concepts are not new, but gained prominence after the financial crisis in 2008 and especially after the release of the Ethereum protocol in 2015. DeFi is now widely accepted as the next great evolution in finance. The pioneers in decentralised finance might wonder if the adoption of DeFi concepts by institutional investors, central banks, regulators and centralised utilities are a salvation or an awakening for the market participants. To many, the integration of DeFi-concepts into the cen…