What is DeFi?
DeFi stands for “decentralized finance” and refers to the ecosystem comprised of digital assets and financial smart contracts, protocols, and decentralized applications (DApps) that are being developed on top of blockchain systems.
What are its applications?
Currently, the three largest functions of DeFi are:
- Creating monetary banking services (e.g., issuance of stablecoins)
- Providing peer-to-peer or pooled lending and borrowing platforms
- Enabling advanced financial instruments such as DEX, tokenization platforms, derivatives and predictions markets
DeFi is growing strongly
The total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance applications has reached close to US$9 billion from less than US$679 million in 2019, according to Defipulse.com, which tracks DeFi ecosystem growth.