Liquidity has driven DeFi’s growth to date, so what’s the future outlook?

In mid-February 2020, the whole worth locked inside decentralized finance (DeFi) purposes first exceeded $1 billion. Fueled by the DeFi summer season of 2020, it wouldn’t even take a yr earlier than it multiplied 20-fold to reach $20 billion and solely one other ten months to achieve $200 billion. Given the tempo of progress to date, it doesn’t appear outlandish to think about the DeFi markets hitting a trillion {dollars} inside one other yr or two.

We are able to attribute this monumental progress to 1 factor — liquidity. Trying again, DeFi’s enlargement will be outlined in three eras, every representing one other vital growth in eradicating boundaries to liquidity and making the markets extra enticing and environment friendly to members.

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DeFi 1.0 — Cracking the hen and egg downside

DeFi protocols existed previous to 2020, however they suffered considerably from a “hen and egg” downside when it got here to liquidity. Theoretically, somebody might present liquidity to a lending or swap pool. Nonetheless, there aren’t sufficient incentives for liquidity suppliers till there’s a crucial mass of liquidity to draw merchants or debtors who pays charges or curiosity.

Compound was the primary to crack this downside in 2020 when it launched the idea of farming protocol tokens. Along with curiosity from debtors, lenders on Compound might additionally earn COMP token rewards, offering an incentive from the second they deposited their funds.

It proved to be a beginning pistol for the DeFi summer season. SushiSwap’s “vampire assault” on Uniswap offered additional inspiration for mission founders, who started utilizing their very own tokens to incentivize on-chain liquidity, kicking off the yield farming craze in earnest.

Associated: Liquidity mining is booming — Will it final, or will it bust?

DeFi 2.0 — Bettering capital effectivity

So, that was DeFi 1.0, roughly the period that took us from $1 billion to $20 billion. DeFi 2.0, the interval that noticed additional progress as much as $200 billion, introduced enhancements in capital effectivity. It noticed the expansion of Curve, which honed Uniswap’s automated market makers (AMM) mannequin for secure property, providing extra concentrated buying and selling pairs with decrease slippage.

Curve additionally launched improvements like its vote-escrowed tokenomic mannequin, which incentivizes liquidity suppliers to lock up funds for the long run to additional improve the reliability of liquidity and scale back slippage.

Uniswap v3 additionally introduced additional enhancements in capital effectivity with its customizable liquidity positions. Past Ethereum, the multichain DeFi ecosystem started to flourish on different platforms together with BSC, Avalanche, Polygon and others.

So, what’s going to propel DeFi via the following phases of progress to achieve a trillion {dollars} and past? I imagine there shall be 4 key developments.

DEXs go hybrid

The AMM mannequin that’s confirmed so profitable in DeFi developed out of necessity after it grew to become evident that Ethereum’s sluggish speeds and excessive charges wouldn’t serve the order ebook mannequin effectively sufficient for it to outlive on-chain.

Associated: Automated market makers are lifeless

Nevertheless, the existence of DeFi on high-speed low-cost blockchains implies that we’re more likely to see an uptick within the variety of decentralized exchanges (DEXs) utilizing an order ebook mannequin. Quick settlement instances scale back the chance of slippage, whereas low to negligible charges makes an order ebook change worthwhile for market makers.

There are a number of examples of decentralized exchanges utilizing central restrict order books rising already — Serum, constructed on Solana, Dexalot on Avalanche and Polkadex on Polkadot, to present a number of examples. The existence of order ebook exchanges is more likely to make it simpler to onboard institutional {and professional} traders, as they permit restrict orders, making for a extra acquainted buying and selling expertise.

Cross-chain composability

The proliferation of DeFi protocols on blockchains aside from Ethereum has resulted in vital fragmentation of liquidity into completely different ecosystems. To some extent, builders have tried to beat this with bridges between blockchains, however latest hacks reminiscent of Solana’s Wormhole bridge hack have created considerations.

Nonetheless, safe cross-chain composability is changing into essential to unlock the fragmented liquidity in DeFi and entice additional funding. There are some optimistic indicators — as an example, Binance just lately made a strategic funding into Symbiosis, a cross-chain liquidity protocol. Equally, Thorchain, a cross-chain liquidity community, launched final yr and has just lately gained speedy floor in worth locked, implying a transparent urge for food for cross-chain liquidity.

Blockchain and DeFi start to merge with the monetary markets

Now that crypto is changing into a acknowledged world monetary asset, it’s solely a matter of time earlier than the boundaries start to blur with blockchain and DeFi. That is more likely to transfer in two instructions. Firstly, by bringing the liquidity from the established world monetary system on-chain, and secondly, by the adoption of crypto-related decentralized monetary merchandise by establishments.

A number of crypto initiatives have now launched institutional-grade merchandise, and extra are within the pipeline. There’s already a MetaMask Institutional pockets, whereas Aave and Alkemi function Know Your Buyer (KYC) swimming pools for establishments.

On the opposite facet, Sam Bankman-Fried is flying the flag for bringing the monetary system on-chain. In March, he spoke on the Futures Business Affiliation in Florida, proposing to U.S. regulators that threat administration in monetary markets may very well be automated utilizing practices developed for the crypto markets. The tone of the FT piece covering the story is telling – removed from the dismissive, even scornful angle that the normal monetary press used to have towards crypto and blockchain, it’s now loaded with intrigue.

Fairly when DeFi reaches the trillion-dollar milestone is anybody’s guess. However, these of us watching the present tempo of progress, funding and innovation really feel moderately assured that we’ll get there sooner relatively than later.

This text doesn’t comprise funding recommendation or suggestions. Each funding and buying and selling transfer entails threat, and readers ought to conduct their very own analysis when making a choice.

The views, ideas and opinions expressed listed below are the writer’s alone and don’t essentially mirror or symbolize the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.