Decentralised Finance: Early Days of a Mainstream Revolution
Over the past few years, decentralised finance (DeFi) has moved from a niche experiment on the fringes of crypto to a serious area of innovation for the wider financial system. Despite market cycles and headlines, the underlying technology is quietly maturing — and it’s increasingly clear that DeFi (or, more broadly, on-chain finance) is on a path toward mainstream adoption in traditional finance (TradFi).
And the truth is: we’re still only at the beginning.
What Is DeFi Really About?
At its core, DeFi is simple: it uses blockchains and smart contracts to recreate financial services, lending, trading, payments, asset management, without relying on a single central intermediary.
Instead of a bank or broker deciding what can or can’t happen, DeFi protocols run on transparent code:
- Rules are programmable
- Transactions are traceable on-chain
- Access is, in principle, permissionless and global
This doesn’t mean the end of institutions; it means institutions will increasingly operate on programmable rails rather than closed, proprietary systems.
Why Traditional Finance Is Paying Attention
For banks, asset managers, and market infrastructure providers, DeFi isn’t just a curiosity anymore it’s a toolbox with very practical advantages:
- 24/7 programmable markets
Assets can trade, settle, and be collateralised around the clock without manual reconciliation processes. - Instant settlement and reduced counterparty risk
On-chain settlement removes multiple intermediaries, reducing operational risk and capital locked in slow processes. - Composability
Protocols can plug into each other like “financial APIs,” enabling new products (for example, yield strategies built on top of stablecoin lending, or structured products using on-chain derivatives). - Transparency
Positions, collateral, and flows can be monitored on-chain, supporting better risk management and regulatory reporting.
It’s no coincidence that we’re seeing rapid growth in areas like on-chain treasury management, tokenised funds, and tokenised real-world assets (RWA) all of which sit at the intersection of DeFi rails and traditional financial products.
“Just Getting Started”: The Early Stages of On-Chain Finance
Despite the noise around crypto markets, DeFi is still in its infancy compared to the global financial system:
- The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi is tiny relative to global banking assets and capital markets.
- User experience, compliance tooling, and institutional-grade infrastructure are still evolving.
- Regulation is catching up, not fully formed but moving in a direction that increasingly recognises on-chain assets and activity.
In other words, what we’ve seen so far is the prototype phase, not the end state.
Over the next decade, it’s likely that:
- More assets will be represented on-chain: from money market funds and bonds to real estate, invoices, and IP.
- DeFi protocols will sit under the hood of traditional products: users may not even know that settlement, collateral, or yield generation is happening on a public blockchain.
- The line between “DeFi” and “TradFi” will blur: we’ll simply talk about finance, with some activities running on legacy rails and others on programmable, interoperable networks.
Why This Matters for Builders and Businesses
For companies building in technology, especially in AI and advanced digital solutions, DeFi and on-chain finance offer:
- New ways to raise, manage, and allocate capital
- New data sources and on-chain signals for risk, credit, and behaviour
- New infrastructure primitives for payments, rewards, and digital ownership
The winners won’t necessarily be the loudest projects; they’ll be the teams that integrate blockchain-based finance thoughtfully, with real business models, compliance in mind, and clear value to end users.
Our Perspective at Big Room Tech
At Big Room Tech, we see DeFi as part of a broader shift toward programmable, transparent, and interoperable digital infrastructure.
- We don’t view DeFi as a separate “crypto casino,” but as an emerging financial backend that traditional institutions will increasingly plug into.
- We believe there is enormous opportunity in bridging AI, data, and on-chain finance from smarter risk models to automated portfolio strategies and intelligent routing of liquidity.
- And we’re convinced that, in many ways, the real adoption wave hasn’t even started yet.
For founders and teams, the key is not to chase hype, but to understand where on-chain finance can materially improve products, processes, or economics and to build with a long-term, institution-ready mindset.
