Decentralized finance is a blockchain-based form of finance that does not rely on central financial intermediaries such as brokerages, exchanges, or banks to offer traditional financial instruments, and instead utilizes smart contracts on blockchains, the most common being Ethereum.

We are still in early stages, but there are hundreds of protocols in operation with real value locked up that cannot be ignored. In aggregate, DeFi has reached a combined market cap of $148 billion, and these protocols have held more than $90 billion in locked up assets this year in smart contracts