Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

Decentralized finance (DeFi) uses blockchains and smart contracts to provide trading, lending, asset management and other services, reducing reliance on traditional financial intermediaries. Recent areas of focus include the Uniswap v4 fee switch and L2 expansion, Aave V4 and institutional stablecoin vaults, as well as growth in real-world assets, tokenized equities and foreign-exchange contracts. At the same time, idle capital, oracle vulnerabilities, phishing attacks and large-scale theft remain unresolved. As DeFi converges more rapidly with traditional finance, its governance, capital efficiency, institutional adoption and security risks warrant close attention.