Curve founder: Defi more exciting than markets realize

Talking with crypto.news, Curve founder Michael Egorov argued that defi’s ecosystem still holds the biggest value proposition over speculative trends like memecoins. 

During the 2021 peak, sometimes called crypto summer, decentralized finance took the driving seat. Defi tokens surged to all-time highs, and the narrative revolved around the so-called “future of finance” thesis. 

Fast forward to this year’s cycle, memecoins have claimed centerstage and accrued billions in market cap across several tokens. The hyper-speculative sector has turned users into overnight millionaires and the wealthy, sometimes to burned investors. 

The buzz has fueled talks that memecoins represent a major crypto use case as the preferred onboarding rail for retail money over defi. Egorov countered with a different take and said that defi deserves more attention than it’s getting.

“I strongly disagree that innovation is not happening in defi. It does! The market just does not recognize it enough. Take Pendle, which deals with interest rate markets, or Ethena, a stablecoin leveraging shorts and Ethereum staking – both are excellent examples of ongoing innovation,” Egorov told crypto.news.

RWAs on defi chains

Defi ecosystems, particularly Ethereum (ETH), have been touted as prime hubs for improving existing financial instruments, such as bonds, equity, stocks, and real estate. 

The concept, known as tokenizing real-world assets, has a $7.3 billion market. Experts predict the RWA crypto industry could hit $16 trillion by 2030 and $30 trillion by 2034.

Egorov said Ethereum and the larger web3 economy could potentially operate a full tokenized RWA ecosystem. However, according to Curve’s founder, regulatory and compliance requirements have kneecapped advancements so far.

Egorov remarked that the situation may improve greatly when RWA tokens aren’t just created on-chain and arbitraged with real markets.

“This would probably enable those RWAs to be used in more permissionless products, expanding their integration within the DeFi ecosystem,” Curve’s founder added.

Solving web2 loopholes and TON opportunity

In the exclusive interview with crypto.news, Egorov also said that decentralized technology solves web2 vulnerabilities and that the industry must pivot toward more on-chain solutions for hosting services.

The comments responded to compromised domains stemming from a Squarespace registrar issue. Protocols like Celer Network and Compound Finance were impacted, and nearly a dozen other platforms were also listed as possible targets. 

“The real dealbreaker would be native support of ENS and similar decentralized DNS services by major browsers. And yes, decentralized hosting would be a very nice addition. This would eliminate most of the web2 issues,” Egorov argued while speaking with crypto.news.

Shifting to Telegram and its growing status as a crypto powerhouse due to The Open Network, Egorov stated that TON has unlocked a new user set that’s just now experiencing defi application. Despite difficulty building dapps on TON, Curve’s founder said the blockchain presents an opportunity for native defi development and Ethereum Virtual Machine Support.

Egorov said that he thinks “DeFi apps have a very good chance of gaining traction in the TON ecosystem as soon as it can be fully launched (which, from what I hear, could be the case very soon).”

Tap-to-earn mini-games like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat have already attracted millions of daily users, active wallets, and airdrop hunters to TON’s ecosystem.

Egorov declined to answer questions on his infamous CRV loan and its eventual liquidation.