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ARK Invest’s Head of Research, Lorenzo Valente, recently publicly refuted a16z Crypto’s assertion that “traditional finance needs blockchain, not DeFi,” arguing that financial institutions are more likely to be built on open DeFi infrastructure in the future. Public blockchains have already demonstrated their advantages over private blockchain solutions. The growth of tokenized assets on open networks like Ethereum highlights the stronger network effects and scalability potential of public blockchains.Lorenzo Valente pointed out that the builders of the next generation of financial infrastructure may not be traditional financial institutions, but rather crypto-native enterprises, such as Circle and Coinbase.Earlier, a16z Crypto presented a differing view, suggesting that traditional financial institutions are not truly embracing DeFi, but are selectively adopting blockchain technologies that meet their existing compliance, governance, and operational requirements. Banks and asset management firms will build “programmable financial infrastructure” in the future, leveraging core capabilities of blockchain like tokenization and atomic settlement, but while maintaining permissioned management and institutional control.Sentora co-founder Jesus Rodriguez also raised objections to a16z’s stance. He argued that financial institutions might eventually adopt the underlying DeFi infrastructure and layer compliance, custody, and enterprise-grade control mechanisms on top of it.With the rapid development of RWA tokenization, on-chain settlement, and institutional-grade financial applications, the debate over the future dominance of “open DeFi architecture” versus “permissioned blockchain systems” is intensifying. (Cointelegraph)
Grayscale’s latest research report states that Grayscale Research Head Zach Pandl believes tokenized assets and decentralized finance (DeFi), among other blockchain applications, may experience growth as the CLARITY Act advances and related guidance from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) becomes increasingly clear. Grayscale identifies Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, and Canton Network—currently dominant in on-chain financial activities—as likely to attract institutional capital first. The report notes that Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain lead in areas such as tokenized assets, stablecoins, and DeFi, while Canton Network also holds a significant share in the tokenized assets space.