Andre Cronje: DeFi no longer exists, only on-chain finance is left

Comparing news, Andre Cronje, founder of the DeFi platform Flying Tulip and founder of Fantom Network, said that most DeFi protocols are no longer truly decentralized, and only a few niche sectors can still be called DeFi. In his opinion, DeFi has evolved into “on-chain finance” or “open finance.”

He pointed out that true DeFi should have characteristics such as decentralization, immutability, and no intermediaries. Currently, intermediaries for most agreements have become companies and assume traditional financial institution functions such as decision makers and risk committees. Cronje said that doesn't mean real DeFi doesn't exist anymore, and some protocols are still innovating.

According to DeFilLama data, the total hedging value of DeFi has dropped by more than half in the past 10 months from $167 billion in early October 2025 to $75 billion when the original article was published.

The European Central Bank (ECB) analyzed Aave, MakerDAO, Ampleforth, and Uniswap in a working paper published in March and found that based on November 2022 and May 2023 position snapshots, the 100 addresses with the highest governance token holdings in the above agreement all control more than 80% of the token supply. The ECB therefore questioned the extent of decentralization of the DAO in question and whether it should continue to be considered a “fully decentralized” service not subject to the Crypto Asset Market Regulation Act (MiCA).

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