According to Jay Hao, the CEO of leading crypto derivatives exchange OKEx, decentralized finance will become a viable alternative to traditional finance.
In an email interview a day after OKEx listed Uniswap’s super hot UNI governance token, Hao told Modern Consensus that he has high hopes for the DeFi ecosystem as a whole:
“DeFi really has limitless potential depending on how well its participants overcome its vulnerabilities and aches and pains as it grows. There is always the possibility that this great blockchain experiment will fail. However, it is our strong belief that DeFi will continue to flourish and eventually grow up to be a viable alternative and supplement to the traditional financial system.”
Furthermore, Hao went as far as to say that OKEx believes the space represents the future of blockchain. He pointed out that there are still more than two billion unbanked adults in the world and said that he expects this number to increase with the current economic crisis. He looked to DeFi as a solution:
“This inspirational sector can finally allow us to achieve the goal of providing financial services to every individual.”
Moving fast
OKEx has already shown that it holds DeFi in high regard by the amount of attention dedicated to the tokens created in this ecosystem. Earlier today the exchange announced that it launched a full suite of trading products based on the token of decentralized exchange Uniswap, including the first derivatives available in the market. Hao said:
“We’re also seeing such fierce competition in DeFi that is forcing individual projects to iterate at lightning speed. It is an area that can only grow quickly and, as such, it feels like new innovations are happening on a daily basis.”
At the end of last month, the firm also listed eight DeFi tokens in a single day.
DeFi could reach parity with traditional finance
Still, Hao said that “there will always be a need for centralized finance.”
Decentralized and centralized finance “make up for each other’s shortcomings,” he said.
While Hao does not think that DeFi will kill traditional finance, he is convinced that the tokenization of real-world assets—which has already begun—will bring trillions of dollars over to the blockchain. This, he thinks, has the potential to put DeFi on par with traditional finance.
OKEx’s CEO explained that DeFi provides an alternative financial system that allows people to take part in their local economy, to access credit, earn interest and earn money in a permissionless way without having to go through the high barriers required by traditional finance. Hao added:
“There are many benefits of centralization including user experience, speed, convenience, fiat on-ramps, user base, etc. As I said, not everyone wants to have the responsibility of being their own bank and custodian of their wealth. It is our vision that CEXs can be a bridge between DeFi and a larger group and we can grow the space together.”
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