On November 25, Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, stated that decentralized finance (DeFi) has already reached 30% of its way to widespread acceptance and may be fully adopted globally by 2030.
Nazarov claimed that the main factors pushing DeFi into the mainstream will be more transparent regulations, institutional involvement, and U.S. policy leadership. He added that DeFi, which is peer-to-peer financial services based on blockchain networks, could achieve 50% global adoption if more precise regulations and laws can demonstrate its dependability.
Michael Egorov, the inventor of Curve Finance, had a similar view. He stated that legal and regulatory uncertainty, along with the obligation to adhere to Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering regulations, are the primary challenges to DeFi adoption.
Nazarov reveals institutional push for DeFi adoption
• Institutional adoption accelerating with greater regulatory clarity
• Why highly reliable infra matters more than ever
• CRE unlocking the next phase of tokenization@SergeyNazarov discusses these trends and much more on @CryptoMichNL’s New Era Finance Podcast ↓ https://t.co/QuCeklyV4O— Chainlink (@chainlink) November 25, 2025
According to Sergey Nazarov, institutional involvement in Web3 has increased, and the majority of the sessions at the most recent SmartCon had a distinct institutional focus. He claimed that big financial firms are increasingly using blockchain technology since the sector has matured, and adoption is accelerating.
Nazarov stated that the world has changed for DeFi, and the transformation is moving more quickly toward institutional adoption.
“When we’re thinking about DeFi, it’s something of a buzzword, but really we should be looking to on-chain markets and on-chain applications and thinking about the features of these applications as well as where there’s an actual intermediary involved.”
Michael Selig, Chief Counsel for the crypto task force at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to Nazarov, DeFi global acceptance will reach around 70% when institutional users have a clear and effective means to invest their capital and clients’ money in DeFi. Nazarov forecast that full worldwide adoption wouldn’t happen until DeFi expanded to the point where its capital base could be essential compared to the funds allotted in traditional banking.
Nazarov claimed that clarity of DeFi will swiftly spread from the U.S. He further argued that many governments adopt U.S. practices because they want to be compatible with the U.S. financial system.
Institutional adoption drives growth in DeFi lending
DeFi lending protocols have gained significant traction recently due to the increasing institutional adoption of tokenized assets and stablecoins.
According to the Binance report, DeFi lending procedures have grown by more than 72% year-to-date, from $53 billion at the start of 2025 to over $127 billion in cumulative total value locked (TVL). Factually, DeFi lending protocols are automated frameworks that eliminate the need for financial brokers like banks by facilitating lending and borrowing for investors through smart contracts.
The report revealed that Aave Labs’ Horizon continues to dominate the market, with around 54% of the TVL, or approximately $68 billion. Aave Labs’ Horizon is an institutional lending market that allows clients to utilize tokenized RWAs as collateral for stablecoins.
According to the report, products such as Horizon “aim to unlock new liquidity and convert RWAs into productive assets within the decentralized finance ecosystem.”
Institutions now focus on tokenized financial instruments, such as U.S. Treasury bonds and private credit. According to data from RWA.xyz, tokenized private credit accounts for $18.7 billion of the $35.9 billion total RWAs on-chain, with U.S. Treasurys coming in second at $9.1 billion.
The report also revealed that Maple and Euler have both grown quickly to reach almost $3 billion.
According to the report, as tokenized assets and stablecoins become more popular, DeFi lending platforms are well-positioned to benefit from the expanding institutional adoption of these core blockchain-based financial technologies.
In August, DeFi platforms initiated token buybacks totaling $166 million. According to the Binance report, Hyperliquid and Pump.fun are primarily responsible for the major buybacks, driven by record income on both platforms. Pump.fun has spent more than US$58 million to repurchase its token since launching its token buyback program, which has reduced its circulating supply by over 4%.
