In the past year, decentralized finance (DeFi) has shifted from "liquidity-driven" to "architecture-driven." The landmark event first came from protocol layer iterations: Uniswap launched v4 in 2025, introducing "hooks" as modular extension points, allowing for pluggable trading pools and fee logic. The protocol resembles a "development platform" rather than a single exchange, providing a highly programmable space for market making, settlement, and risk control.
Another significant signal from the same track is the decrease in regulatory uncertainty. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concluded its years-long investigation into Uniswap Labs in February 2025 without taking enforcement action, which the industry interpreted as a phase of easing legal risks for DeFi foundational protocols.
The second main line is "restaking," which extends Ethereum's security to more on-chain services. EigenLayer recently launched multi-chain validation capabilities, allowing Active Validation Services (AVS) to operate on layer two networks outside of Ethereum while maintaining "Ethereum-level" validation guarantees. This step provides a more flexible deployment path for infrastructure such as oracles, sequencers, and data availability, and is expected to lower the security threshold for cold-starting new services.
For DeFi, this means that clearing, matching, and risk management components can iterate in a lower-cost environment while inheriting the trust anchor of the mainnet, thus reconciling "high-frequency interaction" with "high-security endorsement" on a single chain or cross-chain path.
The third main line comes from the "predictability" of regulatory frameworks. The EU's MiCA will implement licensing requirements for crypto asset service providers (CASP) starting in 2025, linking with travel rules, DORA, and other systems to form a compliance pathway from issuance to custody to operation. Although the decentralized nature of DeFi still requires specialized rules to be refined, the framework of "licensed operation—cross-border mutual recognition—operational resilience" has been clearly outlined, reducing uncertainty for institutional participation.
Overlaying these three forces, the structural changes in DeFi are reflected in several aspects: First, protocols are moving from "single-point functionality" to "orchestrated platforms." The hooks in v4 outsource the logic of liquidity pools to modules, facilitating the introduction of differentiated designs such as market-making strategies, liquidation protection, and fee distribution, while also providing a combinatorial space for more "on-chain financial primitives." This "platformization" trend helps outsource innovation to ecosystem developers while retaining the simplicity and security boundaries of core contracts.
Second, the layering of security and performance is clearer. Restaking separates security supply from application demand, allowing for "plug-and-play" through AVS. For DeFi components that require certainty and verifiability (such as settlement, liquidation, and ordering), this provides an intermediate solution between "fully self-built validation sets" and "fully relying on the mainnet." Pilot projects for multi-chain validation show that layer two can handle high-frequency trading and strategy execution, while the mainnet and restaking layer provide auditing and finality.
Third, the threshold for institutional participation has been lowered by "institutionalized interfaces." MiCA and operational resilience requirements allow custody, risk control, and reporting obligations to be standardized and embedded in front-end and middle-office processes; correspondingly, U.S. regulators have shown a "fact-based" attitude towards leading protocols, improving market perceptions of "compliance feasibility." For market-making and arbitrage teams, clear licensing pathways and disclosure requirements mean that funding, risk control, and contract deployment can operate within clearer red lines.
Of course, challenges remain:
First, the tension between compliance compatibility and decentralization. MiCA has yet to provide comprehensive details on the governance of decentralized protocols, front-end responsibilities, and the obligations of non-upgradable contracts; how to meet disclosure and auditing requirements without sacrificing the advantages of trustlessness still requires industry practice and further regulation to reconcile.
Second, interoperability and user experience. The platformization of protocols and the multi-chain nature of AVS increase complexity. For end users and institutional risk control, cross-domain messaging, restaking rewards and penalties, and MEV mitigation all require clear visualization and risk control scaffolding to avoid "black-boxing."
Third, governance and legal structure. The exploration of DAOs in fee switches, treasury management, and liability isolation is ongoing; how to establish a "claimable" legal shell for contributors and governance participants without compromising decentralization is an important topic for the latter half of 2025.
Looking ahead to the next 12–18 months, the focus of DeFi may manifest in three executable routes:
Driving product innovation with "platform + modules." On platforms like v4, market making, liquidation protection, dynamic fees, and off-chain settlement instructions will iterate in a modular way, allowing for faster validation of product-market fit.
Carrying high-frequency business with "restaking + layer two." Data availability, oracles, and ordering services will gradually be outsourced to AVS, with layer two handling transactions and strategies, while the mainnet is responsible for finality and accounting, forming a "high-frequency—high-trust" layered stack.
Connecting institutional pathways with "predictable regulation." The EU's licensing and operational resilience constraints, along with the consistency of travel rules, combined with U.S. case signals, will clarify the boundaries of responsibilities for market making, custody, brokerage, and clearing, facilitating the "modular alignment" of front and back office processes.
In conclusion: The next stage of DeFi is not a breakthrough in a single track, but a triangular coupling of "protocol platformization—security spillover—regulatory interfacing." Functional innovation has a more stable foothold, security and cost find a more reasonable layering, and institutions provide clearer guardrails. Whoever can first turn these three points into a "plug-and-play" development and risk control stack will have a better chance of gaining an advantage in the next round of structural growth.
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