According to Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, decentralized finance (DeFi) may only be a few years away from going mainstream. However, significant regulatory and institutional barriers still need to be overcome before achieving global scale.
In an interview released on YouTube on Tuesday with MN Capital founder Michael van de Poppe, Sergey Nazarov stated, "I believe we have completed about 30% of the process."
Sergey Nazarov mentioned that decentralized finance, as peer-to-peer financial services built on blockchain networks, could achieve a global adoption rate of 50% once regulations and legislation become clearer and can explain its reliability.
Other industry executives share similar views. Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov stated in February that the biggest obstacles to DeFi adoption come from regulatory and legal uncertainties, as well as the need to comply with know-your-customer and anti-money laundering requirements.
He also pointed out that issues such as liquidity, trading transparency, and technological security risks also exist.
Sergey Nazarov indicated that clarity will start in the United States and spread rapidly. He said, "Many governments will follow the U.S. approach because they want to remain compatible with the U.S. financial system."
Meanwhile, Michael Selig, the current chief legal advisor of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's crypto working group, recently stated, "When we think about decentralized finance, it has somewhat become a buzzword." He noted that the focus should be more on on-chain applications, the characteristics of these applications, and whether intermediaries are involved.
Sergey Nazarov stated that when a clear and efficient path is provided for institutional users to invest their capital and client funds into decentralized finance, the global adoption rate will reach 70%.
He predicts that full global adoption will only occur when decentralized finance grows large enough for its capital base to be meaningfully compared to the capital allocation in traditional finance.
He said, "When you have that kind of pie chart showing the proportion of client funds or institutional capital in decentralized finance systems versus traditional finance systems, I believe we will reach 100%."
He added, "I think we will see such charts by 2030," emphasizing that these charts will be similar to those showing the percentage of the treasury market relative to stablecoins. Although this is still not a large percentage, it will initiate momentum.
He said, "As that percentage grows, I think people will start to say, oh well, wow, such a high proportion of all institutional capital exists today in this blockchain-based form."
He further stated, "Then you will move from early adopters to the mainstream."
Recently, decentralized finance lending protocols have gained significant momentum, benefiting from the growing institutional adoption of stablecoins and tokenized assets.
According to the latest data from Binance Research, decentralized finance lending protocols have grown over 72% year-to-date, rising from $53 billion at the beginning of 2025 to a total locked value exceeding $127 billion.
Related: Polymarket receives CFTC regulatory approval to operate an intermediary trading platform in the U.S.
Original article: “Chainlink Founder: DeFi's Adoption Level Has Reached 30%”
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