Rich Rines: Bitcoin DeFi is experiencing a 'Perez Moment' Rich Rines, a founding contributor to Core Foundation, shared in an interview with Wu Blockchain that the rapid growth of BTC-Fi TVL in 2024–2025 resembles a typical tech hype cycle, where market enthusiasm temporarily outpaces technological maturity. He compared the current phase to the 2020 DeFi Summer, noting that pullbacks and reassessments of trust assumptions are part of a healthy process. He believes that truly sustainable TVL should come from Bitcoin asset management protocols and real yield scenarios, rather than short-term liquidity stacking. As infrastructure matures, more application scenarios are expected to gradually unlock value, but this will require time for validation.