Wait what? DeFi pretty much started booming from last summer.. it hasn't existed for a decade. Do you not know Uniswap? It's existed since around 2017. Sushiswap? even Pancakeswap?

There's $80 billion locked in DeFi right now. https://defipulse.com/

Uniswap has more transaction fees than the Bitcoin network https://cryptofees.info/history/2021-05-16

Institutions are even starting to get in https://twitter.com/stanikulechov/status/1394390461968633859

I call bs. There is not $80 billion USD locked in defi -- the world has not taken $80 billion USD, bought crypto with it, and put the crypto into defi code. Like, where are the receipts?

What has happened is defi tokens have appreciated through speculation. Sites like defi pulse erroneously represent the wealth locked into defi contracts as token_price * tokens_locked, which is trivial to manipulate for shallow-market tokens. Like, I can spin up a token with 1 billion units, buy one token for $1, and put the remaining tokens into a defi contract. Voila -- defi pulse reports $81 billion locked.

EDIT: downvotes aren't receipts, and downvoting doesn't change the accounting discrepancy.

An 80 billion market cap in Ponzi scheme products with no star companies that testify the usage of said products sounds like a scam.

Aave, Compound are both not Ponzi schemes and allow you to lock things like USDC and ETH (also not Ponzi schemes) for others to borrow, and earn interest. It's automated lending, I don't understand how people are not excited about this.

No demand for DeFi? Are you serious? Total value in DeFi has gone from sub $1b to over $70b in the last year.