How ETH Powers DeFi and the Future of Decentralized Finance

Ethereum (ETH) is the backbone of decentralized finance (DeFi), powering smart contracts, lending platforms, stablecoins, and decentralized exchanges. Acting as collateral, transaction fuel, and network security, ETH enables trustless, permissionless, and scalable financial applications. With Layer 2 scaling, Proof of Stake security, and strong liquidity, ETH remains essential for the growth and future of DeFi ecosystems worldwide.

If you have spent any time in the crypto space, you have probably heard the phrase “DeFi runs on Ethereum.” But what does that actually mean — and is it still true in 2026?

The short answer: yes, more than ever.

Decentralized Finance has exploded from a niche experiment into a trillion-dollar ecosystem. And at the center of almost every lending platform, decentralized exchange, stablecoin protocol, and yield strategy sits one asset: ETH.

This guide breaks down exactly why ETH is essential for DeFi in 2026 — not just in theory, but in the very real, practical ways it powers every corner of the decentralized financial world. Whether you are completely new to crypto or a seasoned DeFi user looking for a refresher, you will find clear, jargon-free answers here.

What Is ETH? More Than Just a Cryptocurrency
Ethereum as the Foundation of DeFi in 2026
How Smart Contracts Make DeFi Possible
ETH as the Fuel for Every DeFi Transaction
Why ETH Is the #1 Collateral Asset in DeFi
Ethereum Proof of Stake — How It Secures Your DeFi Activity
ETH Liquidity and the Network Effects That Keep Ethereum Dominant
ETH Tokenomics: Why Scarcity Matters for DeFi Growth
ETH vs Other Blockchains: How Does Ethereum Stack Up in 2026?
Ethereum Scaling Solutions: Layer 2, Sharding, and Beyond
Real-World Asset Tokenization on Ethereum — The 2026 Frontier
Risks and Challenges You Should Know About
The Future of ETH in DeFi — What Comes Next?
Frequently Asked Questions
Conclusion

1. What Is ETH? More Than Just a Cryptocurrency

Most people first hear about ETH as a “coin you can buy.” That is true — but it barely scratches the surface of what ETH actually does.

Ethereum is a programmable blockchain. Think of it less like a bank and more like a global computer that anyone can use, build on, and transact through — without asking anyone for permission. ETH is the native currency of that computer. It is the fuel, the security deposit, and the economic glue that holds the whole system together.

Here is the key thing that separates ETH from most other cryptocurrencies: it has multiple jobs, and it does all of them simultaneously.

ETH as Transaction Fuel (Gas Fees)

Every action on Ethereum — sending a token, taking out a loan, swapping on a DEX — requires a tiny fee paid in ETH. These are called gas fees. They compensate the people (validators) who process and confirm your transaction, and they prevent spam by making it expensive to abuse the network.

No ETH, no transaction. It is that simple.

ETH as a Security Asset

Under Ethereum’s Proof of Stake system (more on this in Section 6), validators lock up large amounts of ETH to participate in block validation. If they cheat, they lose their staked ETH. This “skin in the game” design is why Ethereum is considered one of the most secure blockchains in existence — and why DeFi applications trust it with billions of dollars.

ETH as Collateral

Want to borrow USDC without selling your ETH? You can lock your ETH as collateral in a DeFi lending protocol and borrow against it. ETH’s high liquidity, neutrality, and global acceptance make it the go-to collateral across lending platforms, stablecoin protocols, and derivatives markets.

ETH as a Store of Value in 2026

Thanks to EIP-1559 (which burns a portion of fees) and relatively low issuance under Proof of Stake, ETH has increasingly deflationary characteristics during periods of high network activity. Many long-term holders view ETH as a productive asset — one that you can stake to earn yield while it potentially appreciates in value.

In short, ETH is not just digital money. It is the backbone of an entire financial operating system.

2. Ethereum as the Foundation of DeFi in 2026

DeFi did not have to be built on Ethereum. In theory, it could have been built anywhere. But it was built on Ethereum — and that head start created a gravitational pull that has proven almost impossible to break.

By mid-2026, Ethereum still holds the largest Total Value Locked (TVL) of any blockchain, with hundreds of billions of dollars sitting in Ethereum-based protocols at any given moment. The closest competitors have a fraction of that.

Why? Because Ethereum offered something no one else had at the time: general-purpose smart contracts that anyone could write and deploy, on a network decentralized enough that no single actor could shut it down.

The Key Reasons Ethereum Became DeFi’s Home Base

First-mover advantage: Ethereum launched smart contracts in 2015. By the time competitors arrived, Ethereum already had liquidity, developers, and real users.
Permissionless innovation: Anyone can deploy a DeFi protocol on Ethereum without asking for approval. This open-door policy supercharged experimentation.
Battle-tested security: Ethereum has processed trillions of dollars in transactions. Bugs and attacks have happened, but the base layer has never been compromised.
Composability (“Money Legos”): DeFi protocols on Ethereum can plug into one another like Lego bricks. A lending protocol can integrate with a DEX, which can integrate with a yield aggregator — all automatically, through smart contracts.
Neutrality: No company or government controls Ethereum. This makes ETH trustworthy as a financial primitive in a way that centrally issued assets cannot match.

In 2026, Ethereum is not just a blockchain. It is the neutral financial settlement layer of the internet.

3. How Smart Contracts Make DeFi Possible

Here is a question worth sitting with: how do you lend money to a stranger on the other side of the world, with no bank, no contract lawyer, and no way to take them to court if they default — and still be safe?

The answer is smart contracts.

A smart contract is a piece of code that lives on the Ethereum blockchain. It executes automatically when certain conditions are met — no middleman needed. Once deployed, it cannot be changed or stopped (unless coded to allow upgrades), and everyone can read exactly how it works.

What Smart Contracts Do in DeFi

Lending and borrowing: Aave and Compound use smart contracts to manage collateral, calculate interest in real time, and automatically liquidate under-collateralized positions.
Decentralized exchanges (DEXs): Uniswap uses smart contracts called Automated Market Makers (AMMs) to let you swap tokens without an order book or a central custodian.
Stablecoin issuance: MakerDAO uses smart contracts to mint DAI against ETH collateral, maintaining its dollar peg algorithmically.
Yield farming: Protocols like Yearn Finance use smart contracts to automatically move your funds between strategies to maximize returns.
Governance: Token holders vote on protocol changes via smart contracts — no board meeting required.

Every single one of these interactions requires ETH to pay for gas. Smart contracts cannot execute without it. This is why the growth of DeFi is directly tied to the demand for ETH — more DeFi activity means more ETH consumed in fees.

4. ETH as the Fuel for Every DeFi Transaction

Imagine trying to run a car without petrol, or a computer without electricity. That is what DeFi would look like without ETH.

Every operation on Ethereum — no matter how small — requires gas, and gas is always paid in ETH. Swapping tokens? Gas. Taking out a loan? Gas. Claiming staking rewards? Gas. Even a failed transaction still costs gas, because the network still processed the attempt.

How Gas Fees Work in 2026

Since EIP-1559, gas fees work differently than they used to. Each transaction now has two components:

Base fee: A variable fee set by the network based on current demand. This amount is burned — removed from circulation permanently.
Priority fee (tip): An optional tip you add to incentivize validators to include your transaction faster.

During quiet periods, fees can be as low as a few cents. During high-demand events (like a major NFT drop or a sharp market move), fees can spike significantly — which is exactly why Layer 2 solutions have become so important (more in Section 10).

Why This Creates Demand for ETH

Because every DeFi user needs ETH to operate, demand for ETH rises naturally as the DeFi ecosystem grows. More users, more protocols, more transactions — all of it drives ETH demand. This is one of the core reasons ETH has maintained its value proposition even as competing blockchains emerged with “zero fee” promises.

5. Why ETH Is the #1 Collateral Asset in DeFi

If you want to understand why ETH is so central to DeFi, follow the collateral.

Collateral is what makes trustless lending possible. You cannot sue a smart contract. You cannot call a collections agency. So instead, borrowers lock up assets worth more than what they borrow. If they default, the smart contract sells the collateral to cover the debt.

ETH is by far the most used collateral asset in DeFi. Here is why:

Liquidity depth: ETH trades on virtually every exchange in the world, with billions in daily volume. When a smart contract needs to sell ETH to cover a liquidation, there is always a buyer.
Decentralization: No single entity can freeze your ETH. Governments cannot seize it from a smart contract. This makes it far more trustworthy as collateral than wrapped or custodied assets.
Universal acceptance: Aave, Compound, MakerDAO, Liquity, Spark — virtually every major lending protocol accepts ETH. Developers default to ETH because it works everywhere.
No counterparty risk: ETH is native to Ethereum. It does not rely on a custodian, a bridge, or a third party to exist. Wrapped assets (like WBTC) always carry some bridge or custody risk. ETH does not.

ETH-Backed Stablecoins

One of the most powerful use cases for ETH as collateral is stablecoin minting. MakerDAO’s DAI — one of the most decentralized stablecoins in existence — is primarily backed by ETH. Users lock ETH, mint DAI, use it for payments or more DeFi strategies, and repay to unlock their ETH.

In 2026, this model has expanded significantly. New stablecoin protocols like Liquity v2 and several others use ETH as the sole collateral type, leaning even harder into Ethereum’s neutrality and security guarantees.

6. Ethereum Proof of Stake — How It Secures Your DeFi Activity

When you deposit $50,000 into a DeFi lending protocol, you are trusting not just the protocol’s smart contracts — you are trusting the entire Ethereum network to faithfully execute and record every transaction.

That trust is maintained by Ethereum’s Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.

How Proof of Stake Works

Under PoS, validators — participants who want to help run the network — must deposit 32 ETH as a stake. They are then randomly selected to propose and validate new blocks. Honest validators earn rewards in ETH. Dishonest ones get “slashed” — they lose a portion of their staked ETH as a penalty.

This creates a simple but powerful dynamic: attacking the Ethereum network requires acquiring and risking an enormous amount of ETH. As of mid-2026, over 30 million ETH is staked, making any attack astronomically expensive.

Why This Matters for DeFi Users

Economic finality: Once a transaction is finalized on Ethereum, it cannot be reversed without controlling a majority of staked ETH — practically impossible.
Censorship resistance: Thousands of validators in dozens of countries make it nearly impossible for any single government or entity to block or reverse your transactions.
Reliable block times: PoS produces a new block every 12 seconds, consistently. This predictability is crucial for DeFi operations like liquidations, where timing matters enormously.

Liquid Staking: Earning Yield While Staying in DeFi

One of the most important developments in Ethereum staking is liquid staking. Protocols like Lido and Rocket Pool allow you to stake ETH and receive a liquid token (like stETH or rETH) in return. You earn staking rewards, but you can still use your staking position as collateral, trade it, or deploy it in other DeFi strategies.

By mid-2026, liquid staking tokens have become some of the most widely used collateral assets in DeFi — a powerful example of ETH’s composability in action.

7. ETH Liquidity and the Network Effects That Keep Ethereum Dominant

Here is a truth that does not get talked about enough: in finance, liquidity is power. The most liquid assets attract the most activity, which generates more liquidity, which attracts more activity. It is a flywheel — and ETH is spinning it faster than any other crypto asset.

What ETH Liquidity Looks Like in Practice

DEX trading pairs: On Uniswap and other DEXs, the deepest liquidity pools almost always involve ETH. Thousands of tokens are priced against ETH.
Lending markets: The largest lending pools on Aave and Compound are ETH pools. Borrowers and lenders flock to the deepest markets.
Cross-chain bridges: When value moves between chains, it often does so as ETH — the asset that every chain recognizes and accepts.
Institutional OTC: Large traders and institutions prefer ETH for large-size transactions because its depth minimizes price impact.

The Network Effect Flywheel

More ETH liquidity → more protocols integrate ETH → more users join → more developers build → more activity → more liquidity. This cycle has been running since 2017, and by 2026, Ethereum’s lead is so large that competitors need not just “good enough” technology — they need to overcome a decade of network effects.

That is why, despite dozens of “Ethereum killers,” Ethereum keeps growing. The moat is not just technical — it is social and economic.

8. ETH Tokenomics: Why Scarcity Matters for DeFi Growth

Tokenomics — the economic design of a cryptocurrency — determines whether an asset is a reliable store of value, a good collateral, and a sustainable fuel for a financial system. ETH’s tokenomics, shaped by several key upgrades, have made it one of the most thoughtfully designed digital assets in existence.

EIP-1559: The Fee Burn Mechanism

Introduced in 2021 and now deeply embedded in Ethereum’s operation, EIP-1559 burns the base fee of every transaction. During busy periods, this makes ETH net deflationary — more ETH is burned than is issued. Less supply, all else equal, supports higher value.

For DeFi users, this is meaningful: the ETH they hold as collateral or earn as staking rewards exists within a supply-constrained system. It is not being inflated away by unlimited issuance.

Staking Reduces Circulating Supply

With over 30 million ETH staked as of 2026, a significant chunk of the total supply is locked up earning yield. This reduces the amount of ETH available on the open market, which tends to support prices — and higher ETH prices mean more collateral value for DeFi borrowers.

The “Ultra Sound Money” Thesis

The combination of fee burning and limited issuance has led many in the Ethereum community to describe ETH as “ultra sound money” — a play on Bitcoin’s “sound money” narrative. Whether you agree with that framing or not, the tokenomics are objectively designed to create long-term scarcity, which benefits ETH’s role as DeFi collateral and store of value.

9. ETH vs Other Blockchains: How Does Ethereum Stack Up in 2026?

It would be dishonest not to acknowledge: Ethereum has real competitors. Solana, Avalanche, BNB Chain, and a handful of others have built meaningful DeFi ecosystems of their own. So why does Ethereum still dominate?

What Ethereum Does Better Than Anyone Else

Decentralization: Ethereum has more validators, more geographic distribution, and more client diversity than any other smart contract blockchain. This matters for censorship resistance and resilience.
Security: Ethereum has never suffered a base-layer exploit. Competing chains have experienced outages, rollbacks, and consensus failures. Ethereum’s track record is unmatched.
Composability: The DeFi “money lego” effect works best when all protocols share the same chain. Fragmented multi-chain ecosystems reduce composability, even with bridges.
Developer ecosystem: More Solidity developers, more auditing firms, more tooling, more documentation — the Ethereum dev ecosystem dwarfs its competitors.

Where Competitors Have Gained Ground

To be fair, competing chains have done well in certain areas:

Solana: Extremely fast and cheap for high-frequency trading and consumer apps. Has a growing DeFi ecosystem, though with less TVL than Ethereum.
BNB Chain: Cheaper fees have attracted retail users. However, its centralization (controlled by Binance) is a meaningful tradeoff for a financial system that is supposed to be trustless.
Layer 2 networks: Technically part of the Ethereum ecosystem, but worth noting that Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base have each grown into significant DeFi hubs in their own right — all still settling on Ethereum.

The honest conclusion: if you need speed and cheapness above all else, other chains have advantages. But if you need trustlessness, security, liquidity depth, and composability, Ethereum wins — and for serious DeFi, those properties are non-negotiable.

10. Ethereum Scaling Solutions: Layer 2, Sharding, and Beyond

One of the biggest criticisms of Ethereum has always been gas fees. When the network is congested, fees can become prohibitively expensive for everyday users. This is a real problem — and Ethereum has spent years building a real solution.

In 2026, that solution has largely arrived: Layer 2 networks.

What Are Layer 2 Networks?

Layer 2 (L2) solutions are separate networks that process transactions off the main Ethereum chain and then “roll up” those transactions into a compressed proof that gets submitted to Ethereum for final settlement. The result: you get the security of Ethereum at a fraction of the cost.

The Major L2 Networks in 2026

Arbitrum: The largest L2 by TVL. Hosts major DeFi protocols including GMX, Aave, and Uniswap. Fees are typically under $0.10.
Optimism / OP Stack: Powers Optimism mainnet and Base (Coinbase’s L2). A major hub for DeFi experimentation.
zkSync Era and StarkNet: Zero-knowledge rollups that offer even stronger security guarantees than optimistic rollups. Growing rapidly in 2026.
Polygon zkEVM: Bridges Ethereum’s developer ecosystem with ZK proofs for high throughput.

EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding): The 2024 Upgrade That Changed Everything

The EIP-4844 upgrade, implemented in early 2024, introduced “blob” transactions — a way for L2 networks to post data to Ethereum far more cheaply. The result was dramatic: L2 fees dropped by 80–90% almost overnight. By 2026, transacting on a Layer 2 costs less than a cent for most operations.

This upgrade was arguably the most important practical step for DeFi mass adoption in recent years. It made Ethereum-based DeFi genuinely affordable for the average person.

The Path Forward: Full Danksharding

Ethereum’s roadmap includes full danksharding — a more complete data availability solution that will allow for even greater L2 throughput. Combined with ongoing ZK-proof research, this positions Ethereum to handle global-scale DeFi without sacrificing decentralization or security.

11. Real-World Asset Tokenization on Ethereum — The 2026 Frontier

If you want to understand where DeFi is headed in 2026, look at what is happening with real-world assets (RWAs).

Real-world asset tokenization is the process of representing off-chain assets — government bonds, real estate, commodities, private credit — as tokens on a blockchain. And Ethereum is where the overwhelming majority of this activity is taking place.

Why RWAs Are Exploding in 2026

The numbers tell the story. By mid-2026, tokenized US Treasury bills and bonds on Ethereum have crossed $10 billion in total value, with products from major institutions available directly in DeFi protocols. BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, Franklin Templeton’s on-chain money market fund, and dozens of others are settling and operating on Ethereum.

Why Ethereum? The same reasons DeFi has always lived here: deep liquidity, composability, regulatory clarity (Ethereum’s security and decentralization have helped it navigate regulatory frameworks more smoothly than competitors), and the largest base of institutional-grade infrastructure.

What This Means for ETH

RWA tokenization drives ETH demand in several ways:

Gas consumption: Every tokenized asset transfer, redemption, and yield payment requires ETH for gas.
Collateral expansion: Tokenized Treasuries are now accepted as collateral in some DeFi lending protocols — sitting alongside ETH as backing for loans.
Institutional on-ramp: Institutions entering DeFi via RWAs typically also accumulate ETH for operational purposes, adding to demand.

RWA tokenization is arguably the biggest growth story in DeFi in 2026, and it is happening primarily on Ethereum. This is not a coincidence — it is a validation of Ethereum’s infrastructure and ETH’s central role in the ecosystem.

12. Risks and Challenges You Should Know About

No honest guide about ETH and DeFi would be complete without talking about the risks. DeFi is powerful, but it is not without real dangers. Here is what you should be aware of before diving in.

ETH price volatility: ETH can lose 20–40% of its value in a matter of days during bear markets. If you have borrowed against ETH collateral and the price drops sharply, your position can be liquidated — meaning you lose your ETH. Always manage your collateral ratios conservatively.
Smart contract risk: Even well-audited protocols get hacked. DeFi has seen billions lost to exploits over the years. The composability that makes DeFi powerful also means that a bug in one protocol can cascade through others. Never put more in DeFi than you can afford to lose.
Regulatory uncertainty: While Ethereum itself is increasingly recognized as a commodity in major jurisdictions, the broader DeFi ecosystem remains in a regulatory gray zone. New regulations in 2025–2026 have clarified some areas but left others uncertain, particularly around DeFi lending and derivatives.
Layer 2 bridge risk: Moving assets between Ethereum mainnet and Layer 2 networks requires bridges, which have historically been a major attack vector. The security of bridges has improved significantly, but the risk has not disappeared entirely.
Liquid staking concentration risk: Lido has become so dominant in liquid staking that it controls a significant percentage of all staked ETH. This is a centralization concern that the Ethereum community actively debates and monitors.
User error: DeFi is unforgiving. Send funds to the wrong address, approve a malicious contract, or fail to monitor a liquidation threshold — and there is no customer support to call. Education and caution are your best protections.

13. The Future of ETH in DeFi — What Comes Next?

DeFi in 2026 looks very different from DeFi in 2020, and in another five years, it will likely look different again. But based on current trajectories, here is where things are headed.

Layer 2 Becomes the Default User Experience

By 2027–2028, most DeFi users will interact primarily with Layer 2 networks — not Ethereum mainnet. Transaction costs will be negligible, speeds will be near-instant, and the user experience will be indistinguishable from a traditional fintech app. All of it still settles on Ethereum, and all of it still requires ETH.

Institutional DeFi Goes Mainstream

Major financial institutions are not just experimenting with Ethereum anymore — they are building on it. As regulatory frameworks mature, expect more tokenized assets, more institutional lending protocols, and more ETH demand from entities that previously would never have touched crypto.

AI Agents and Autonomous DeFi

One of the most fascinating emerging trends is AI agents operating DeFi strategies autonomously. These on-chain AI systems can manage yield strategies, rebalance portfolios, and execute complex multi-step transactions — all using Ethereum smart contracts and ETH for gas. It is early, but the potential is significant.

Cross-Chain Interoperability Matures

The future is not one chain — it is many chains working together. Ethereum is positioning itself as the settlement and security layer for a multi-chain world, with other networks processing specific types of activity and periodically settling on Ethereum. ETH’s role as the ultimate “base money” of this system continues to grow.

Ethereum’s Roadmap: The Verge, the Purge, the Splurge

Ethereum’s ongoing roadmap — colorfully named “the Surge, the Verge, the Purge, the Splurge” by founder Vitalik Buterin — continues to deliver improvements. The Verge (implementing Verkle trees for lighter node requirements) and the Purge (eliminating old historical data to reduce node storage) are both in progress, aiming to make Ethereum more efficient and decentralized simultaneously.

14. Frequently Asked Questions About ETH and DeFi

Q1: Do I need ETH to use DeFi?

Yes, in almost all cases. Even if you are primarily using stablecoins or other tokens on Ethereum, you will need a small amount of ETH to pay for gas. On Layer 2 networks, these fees are tiny — often fractions of a cent.

Q2: Is DeFi only possible on Ethereum?

No — DeFi exists on many blockchains. But Ethereum has the deepest liquidity, the most composable protocols, and the strongest security. For serious DeFi users, Ethereum (and its Layer 2 networks) remain the first choice.

Q3: What is the difference between ETH and ERC-20 tokens?

ETH is the native currency of Ethereum — it exists at the protocol level. ERC-20 tokens (like USDC, LINK, or UNI) are built on top of Ethereum using smart contracts. You need ETH to transact with any of them, because ETH pays for the gas to move and use ERC-20 tokens.

Q4: Is staking ETH risky?

Staking has some risks: smart contract risk (if you use a liquid staking protocol), slashing risk (validators can lose ETH for misbehavior), and market risk (ETH price can fall). However, native staking — running your own validator — carries minimal slashing risk if set up correctly. Liquid staking through established protocols like Lido or Rocket Pool is generally considered lower risk, though not risk-free.

Q5: What is the safest way to get started with DeFi?

Start small. Get ETH from a reputable exchange, move it to a hardware wallet or a self-custodial software wallet (like MetaMask or Rainbow), and begin with simple, well-audited protocols like Aave or Uniswap. Never invest more than you can afford to lose, and always double-check contract addresses before interacting with any protocol.

Q6: How are ETH gas fees changing in 2026?

Thanks to EIP-4844 and the growth of Layer 2 networks, gas fees for everyday DeFi users are dramatically lower than they were in 2020–2021. Most activity happens on L2s where fees are under $0.10. Mainnet fees are higher but mainly relevant for large or settlement-level transactions.

Q7: What are the most popular DeFi protocols on Ethereum in 2026?

As of mid-2026, the most widely used protocols include Aave (lending), Uniswap (DEX), MakerDAO/Sky (stablecoins), Lido (liquid staking), Curve (stablecoin trading), and Pendle (yield tokenization). All of these use ETH as a core asset in some form.

Q8: Can I earn passive income with ETH in DeFi?

Yes — several ways. You can stake ETH directly (or through Lido/Rocket Pool) to earn staking rewards. You can provide liquidity to ETH pools on DEXs to earn trading fees. You can lend ETH on platforms like Aave. Each carries different risk levels and returns, so research thoroughly before committing.

15. Conclusion: Why ETH Remains Essential to DeFi in 2026

After everything we have covered, one thing should be clear: ETH is not just a cryptocurrency. It is the fuel, the collateral, the security deposit, and the economic backbone of decentralized finance.

From paying gas fees on a $10 stablecoin swap to securing billions in institutional RWA protocols, ETH is present in every corner of the DeFi ecosystem. Its combination of deep liquidity, unmatched security, network effects built over nearly a decade, and thoughtful tokenomics make it uniquely suited to power the financial layer of the internet.

Competitors have tried to take Ethereum’s crown. Some have carved out niches. None have come close to replicating the full package that Ethereum — and by extension, ETH — offers to decentralized finance.

Whether you are a curious newcomer or a DeFi power user, understanding ETH is inseparable from understanding DeFi. They have grown up together, and in 2026, they are more intertwined than ever.

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