A Guide to DeFi: Understanding Decentralized Finance

By Finance News On Sep 15, 2025

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is a revolutionary shift in the financial landscape, offering a blockchain-based system that facilitates transactions without relying on traditional intermediaries like banks or brokerages.

While the DeFi sector experienced a challenging period through 2022 and early 2023, the latter half of 2023 saw a significant resurgence. This growth was largely fueled by the anticipation and eventual approval of spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US, signaling a pivotal moment for digital assets.

These moves were a major step toward blending digital assets with traditional financial products, a transition that has been further driven by the increasing maturation and institutionalization of the crypto ecosystem.

This is evident in the development of other products and services, such as:

Tokenization
Liquid staking
Derivatives and futures

DeFi has now moved beyond retail users, integrating further with traditional finance as institutions begin to incorporate DeFi protocols into their operations. The DeFi world moves at an exceptionally fast pace, with new technologies and platforms constantly emerging, making it a complex and confusing space for investors to navigate.

This guide explains how these key technologies and others are shaping the evolving DeFi landscape.

What are decentralized exchanges?

Decentralized exchanges, known as DEXs, facilitate the direct trading of cryptocurrencies between users through smart contracts, eliminating the need for a central authority.

These platforms allow users to maintain control of their assets throughout the trading process. A few popular DEXs include Uniswap, PancakeSwap and dYdX.

What is DeFi asset management?

DeFi asset management services aim to make investing simpler and more accessible.

They often use automated strategies to maximize yield without the need for constant monitoring. Some examples include Galaxy Asset Management and Maple Finance.

These systems are non-custodial, meaning users don’t have to give up their private keys or transfer their funds. An example is Yearn Finance, which automates yield-farming strategies to optimize returns.

What are yield farming and staking?

Yield farming allows users to earn rewards by providing liquidity to a protocol. This is done by depositing cryptocurrencies into a liquidity pool; in return, the user receives a portion of the trading fees.

Staking involves locking up assets to help secure and run a blockchain in exchange for rewards.

Liquid staking is a newer technology where users stake their crypto, but receive a liquid staking token (LST) in return that can be used elsewhere in DeFi while their original assets are locked. Liquid Collective’s Liquid Staked SOL (LsSOL) on the Solana network is an example of this. Another is JitoSOL, an LST by…