As regulatory barriers fall, DeFi is positioning itself to replace the backend of traditional fintech. What started as a niche corner of crypto associated with unregulated APYs has become one of the clearest real-world use cases for blockchain. The turbulence of 2022 has driven out the hype chasers and made way for utility-focused builders. Projects like Helio emerged during this period, and the ecosystem has since grown thanks to infrastructure innovation and supportive government action.
The once-segregated world of DeFi is merging with traditional fintech, as favorable changes such as the GENIUS Act help bring regulatory clarity. This shift has opened the door for companies like MoonPay, Hyperliquid, Aave, and Whop to grow openly and at scale.
The line is blurring between DeFi and fintech
The first wave of Fintech offered elegant user experiences, but still depended on traditional financial plumbing. DeFi now offers the same interface benefits while replacing the slower backend underneath.
Michael Beer, an early crypto builder and former lead developer of Helio, was part of this transition. Helio grew into one of Solana’s largest payment processors before being acquired by MoonPay in 2025. Now director of engineering at Whop, Beer sees DeFi fintech as the natural evolution of the early fintech era. He notes that “DeFi fintech is fundamentally following the path of inventions that traditional finance had 20 years ago,” and asserts that the industry is abandoning its “degeneration” phase in favor of standardized and regulated infrastructure.
Like the Internet’s transition from novelty to essential backbone, DeFi could become a foundational layer of finance. Researchers and manufacturers point to four major trends that could lead to this transition.
1. The rise of stablecoins
Stablecoins have become the backbone of DeFi’s value transfer. While global currencies like the yen and euro fluctuate wildly, dollar-backed stablecoins provide predictability without requiring access to U.S. banking rails. The beer underlines the rapid growth of this market. “Stablecoin volume is taking off,” he says, because “the dollar is still extremely valuable and companies are realizing that.”
Stripe’s acquisition of stablecoin platform Bridge shows how quickly traditional institutions are adopting this category.
2. DeFi-powered trading is going mainstream
Fintech has helped democratize commerce, but events like the Gamestop freeze have exposed the limits of centralized systems. DeFi restores true user custody, and platforms like Hyperliquid make this accessible without the technical friction of early on-chain tools.
Hyperliquid runs on its own layer 1, allowing users to trade with low latency, visible on-chain order books, and no gas fees. Features like decentralized perpetuals, previously reserved for elite traders, are now widely accessible with the added benefit of self-custody. The outages of centralized services have only highlighted the resilience of on-chain settlement.
3. DeFi fintech matures
The ecosystem is moving from experimental “money legos” to integrated financial super-applications. Aave illustrates this progression. Once a simple lending protocol, it now resembles a comprehensive financial services provider, including deposit-based returns and instant borrowing. A new insurance feature covers up to $1 million in deposits per user through its security module.
The beer notes the meaning. “Previously, when users deposited money, none of the assets were actually FDIC insured and users just hoped that the protocols wouldn’t get hacked,” he says. “Now these protocols secure user assets. »
4. The green light from the government
Since the start of 2024, regulatory dynamics have changed the trajectory of the entire sector. The approvals of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs have introduced institutional liquidity into crypto. The GENIUS Act of 2025 established regulatory guardrails for stablecoins, officially recognizing them as digital money and removing long-standing uncertainty.
The companies leading this new wave
Aave, launched as ETHLend in 2017, has become a decentralized liquidity protocol offering frictionless borrowing and yielding. Hyperliquide, founded in 2022, launched its own L1 in 2023 and its HYPE token in 2024.
MoonPay, established in 2019 as a fiat-to-crypto onramp, strengthened its infrastructure with the acquisition of Helio, bringing deep commerce integrations including Shopify through Solana Pay.
Whop, founded in 2021, is a two-sided marketplace for digital products. While Beer now leads engineering at its Palo Alto headquarters, Whop connects Web2 and Web3 commerce with a payment gateway that supports crypto, reduces fees, and expands access for creators worldwide.
From Blank Canvas to Legitimate Commerce
Crypto has moved from a fringe experiment to a potential foundation for the next era of financial infrastructure. DeFi fintech now offers compliance, consumer protection and insurance, attracting interest from previously cautious institutions.
As adoption accelerates and regulations stabilize, DeFi-powered fintech is setting a new financial standard. For builders and investors, the conclusions are clear. Proving that technology works is no longer the goal. Building the future of global finance is.
Investing involves risks and your investment may lose value. Past performance is no indication of future results. These statements do not constitute and cannot replace investment advice.
The VentureBeat newsroom and editorial team were not involved in the creation of this content.
