Andre Cronje: DeFi has become a hollow shell, and is now merely "on-chain finance"

Fantom founder and former Sonic Labs co-founder Andre Cronje recently stated bluntly: "I believe DeFi no longer exists outside of very niche segments." The vast majority of current DeFi protocols are categorized as "on-chain finance" or "open finance," but true DeFi must meet three core criteria: decentralization, immutability, and non-custodialism. This definition no longer applies to nearly any existing DeFi protocol, Cronje explained. Today’s intermediaries take the form of companies, decision-makers, curators, or risk committees—"all elements we have long observed in traditional banking." True DeFi still persists in some niche projects, he added, noting that he still sees genuine innovation in this space. According to DefiLlama data, the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi has halved from $167 billion in October 2025 to the current $75 billion. A March working paper from the European Central Bank (ECB) also cast doubt on the decentralization of DAOs. A snapshot analysis of holdings across Aave, MakerDAO, Ampleforth, and Uniswap revealed that the top 100 governance token holders control over 80% of each protocol’s total supply, raising questions about whether these platforms should be exempt from MiCA regulation as "fully decentralized" services.