TradFi Tomorrow: DeFi and the Rise of Extensible Finance

TradFi has decided: DeFi is inevitable. Announcing "TradFi Tomorrow: DeFi and the Rise of Extensible Finance" with Paradigm.

Read the full report here.

Our key findings:

1) Engagement

Two-thirds of TradFi organizations are already engaging with decentralized finance, including industry giants like @Visa, @FTI_US,  @BlackRock, @jpmorgan.

2) Benefits

Financial institutions use DeFi for faster settlement times, greater transparency, and lower per-transaction cost.

3) Settlement Times

The blockchain never sleeps, with consistent transaction volumes even through holidays and weekends when traditional markets are closed.

4) Fees

Transaction fees on public blockchains like @solana, @ethereum, and @base are orders of magnitude lower than on traditional systems.

5) DeFi Use Cases

Top use cases include tokenization, stablecoins, and decentralized exchanges.

6) Tokenized Assets

Traditional assets are coming onchain - US Treasury tokenization alone has grown to $4B in early 2025, led by BlackRock, Franklin, and Ondo.

7) Stablecoins

Supply has surged to $200B+, demonstrating institutional demand for digital dollars on public blockchains, led by Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC. Stablecoin users grew from near zero in 2019 to almost 40M active monthly wallets across multiple chains in 2025, led by Tron and BSC. Transaction volumes have simultaneously exploded to over $700B monthly, with significant activity across both centralized and decentralized exchanges.

8) DEXs

Decentralized exchange users and volume continue to grow as well, led by Solana.

9) Next Steps

These trends have created a generational opportunity for regulators and policymakers to accelerate economic benefits.

52% of TradFi firms point to regulatory clarity as a key factor that would enhance their DeFi engagement. With institutional technologies already demonstrating significant traction, clearer regulatory frameworks now could unlock the next wave of financial innovation and efficiency.