Cardano’s DeFi logic

CTO’s big prediction

“Patience” is not a concept one usually associates with cryptocurrencies but it is becoming one market leaders are increasingly encouraging.

No less a figure than Cardano chief technical officer Giorgio Zinetti has transformed into one of its biggest advocates amid investors moving away from crypto to AI technologies.

In a recent post on X, the Proof-of-Stake blockchain’s CTO made it clear that crypto users should keep the faith because the decentralised finance (DeFi) boom is coming.

“Everyone's talking about AI. Nobody's talking about DeFi,” he wrote.

“That's usually when the next cycle's winners are being built. When capital is scarce and attention is elsewhere, the teams with real conviction keep shipping. The best DeFi protocols of 2026 are being built right now by founders nobody's watching.”

There is certainly merit to his views on DeFi’s potential to dominate in the coming years.

Crypto collaborations

DeFi market growth is attributed to higher demand for permissionless, transparent and accessible financial services.

According to projections by Precedence Research https://www.precedenceresearch.com/decentralized-finance-market the global DeFi market will be worth  $1,558.15 billion by 2034.

Its forecast looks at factors like increased adoption of blockchain technology, demand for financial inclusion, rise in cryptocurrency usage and global economic uncertainty that encourages investors to explore decentralized alternatives.

Little wonder then that Zinetti is encouraging investors to exercise patience.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson is not waiting around either.

He has already pitched the possibility of hosting a DeFi summit with Ripple’s XRP community to explore avenues for alignment between the two platforms in the DeFi space.

He has also made sure not to leave incumbent crypto king Bitcoin out in the cold.

“Bitcoin is the world’s largest and most valuable network, yet its liquidity remains underutilized,” Hoskinson stated. “If we can connect that to Cardano, it could bring billions in value and millions of users into our ecosystem,” he told a Singaporean media outlet.

Needless to say, joining forces with the crypto giant would boost Cardano price USD exponentially.

Bitcoining it in DeFi?

Bitcoin would also stand to benefit after recently losing many investors to AI ventures.

The past months have not been easy for the platform but turning its focus to DeFi could be just the shot in the arm it needs.

It is also apparent that there is appetite for such a move.

Rootstock, which already provides decentralised finance secured by the Bitcoin network, has launched Rootstock Institutional, a cross-functional initiative designed to expand access to Bitcoin-native DeFi.

The aim of the new offering is to grow institutional participation in BTC-backed lending, stablecoin issuance and yield-generating strategies.

AI caramba!

Taking all these developments into account, Zinetti’s comments about DeFi are not far-fetched at all. 

Fears of the AI investment bubble bursting are very real and it could very well be that DeFi is the pin that does it as builders toil away quietly on the next cycle’s “winner”.

If competitor cryptocurrencies put their differences aside and collaborate on DeFi projects, as seems increasingly likely, it could be that it’s AI that nobody’s watching anymore.

Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson has already mooted  recently alluded to the possibility of hosting a DeFi summit with the XRP community, suggesting a possible alignment for interoperability in the altcoin space.

The Cardano Foundation appears to be validating this approach. In a notable move, Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson recently alluded to the possibility of hosting a DeFi summit with the XRP community, suggesting a possible alignment for interoperability in the altcoin space.