The Future of Crypto: Convergence of DeFi and TradFi in 2025

Crypto is rapidly gaining traction among retail traders and institutions alike.

Anyone can now trade crypto in a matter of seconds, and that ranges from the granddaddy of them all, Bitcoin to mean coins such as dog with hat.

But amid the rise in adoption, some exports do warn that digital assets are drifting away from Bitcoin's original mission to be a decentralized.

Currency free from intermediaries.

While joining me this morning to weigh in is James Toledano, chief operating officer at Unity Wallet.

James, thank you so much for joining me as we kick off the second half of 2025.

Now Bitcoin has been range bound in the past week, but it has been quite the year for Bitcoin in 2025.

So where do you see crypto heading in the second half?

It's a good question.

So I mean I think we're going to see increasing convergence between Defi and tradfi, right, and that was really.

Kind of started off by all the, uh, spot ETF Bitcoin products from, you know, BlackRock and, uh, Wisdom Tree and those types of companies and as the value of these currencies rises, especially Bitcoin, um, It's too attractive for trad fire people to kind of stay away from.

There's a lot of, a lot of money to be made there, so I would see increasing convergence, probably more, more regulatory clarity certainly out of the US, um, and I would expect in the case of Bitcoin, the price to the price to carry on marching north.

And James, you mentioned ETFs, so I do want to get your take on what's next for a crypto ETF.

So we know Robin Hood will now allow users to take Ethereum as well as Solano.

So what do you think is next when it comes to these products?

Yeah, I think, well, in my mind anyway, all eyes are on, all eyes are on Ripple to kind of be one of the next breakout ETF products, and they've obviously been kind of tussling with the SEC for a very long time under under Gary Gensler, and now he's not there.

It's been a much better environment for them to be able to push things through, and we've seen that across the board.

So my guess is, you know, in terms of, in terms of the top 10.

Coins and all coins, I think Ripple, um, and Solana and Ethereum, are, are kind of the priorities, but, yeah, Ripple's looking very, uh, very attractive, you know.

And of course we have to talk about stablecoin since we're talking about the crypto landscape in 2025.

In institutions are increasingly adopting crypto and are particularly interested in stablecoins.

So give us your take on where we are when it comes to that front.

Yeah, so obviously um Circle, the issuer of USBC recently IPOed, and I think they probably had one of the most spectacular IPOs in in recent memory, if not of all time.

I think the IPO saw their. saw the share price rise over 500% in very short order and obviously there's a lot of usage of these stablecoins.

So obviously tether USDT being being the biggest one by far.

It eclipses USDC, um, you know, in an order of magnitude.

Um, and people are adopting these more and more and more because they're being used in cross-border payments for remittances.

Very, very easy to use.

Obviously a stable score of value.

Um, I think arguably Circle USDC does a better job of the 1 to 1 pegging of the US dollar to their asset, and there are some questions around, uh, tether peg VAT.

They have a mix of, you know, Treasury assets and Bitcoin.

I think regulators are looking to tether certainly in Europe to kind of shore up.

Shore up their finances so that uh there are adequate protections for, for consumers.

But yeah, I think we're gonna see more and more of this.

Sorry.

Yeah, and of course, while we're on the topic of stablecoins, as you mentioned, Circle, it was quite the IPO here at the New York Stock Exchange when that company went public, but it does look like we could potentially see more stablecoins and it's not just the retailers or tech giants that want in, it's also financial institutions, obviously.

So what do you expect to see in terms of how all of this plays out for stablecoins?

Yeah, I mean, I, I, if I was tether, I'd obviously kind of be looking at what Circle have just done with their IPO and, and considering that for my own, for my own business as well.

Um, I do expect to see more of these stable coins come online, um, but I think, I think the.

I think 11 very important factor to consider with stablecoins is that, um, from a, from an ethos perspective in terms of decentralized finance, these stablecoins need to be issued by private companies rather than central bank digital currencies.

Um, that's, that's really important because people don't want to be, they don't want, um, I'll probably wait for the noise to die down.

They don't want governments being able to, uh, peer into their spending habits or having any additional control over their lives than they do already.

So I think a lot of people on my side of the fence, we, we're, we're very happy that these are being issued by private companies and long, long may that continue.

Um, but I think it's going to be very hard for someone to come in and, and leapfrog.

Heather's dominance, I mean, circum tried and they're, they're way behind right now.

So, yeah, let's see.

And James, we are fast approaching the opening bell here at the New York Stock Exchange, so you can hear the noise behind me.

So we have time for one last question.

My last question to you is, are you concerned by this limitless instant crypto trading with so many options, and do you think we're losing Bitcoin's original mission?

Yeah, so that's a, that's a very good question.

So obviously the original kind of ethos of decentralized finance was was really put in place by Satashi Nakamoto and obviously Bitcoin, which is to keep it decentralized, pseudo anonymous, although Bitcoin was almost completely anonymous when it when it started out, but the pseudo anonymity aspect is obviously critical until the point where you off-ramp.

Then you can't expect to be anonymous anymore because you're then interfacing with the traditional banking system and you need to comply with KYC and anti-money laundering, but there is, there is a fear among Bitcoin maximalists, and it is legitimate that as there's ever increasing convergence between Defi and Tradfi, that this ethos is going to fall by the wayside.

So Um, although the underlying protocol of Bitcoin really can't be changed, it's, it's immutable.

So that makes it hard for it to ever truly go away, but there are legitimate concerns with every increasing convergence, um, yeah.

OK, James, well, we will have to wrap it up since we are fast approaching the opening bell and the opening of US markets and the traditional markets.

So thank you so much for your time.

Pleasure.

Thank you.