DeFi won't win over big banks until it fixes its hacking problem, executives say
Key takeaways
- In April, breaches were reported in 27 out of 30 days, prompting CertiK CEO Ronghui Gu to describe it as DeFi's worst month in four years.
- I don't think that DeFi grows outside of the DeFi degen community ... until they fix probably a whole stack.”
- Stéphanie Cabossioras, chief strategy and global policy officer of Societe Generale Forge, said traditional banks are already working to fix these structural gaps.
Speaking on a panel at the Proof of Talk conference in Paris, the executives said legacy financial institutions are eager to adopt blockchain technology, but that's unlikely to occur given the weaknesses in onchain security, especially in bridges that link different blockchains.
In April, breaches were reported in 27 out of 30 days, prompting CertiK CEO Ronghui Gu to describe it as DeFi's worst month in four years. Drift Protocol and Kelp Dao alone were hacked by North Korean cybercriminals in exploits that drained nearly $600 million from the two lenders.
“I don't think you see a growth in DeFi until we fix the first problem ... which is the hacks,” said Maja Vujinovic, CEO of investment and advisory firm OGroup. “I think it's an absolute problem until we solve the bridges. I don't think that DeFi grows outside of the DeFi degen community ... until they fix probably a whole stack.”