Marco Santori Declares DeFi 'The Future' at London Summit

- Santori calls for dismantling CeFi to realize DeFi's potential at the Digital Assets Innovation Summit. - He emphasizes crypto treasury companies and stablecoins as pivotal to the industry's evolution. On July 3, 2025, The Block reported that Pantera general partner and former Kraken chief legal officer Marco Santori declared at the Digital Assets Innovation Summit in London, “DeFi is the future — let’s burn this all down.” In his keynote, Santori identified decentralized finance (DeFi) as the crypto industry's ultimate goal, proposing a radical shift away from centralized intermediaries toward trustless, on-chain infrastructure. While Santori acknowledged that centralized finance (CeFi) has advantages like speed and fiat integration, he argued that the industry's core mission is to transition to a decentralized model. He stressed that DeFi better aligns with foundational principles such as transparency, composability, and reducing reliance on middlemen. Santori addressed the pivotal role of crypto treasury companies, describing them as bridges between traditional finance and DeFi that can generate strong potential returns. Historically, he explained, investments in crypto treasury companies have delivered superior results compared to direct asset investments. As an example, he pointed to his own company, DeFi Development Corp. After the company shifted its focus to accumulate Solana, its stock price skyrocketed over 2,400%. Following this success, Pantera has launched a specialized fund to invest in these firms. Santori also highlighted stablecoins as the backbone of the DeFi ecosystem, calling them the essential “technology on which everything will be built.” He credited stablecoins with enabling “money Legos,” which allow fiat-currency representations like the U.S. dollar to integrate seamlessly into DeFi and support composable applications across the ecosystem. Discussing regulatory developments in the United States, Santori described the current climate as a historic turning point for the crypto industry. He praised the Trump administration's legacy for fostering a more favorable investment environment and also acknowledged the significant impact of industry lobbying efforts, which he argued have bolstered prospects for cryptocurrency-focused regulatory policies. According to the latest market data from July 3 at 15:09 UTC, Solana (SOL) was trading at $151.93. Its 24-hour trading volume showed a 0.91% change.