NMI 2025 Predictions: Decentralized Finance Will Become Mainstream

Why 2025 Holds So Much Opportunity for Decentralized Finance

DeFi has always held a lot of promise. Unfortunately, it has suffered from drawbacks that, until very recently, have effectively disqualified it from adoption in mainstream payments and finance. Namely, because of its existence (primarily) in the crypto space, it has been fairly unregulated and difficult to control, which aren’t qualities big institutions or governments traditionally look for in financial instruments.

Now, those issues are rapidly dissolving. 

Regulatory Changes

First and foremost, the regulatory landscape is shifting. The attitude towards business regulation is loosening, and the government is looking for ways to not just bring blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies into the mainstream but to make the United States a leader in the space.

That will result in an overall friendlier approach towards decentralized finance, enabling it to solve some of the oldest problems we’ve faced in payments, like slow settlement times and high costs. We know from FedNow that legislators want consumers to have access to faster, cheaper payments. Now, with more political and institutional will in place to explore what blockchains have to offer, DeFi could emerge as a very practical option. 

Global Digital Payments

Dozens of countries around the world are piloting or using central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which stand to play a key role in decentralized finance. CBDCs provide a lot of the same benefits as traditional stablecoins, but they offer an added layer of credibility that could go a long way toward helping users get past the trust gap that “crypto” traditionally suffers from. 

Once that gap is bridged, it will be much easier to onboard consumers to other protocols and stablecoins, further expanding the benefits decentralized finance can offer them. 2025 should see even more countries move towards operational CBDCs, bringing DeFi all that much closer to becoming mainstream.

Tech Advances and the Need to Modernize Will Help Push DeFi Forward in 2025

Ultimately, DeFi represents a way to make payments and financial products easier and more accessible for consumers and businesses of all sizes. In an industry where big institutions and payment platforms are desperately trying to keep up with small, nimble fintechs, DeFi represents a potentially powerful way to modernize. 

It’s sometimes said that DeFi will kill traditional banking, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. If anything, decentralized finance could bring major efficiencies to banks and other legacy institutions thanks to technological advancements and scalable, private blockchains. These changes could have a significant impact on things like cross-border payments and accessible micro-lending, which banks struggle to serve efficiently. 

To read more about how advances in blockchain technology (and the need for future-forward solutions) could benefit DeFi adoption in 2025, keep an eye out for our upcoming whitepaper, “From Frictionless to Future-Ready: NMI’s Payment Trends & Predictions for 2025.”