Dr. Doom Roubini Branded The DeFi Space As “Vaporware”

Dr. Doom Roubini, the popular Bitcoin basher branded the $13 billion DeFi industry as “vaporware” despite its parabolic explosion over the year. In our latest crypto news, we are reading more about his stance on Defi.

Due to a confluence of trends including the search for yield on cash and the recovery price of bitcoin, the Defi coins went from a market capitalization of about a billion to $13 billion. Value is accruing within the DeFi apps as opposed to just their coins and according to the data from DeFi Pulse, the value of cryptocurrencies that are locked in decentralized finance applications such as Compound and MakerDAO reached $11 billion after hitting the $1 billion for the first time this year.

DeFi was vaporware from its onset. Now totally faltering as blockchain was always the most over-hyped technology in human history https://t.co/cIUoZbMXvZ

— Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) September 24, 2020

Despite the growth, as many commentators say it was underpinned by innovation and interest, some are not really convinced that DeFi is here to stay. Dr. Doom Roubini or Nouriel Roubini dubbed DeFi as a space full of “vaporware” agreeing with BTC maximalists for the first time. The prominent economist known for predicting multiple financial crashes doubled down on his hatred for the BTC and crypto. Now, he commented on the Defi space which he branded as “vaporwave from its onset:”

 “DeFi was vaporware from its onset. Now totally faltering as blockchain was always the most over-hyped technology in human history.”

My read on #DeFi after speaking with instl investors, fund mgrs, OTC desks, and FOs over the last few wks:

The herd is coming. They’re excited about DeFi but new to it, so they’re buying $ETH first. Once positions are set, I expect them to move up the risk spectrum to protocols.

— Spencer Noon (@spencernoon) August 3, 2020

Roubini was a critic of Bitcoin despite holding views on the central banks and fiat that some could say would make him a Bitcoin bull. He has been harsh on altcoins which he dubs as “shitcoins” with little value and an audience of “degenerate gamblers.” While he sees the Decentralized finance spaces as a space full of vaporwave, there’s a lot of capital and investors that are entering the space. Andreessen Horowitz who is one of the most prominent venture capital firms announced the Crypto Fund II in April which will invest $515 million in investments pertaining to the crypto-asset and blockchain space. One focus of the fund is Decentralized finance as a16z sees it as crucial to the development of the internet:

 “DeFi is a new stack of financial services — think lending, derivatives, insurance, trading, crowdfunding, and more — built on top of blockchains that embraces the core values of the open internet… DeFi opens the components of finance to the same recombination and experimentation that makes open-source software so powerful.”