Aave’s Kulechov Says DeFi Ready to Power Traditional Finance

The comments come amid a broader push by DeFi leaders to position onchain finance not as an alternative fringe system, but as a superior financial rails layer for credit, collateral and capital formation.

Speaking at ETHCC 2026 in Cannes, Kulechov said DeFi’s ability to aggregate and "vacuum" liquidity has created a pool of relatively cheap, readily deployable capital. This stands in contrast to the slower and more bureaucratic structures of traditional lending.

DeFi as backend infrastructure

Kulechov said traditional finance still relies on highly procedural underwriting and capital allocation processes. This makes lending slower, more fragmented and less responsive than onchain systems.

By contrast, he argued that DeFi has already shown it can do certain forms of finance better, particularly crypto-backed lending.

"DeFi is starting to become a backend for many fintechs, and soon for traditional finance as well. Its ability to aggregate and ‘vacuum’ liquidity is very effective. That means capital in DeFi is relatively cheap and readily available, waiting for new opportunities," he said.

"I think onchain finance simply does things better. A clear example is lending against crypto-native collateral, particularly Ethereum, which underpins much of the yield in DeFi today."

That view aligns with Aave’s longstanding role as one of DeFi’s largest money markets, where users can borrow against digital assets without the balance-sheet friction found in bank lending.

Tokenization caution

Kulechov struck a more cautious note on tokenized real-world assets. He said many of the products currently coming onchain are already highly liquid in traditional venues and may offer limited added value unless they target new investor audiences.

"I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with real-world assets. Many of the RWAs being created today are already highly liquid and traded in efficient markets. Bringing them onchain doesn’t always add much value, unless the goal is to reach new audiences for traditional financial products," he said.

He suggested the strongest long-term use cases may lie less in simply replicating traditional financial products onchain and more in bringing new categories of assets and users into programmable financial systems.

That stance sets Aave apart from rivals aggressively pushing into tokenized funds and securities, even as the broader industry views tokenization as one of crypto’s biggest institutional opportunities.

Commodities and infrastructure

Looking further ahead, Kulechov said commodities and infrastructure-linked assets could become a more meaningful part of onchain finance. He argued that hard assets tied to real-world infrastructure may provide a stronger foundation for long-term financial security.

"Commodities will be a big part of the future of finance because they are the building blocks of infrastructure. Ultimately, financial security will be better established when it is tied to assets that support everyday life and the systems that underpin human progress," he said.

The remarks suggest Aave sees the next phase of DeFi not just as more tokenized versions of existing financial products, but as a deeper connection between blockchain-based markets and the physical assets that underpin economic activity.