ARK pushes back against a16z’s ‘TradFi wants blockchain, not DeFi’ claim

ARK Invest’s director of research pushed back against investor a16z crypto’s thesis that traditional finance will adopt blockchain through permissioned infrastructure rather than decentralized finance (DeFi).

Lorenzo Valente said in a Wednesday X post that public blockchains have already outperformed private blockchain initiatives, citing the growth of tokenized assets on Ethereum and other open networks.

He added that crypto-native firms such as Circle and Coinbase, rather than incumbent financial institutions, are best positioned to build the next generation of financial infrastructure.

A day earlier, a16z crypto argued that traditional financial institutions are not embracing DeFi but selectively adopting blockchain technology that fits existing compliance, governance and operational requirements.

The venture capital firm’s X post said banks and asset managers will build “programmable financial infrastructure” that borrows blockchain primitives such as tokenization and atomic settlement while remaining permissioned and institutionally controlled.

Sentora co-founder Jesus Rodriguez also pushed back against a16z’s thesis, saying institutions are likely to adopt DeFi’s underlying infrastructure while layering compliance, custody and other enterprise controls on top.