How the industry got stuck in a perpetually postponed future
In the summer of 2020, I eagerly read a book about decentralized finance titled How It’s DeFi. I was impressed and inspired. "This is definitely the future," my heart told me.
Five years have passed, and that future hasn’t arrived. Sure, DEX and lending protocols exist and are generally doing well. But where’s everything else? The book provided various examples of services like insurance systems without centralized governance. Where are they?
This isn’t a criticism of the authors. They envisioned that future and wanted it. I did too.
As for the functioning DEX and lending platforms, is it acceptable that after 11 years since Ethereum’s launch, the interfaces of decentralized exchanges are still so terrible and inconvenient? Why does everything work so poorly?
PancakeSwap announced support for V4 contracts nearly two years ago on April 28, 2025. Why, more than six months after this functionality was added, can’t I provide liquidity to V4 pools through the official interface? It simply doesn’t recognize a pool that definitely exists.
Displayed on PancakeSwap V4 pools for the OWL token. Source: PancakeSwap.
An existing V4 pool with a 0.0067% fee that PancakeSwap cannot see. Source: DEXTools.
PancakeSwap doesn’t show any necessary V4 pool for any token. What’s the point of this functionality if I have to search for custom tools to add liquidity and pay fees to third-party providers? At least those tools exist. However, finding a service that supports V4 contracts was extremely difficult, and the one I found had a terrible interface and worked inconsistently.
This is just one example of poor implementation. As an active DeFi user, I encounter inconveniences and issues everywhere:
- Price ranges can’t be selected through Chrome, but they work fine on Safari (yet MetaMask is on Google’s browser);
- Pools don’t load when I need to quickly access liquidity and sell tokens;
- Transactions fail;
- Information doesn’t update in real-time on the open position page (this only applies to V4, it works fine on V3).
Exchanges on DEX through non-custodial wallets are a separate story:
- The wallet or PancakeSwap doesn’t recognize tokens; they must be added via the smart contract address;
- "Confirm spending amount" — one call. "Confirm something else" — a second call. "Confirm exchange" — a third call;
- FaceID didn’t work. Start over. It didn’t work again, enter the password.
This is incredibly frustrating when every second counts and you need to sell tokens instantly.
Sometimes, in the official PancakeSwap interface, you choose an exchange path that leads through some illiquid pool. So illiquid that for any swap amount, you receive $0.000087 in tokens. Meanwhile, there’s a decent pool with good liquidity, but for some reason, the interface doesn’t recognize it. You have to sit and wait while everything loads.
Making swaps through semi-custodial wallets like Binance Wallet or OKX Wallet is more convenient, but they charge a 0.5% fee.
The BNB Chain is complete chaos. Every day, tons of tokens with Chinese characters are created, reminiscent of the Pump.fun boom. Other assets pump and dump without any remorse from their creators. The algorithms used are so typical that it’s impossible not to recognize the manipulation.
Dumping a token with identical orders. Source: DEXTools.
I’ll refrain from discussing the recent meme coin mania on Solana. Entire software and strategies were created to cash in on retail. Well, if Donald Trump can do it, why can’t an ordinary scammer? This is not the direction I want to see crypto develop. But even in this scenario, it could be interesting if we could eliminate the scammers and keep the legitimate tokens — the idea of fair distribution without endless unlocks and fund dumps isn’t so bad after all.
I'm Not Interested
Recently, I caught myself thinking that I’ve been following industry news much less. I’ve turned off notifications on most channels, keeping only about five that post rarely but more substantial content. In the past, I monitored dozens of channels, checking major media daily for the next exciting project, gem, interesting narrative, or new trend to jump on first.
But they’re not there. They simply don’t exist. The news is the same every day. In Russia, they still can’t figure out regulation, another L2 project has launched, the probability of event X on Polymarket is estimated at N%, Sui, Sei, and other Ethereum killers were down for two hours, the Fed rate, inflation, an inflow of $164 million into an ETF, an outflow of $150 million from another ETF, Tether blocked USDT, the company printed tokens, Trump said this, Trump did that, tariffs, rates, trade wars.
It’s boring. The last exciting project that stuck in my mind was STEPN with its engaging mechanics, math, market inefficiencies, and opportunities. Walking and earning — cool. It was interesting to farm Blast, the ecosystem included unique projects and constantly pushed me to explore new things. Binance Alpha added a bit of excitement until it was taken over by Chinese users with their abuses. And that’s it.
There’s no promising idea, innovative solution, or interesting project with unique mechanics. Polymarket? Insiders and a few lucky individuals primarily profit there, and it’s an old example: founded in 2020, while prediction markets have existed since the last century. Hyperliquid? Just another platform for speculation and liquidations, only seasoned with decentralization.
That’s all. Is the crypto industry only capable of creating analogs of bets and futures?
In 2025, I can immediately recall only three notable events:
- The launch of Trump’s token — oh yes, that was loud; I saw dozens of TikTok videos from people completely disconnected from crypto about buying TRUMP.
- The April crash due to Trump’s tariffs.
- The October crash caused by the mechanics of futures on Binance.
None of these events can be considered positive, and none are related to the fundamental development of the industry. Is this the last bullish year of the past four-year cycle? Maybe it’s worth recalling what happened in 2017 or 2021?
What were we doing in 2025? What about 2024 — it’s clear, we were just tapping the hamster. Where’s the development of decentralized social networks, data transfer, the new Web3 internet? Such projects exist, but they’re not talked about, and the news doesn’t get views. They’re not interesting to the mass market because there’s no quick money or hype.
After the arrival of institutional investors and the launch of ETFs, everyone is just waiting for their altcoin bags to be pumped. Bloggers have been calculating potential x’s on x’s for years, but they’re still nowhere to be found.
In 2017, we awaited the arrival of retail. In 2021, it was institutional investors. Both are ultimately here. But crypto has become uninteresting. Nothing is happening in the industry. There are no innovations, no fire in the eyes of the passionate geeks who want to offer something new, unconventional, decentralized. Only Vitalik Buterin is dancing on stage and meowing at robot dogs.
Today, 17 years after Bitcoin’s inception, the real use of crypto is limited to payments in stablecoins. Not even in decentralized and censorship-resistant BTC, but in centralized dollar stablecoins with regular freezes.
I must admit, this is indeed convenient and much better than the banking system. In other respects, everything remains at a rudimentary level. We still haven’t built the financial Web3 future, and it seems we won’t. People aren’t interested. They’re interested in tapping the hamster for three pennies, which can then be dumped on meme coins.
Perhaps I’m mistaken. There’s still the promising sector of RWA. Maybe in the future, we’ll trade stocks and bonds on the blockchain instead of through brokers and a dozen intermediaries. I’d like to see the development of infrastructure and convenient, safe, and reliable tools in this direction. It has begun, but it’s still raw, and it’s hard to judge whether RWA will meet the sad fate of its predecessors.
Vladimir Sliper