DeFi Finally Delivers Real Profits - And That Changes Everything

Decentralized finance just flipped the script on traditional banking.

The Yield Revolution Hits Main Street

Protocols now generate sustainable returns that dwarf anything Wall Street offers. No more empty promises - real money flows to actual users.

Banks Watching From the Sidelines

Traditional institutions scramble to explain why their 0.01% savings accounts still exist. DeFi cuts out the middlemen, bypasses legacy systems, and puts financial power back where it belongs.

Smart contracts automate what armies of bankers used to charge fees for. The math doesn't lie - unless you're comparing quarterly statements from your local branch.

This isn't experimental anymore. Real people earn real yields while traditional finance still debates whether blockchain is a fad. Maybe they're too busy counting their shrinking margins to notice the revolution happening next door.

The TradFi chase for DeFi yield

For years, BTC’s primary narrative centered around its role as a hedge against inflation and an alternative store of value, while Ethereum emerged as the first-ever programmable blockchain. But today, they are much more than passive assets with the promise of market-beating returns: TradFi companies are increasingly using assets like ETH to extract yield. The logic behind the corporate accumulation of digital assets is changing: if companies are going to hold crypto, it must work for them.

A prominent example is GameSquare Holdings. The company is targeting an annualized return of 8-14% on a portfolio worth some $99 million in ETH, non-fungible tokens, and cash. Other firms exploring ETH treasuries include Sharplink Gaming, which established ETH as its primary treasury reserve asset in early June 2025. By the end of the month, it had accumulated 728,804 ETH “through yield generation and intelligent capital deployment” — and nearly 100% of this is staked, generating cumulative returns.

It’s not just Ethereum-based yield strategies — bitcoin is also helping companies generate better returns. For example, DDC Enterprise, which recently purchased an additional 120 Bitcoin, bringing its total holdings to 488 BTC, has seen an 819% surge in yield since its first crypto acquisition in May. These companies are no longer just experimenting with crypto; they are emerging as the new frontier of DeFi.

The new rules of yield in DeFi

The obsession with yield was at the heart of the 2022 crypto collapse. Few stories capture this better than Celsius, which attracted billions in user deposits by promising returns of up to 18%. An alternative to traditional banks, Celsius took deposited crypto and lent it out to other industry players at high yields, who then used it for trading. But when the crypto market downturn began, this model quickly collapsed, revealing liabilities, poor risk management, and a lack of transparency.

The lessons from 2022 shouldn’t be forgotten just because crypto is pumping again. Yet today, the yield conversation is rooted in more sustainable fundamentals. DeFi protocols are battle-tested, smart contract infrastructure has matured, risk disclosures have improved, and many protocols now include real-time auditing, transparent treasury management, and better incentive structures. Staking, liquid restaking, and protocol revenue sharing have replaced unsustainable lending loops. Importantly, yield today comes with a clearer understanding of where it originates, whether from transaction fees, block rewards, Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) strategies, or validator incentives.

Another trend accelerating DeFi’s maturation is the rise of real-world asset tokenization. In 2024, the total market capitalization of tokenized assets surged by 32%, while assets in tokenized treasuries surged by 179%. Key industry players, including Robinhood, ONDO Finance, and Backed Finance, have started to offer tokenized versions of traditional assets like stocks, allowing investors to earn real-world yield, and even Nasdaq wants to launch tokenized securities trading. Bringing traditional assets on-chain provides the transparency, composability, and programmability crypto-native users expect, while also appealing to institutional allocators familiar with fixed-income structures.

A sustainable future

The result of all these developments is that even previously cautious institutions are beginning to view DeFi yields as structured, quantifiable returns that can be evaluated alongside other fixed-income opportunities in traditional markets. For instance, Franklin Templeton has integrated blockchain infrastructure to tokenize and manage money market funds on-chain, letting institutional investors access stable, yield-generating products through decentralized means.

Over the coming months and years, the combination of corporate crypto accumulation, RWA tokenization, and mature DeFi protocol design will help build a more stable and scalable yield ecosystem. The industry is witnessing a shift from opaque, centralized yield schemes to on-chain, transparent, and modular strategies, and the growing involvement of TradFi is to thank for this. The new yield paradigm is nothing like what we saw during the DeFi summer of 2021 — it’s now a legitimate and important part of the traditional financial ecosystem.

Kevin Rusher is the founder of the real-world asset lending and borrowing ecosystem RAAC. Backed by Chainlink and part of the Circle Alliance, RAAC is widening participation in tokenized RWAs like property and gold within decentralized finance. With a background in finance, accounting, and the crypto industry, Kevin brings a wealth of expertise to RAAC. Active in cryptocurrency since 2017 and working full-time in the space since 2020, Kevin combines extensive traditional finance knowledge with a passion for decentralized innovation.