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.
