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DeFi

American

[dee-fahy] / ˈdiˌfaɪ /

noun

decentralized finance: financial services, functions, or applications that rely on a blockchain and are typically unregulated by any financial institution.

Etymology

Origin of DeFi

First recorded in 2015–20

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

DeFi

The word “DeFiant” was a coy wink to this idea of decentralized currency, known as DeFi, the ostensible rationale for the new Trump–Witkoff platform.

From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2026

Major Wall Street firms are racing to turn traditional assets from stocks to bonds to funds into tokens on the blockchain, with many of these tokenized assets expected to be used in DeFi protocols.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026

Some industry players argue that for DeFi to achieve mass adoption, it must offer the same protections found in traditional finance.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026

This does not reflect traditional consumer borrowing, but rather crypto holders using digital assets as collateral as DeFi credit markets grow in size and activity.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 6, 2026

The problem isn’t crypto legislation per se, but how the bill handles decentralized finance, or DeFi.

From Barron's ● Feb. 5, 2026

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023