Tyler Winklevoss: Stablecoin Race to Begin When Wall St Embraces DeFi

Investor, early crypto adopter, and CEO of Gemini exchange, Tyler Winklevoss, predicted that competition between stablecoins will really begin once Wall Street moves into decentralized finance, or DeFi, during a recent interview with The Defiant’s Camila Russo.

However, despite his optimistic outlook for DeFi, the Gemini co-founder asserted that the crypto industry currently does not offer a killer app that is driving adoption from outside of the virtual currency community.

Inter-stablecoin competition hasn’t even began

In an interview with The Defiant, Tyler Winklevoss predicted that the real race between stablecoins will not take form until Wall Street takes an interest in DeFi:

“When Wall Street wants to start investing in decentralized finance, they'll need a currency. When a decentralized [Real Estate Investment Trust] pays off a dividend or a stock, is it going to pay it to investors in Ether? Probably not because of the volatility, but in a stablecoin.”

However, Tyler offered a damning appraisal of many existing stablecoin projects, stating:

“A lot of these stablecoins, they just put their own cash deposits to goose up the assets under management to give this perception that it's bigger than it is. I think it's kind of bullshit. People see through it.”

Yield generation is critical crypto value proposition

Tyler Winklevoss also emphasized the value proposition crypto assets offer through offering interest yields from staking or DeFi protocols amid the deteriorating global economy, stating:

“Super important in this environment with zero interest rates, maybe negative interest rates, potentially hyperinflation, [is] the ability to earn yield anywhere like 5%, 6%, whether it's staking or you know, a DeFi money market,” he stated.

Tyler revealed that Gemini plans to provide greater support for crypto assets “that power the DeFi revolution,” stating that the firm will look to offer both trading and custody services.

Despite his excitement for the future, Gemini’s CEO does not believe the crypto ecosystem is yet to produce a killer app capable of driving mainstream adoption on a significant scale.

“I don't see that mainstream killer decentralized app right now that all of my crypto and non crypto friends are coming onto blockchains to use.“