DeFi right now is like 'trying to fly to the moon in a cardboard box' — Diginex CEO

The decentralized finance, or DeFi, sector of the crypto industry has been bursting with exuberance, innovation, and speculation in recent months. The niche is still very much in its infancy, however, according to Richard Byworth, CEO of digital finance company Diginex.

"I do believe that DeFi is the future potentially down the road," Byworth said in an interview with Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano, posted on Sept. 18. "But it's very early," he added, elaborating:

"It's like trying to fly to the moon in a cardboard box — I mean, you're going to get yourself into trouble along the way, and, you know, things are going to break and burn up, as we've already started to see."

Such dramatic attempts, trials, and failures do not make the industry look great with regards to mainstream entities peering into the crypto sphere and its nascent DeFi niche.

"I definitely look back to 2017, and this DeFi thing is probably not what we need right now," Byworth added. "We've got MicroStrategy coming in, we've got Paul Tudor Jones coming in, we've got some really serious hitters starting to pay attention to this industry and I just hope that DeFi doesn't become another ICO craze that people go, 'you know what, everyone's crazy in crypto,' and stay away from it for another few years."

The entire crypto industry reached peak bubble status in 2017 due to the rising trend of initial coin offerings, or ICOs — a fad later stomped out by regulation. In recent weeks, DeFi has given off similar vibes, with many random assets spiking in price. 

Byworth is also not the first to compared the DeFi sector to ICOs in 2017. The founder of digital asset data site Messari, Ryan Selkis, recently expressed similar thoughts. 

Additionally, as Byworth, mentioned, multiple important mainstream giants have recently placed big bets on Bitcoin, possibly putting the industry at a pivotal point in the life thus far.