With more than 100 million users worldwide and over $20 billion in assets under management, Celsius founder and CEO Alex Mashinsky is doing his part to move DeFi into the mainstream. Mashinsky emphasizes the importance of liquidity in reducing friction and lowering barriers to entry, critical objectives that will accelerate widespread adoption. He notes too that DeFi platforms like Celsius are able to offer yields around 6%, while traditional financial institutions are effectively at zero. Mashinsky’s team was among the first of crypto’s early adopters to pound the table for federal regulation on the theory that recognition and regulation by authorities in Washington D.C. is a necessary condition for mass adoption. Ultimately, Mashinsky’s goal is growth – to see DeFi encompass global finance. He joins Santiago Velez, co-founder and division lead of R&D at Block Digital, and Real Vision’s Ash Bennington to lay out the key factors in achieving this end. Filmed on January 31, 2022.

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