Multicoin Co-Head Publishes “DeFi 2.0” Long-Form Article, Arguing That RWAs Will Drive the Development of New Financial Primitives
BIBIBI
AT A GLANCE
Spencer Applebaum believes that bringing RWAs on-chain will drive DeFi to adopt new capabilities such as order books, RFQ, and fixed-term lending.
Article
Multicoin: Bringing RWAs on-chain will usher in the DeFi 2.0 era, with order books and RFQ replacing AMMs as the dominant model
BlockBeats reported on September 25 that Spencer Applebaum, Co-Head of Venture Capital at Multicoin Capital, published a long-form article titled “DeFi 2.0.” The article stated that early AMMs, overcollateralized lending, floating-rate lending pools, and perpetual contracts were designed for highly volatile crypto assets such as BTC and ETH; RWAs such as government bonds, stocks, and commodities have lower volatility, cash flows, and identifiable borrowers. Institutions care more about execution quality, term, and credit, so the same set of primitives can no longer be applied mechanically.
Spencer Applebaum said that DeFi 2.0 needs to add capabilities including order books or RFQ (Request for Quote), fixed-rate and term lending, interest-rate derivatives, options and structured products, repurchase agreements and dark pools, portfolio margin, and yield splitting. Tokenization is only the first step. Value will accrue to public blockchain blockspace, core primitive fees, broker aggregation layers, and application order flow; once the RWA market grows, these primitives that “have existed for a long time but were paired with the wrong assets” will truly gain a market.
BlockBeats reported that on September 25, Spencer Applebaum, Co-Head of Venture Capital at Multicoin Capital, published the long-form article “DeFi 2.0.”
02
The article stated that early AMMs, overcollateralized lending, floating-rate lending pools, and perpetual contracts were designed for highly volatile crypto assets such as BTC and ETH.
03
The article listed government bonds, stocks, and commodities as RWAs, stating that these assets have lower volatility, cash flows, and identifiable borrowers.
04
Spencer Applebaum said that DeFi 2.0 needs capabilities including order books or RFQ, fixed-rate and term lending, interest-rate derivatives, options and structured products, repurchase agreements and dark pools, portfolio margin, and yield splitting.
05
Spencer Applebaum said that tokenization is only the first step, and that value will accrue to public blockchain blockspace, core primitive fees, broker aggregation layers, and application order flow.
AI-assisted interpretation
The following is analysis, separate from reported facts. Verify important claims independently.
This content discusses how DeFi tools built for highly volatile crypto assets may not be suitable for RWAs such as government bonds, stocks, and commodities. The author believes that institutions trading RWAs care more about execution quality, term, and credit, so on-chain markets also need tools such as order books, RFQ, and fixed-rate lending.
Why it matters to readers
If the author’s assessment is correct, RWA growth could shift the focus of DeFi products, creating greater demand for order books, RFQ, fixed-term lending, and credit-related tools, while directing some value to public blockchains, core protocols, broker aggregation layers, and application order flow.
Beginners should understand this as an industry view from an investment firm executive, rather than an established market change. It provides a framework for observing the direction of RWAs and DeFi products, but does not by itself prove that related protocols will grow or that AMMs will be replaced.
Risks and unknowns
The original article provides no data proving that the RWA market will continue to grow.
Whether order books and RFQ will replace AMMs as the dominant model has not been verified.
It remains unclear whether the listed DeFi 2.0 capabilities can achieve genuine institutional adoption.
Whether value will accrue to the relevant infrastructure and order-flow segments as described in the article remains a forecast.
Related Developments
Loading event timeline…
Related concepts
RWA
Representing ownership of off-chain assets such as government bonds, real estate, or commodities in the form of blockchain tokens.
