Ethereum co-founder and ConsenSys CEO Joseph Lubin believes Wall Street’s entry into decentralized finance is already underway, and it’s being led by corporate Bitcoin and Ethereum treasury strategies.
In a recent post responding to Fundstrat’s Thomas (TOM) Lee, Lubin highlighted that companies like MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Semler Scientific ($SMLR, now SBET) aren’t just buying crypto, they’re shaping a new investment class that brings traditional finance into the DeFi ecosystem.
“ETH and BTC (and some other digital asset) treasury strategies are the first large-scale onboarding of TradFi onto DeFi,” Lubin wrote.
Lee had called Lubin “the first for Ethereum” in this shift, noting that SBET’s move into Ethereum staking bridges “crypto-traditional finance in a staking ecosystem” and enhances the Ethereum network’s long-term value.
Wall Street Will Learn DeFi Through Strategy, Not Speculation. According to Lubin, the key to capturing institutional attention isn’t idealism, it’s performance.
“Wall Street will care about consistent ‘number go up’ in instruments they can access, analyze and invest in,” he wrote.
He argues that once treasury strategies tied to digital assets begin delivering steady returns, investment firms will be motivated to understand how these mechanisms work. That means digging deep into the treasury playbooks of MSTR and SBET, as well as Ethereum-based DeFi protocols.
“They will have to deeply understand the details of Bitcoin and Ethereum and the strategies of MSTR and SBET. They will have to go deep on DeFi on Ethereum.”
This, Lubin predicts, will soon become mainstream discussion across earnings calls, Bloomberg and CNBC interviews, and financial publications.
Lubin says Ethereum is no longer just experimental; it’s ready for real-world deployment. “We are now scalable and affordable enough to make this work.”
He added that enterprises can now use and issue tokens, or participate in DeFi protocols, “without concerns about the SEC and other agencies sanctioning them publicly or secretly, and attacking projects via unprincipled and capricious enforcement actions.”
This marks a major shift from earlier years when regulatory uncertainty and gas fees kept most institutions on the sidelines. The appeal for developers leaving Web2 isn’t just about decentralization, it’s about ownership and alignment with users.
“Instead of having an adversarial and exploitative relationship with their users, they can now build of, by and for the community.” Lubin says this change is what’s drawing top talent and traditional builders to Ethereum.
Main Street Will Follow Wall Street
Lubin believes the path to mass adoption starts with institutional normalization.
“First we get Wall Street excited which will normalize and grow DeFi. Then we build end-user apps for consumers and enterprises that go beyond DeFi.”
As public companies embrace crypto and staking, the foundation for a more decentralized global economy is being laid. “The paradigm shift to an increasingly decentralized system of the world is accelerating.”
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