Introduction: From Geek’s Toy to Wall Street’s Darling—How Did DeFi Do It?Over the past few years, one buzzword has dominated financial discussions—DeFi (Decentralized Finance). When developers first started building quirky financial tools on Ethereum, few imagined these "toys" would eventually catch the attention of Wall Street’s traditional finance giants. Between 2020 and 2021, DeFi exploded at a staggering pace. Total Value Locked (TVL) surged from a few billion dollars to a peak of $178 ...