Decentralised finance (DeFi) has spent much of the past decade caught between two competing narratives. 

To its supporters, it represents the future of financial services, replacing traditional intermediaries with blockchain-based systems that enable lending, trading and asset ownership without banks. To its critics, it remains little more than a speculative corner of crypto markets.

However, the sector may be entering a new phase. 

Ethereum [ETH], the blockchain at the heart of much of the DeFi ecosystem, outperformed bitcoin [BTC] in July. 

ETH climbed 19% during the month, data from CryptoSlate showed, comfortably outpacing BTC’s 8% gain as stronger inflows into investment products and rising corporate treasury demand fuelled the…