Curve Igorov wants a sustainable DeFi product
Decentralized finance (DeFi) cannot rely on inflationary token incentives to sustain growth, said Michael Egorov, founder of Curve Finance.
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Egorov said that protocols should generate real income instead of relying on emissions to attract liquidity.
“Your product should be from revenues, not tokens,” Egorov told Cointelegraph. “You need real revenues.” He added, “If a token doesn't do something, you're probably better off not doing a token.”
Egorov compared the current environment to the “DeFi winter” of 2020, where even triple-digit and 1,000% annual percentage rates have attracted capital to new protocols. At the time, he said, speculative premiums generated token prices and total value locked (TVL) for protocols.
“Currently, news does not change the value of tokens,” he told Cointelegraph, arguing that users “reassess the risk.”
His comments come as Defy's TVL has fallen about 38% over the past six months, according to Defillama. According to data from the analytics platform, TVL declined from $158 billion on August 23, 2025 to $98 billion on February 23.
Curve's founder says revenue integration is better than excellence-driven production.
Egorov argues that protocols “cannot live without real incomes” and that sustainable profits must be linked to real economic activity.
He argued that while token issuance once helped projects accumulate quick liquidity, sustainable revenues should be tied to actual economic activity.
“In 2020, people didn't care so much about risks,” Egorov said. If projects fail later, higher token rewards can offset losses.
“Nowadays, it's absolutely impossible. If you put something somewhere, you have to make sure it's safe for at least years with the technical protocol.”
They associate it with decentralization rather than consideration. Without decentralization, a project runs the risk of being seen as a regulated financial service, he said.
“Tokens are wanted for decentralization, not for getting rich quick,” he said.
An earlier comment echoed similar concerns. In comments to Cointelegraph, Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron wrote that inflationary releases only create “temporary dreams of success.”
Discussions on DeFi and decentralized products have also recently resurfaced on social media.
In the year On February 9, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin argued that the true value of DeFi lies in redistributing risk rather than simply generating returns on fiat-backed assets.
RELATED: Hyperliquid Launches Defy Lobby Amid ‘Crucial Time' For US Policy
From consideration to sustainability
Egorov also changed the speculative focus. “All speculative premiums have been stolen by meme coins,” he said, noting that DeFi tokens now trade on fundamentals rather than advertising.
This volatility makes it difficult to attract “trader capital” that moves quickly between protocols in search of maximum yield, Cointelegraph said.
He also pointed out that the market structure is changing. Retail traders have entered the perpetual futures markets, while institutional participants are stockpiling spot assets.
Defilama data shows the volume of perpetual futures reached $1.37 trillion by October 2025.
According to Egorov, sustainable onchain businesses should compete on revenue generation and capital efficiency rather than annual percentage yields.
Magazine: 6 Weirdest Devices People Used to Mine Bitcoin and Crypto
