During an interview at Consensus Hong Kong 2026, Joseph Lubin argued that "blue chip" decentralized finance has reached parity with traditional banking. Feb 11, 2026, 11:17 a.m. Consensys founder and CEO Joe Lubin claimed that decentralized finance (DeFi) is as safe as traditional finance during an interview at Consensus Hong Kong 2026. Lubin told CNBC reporter Elaine Yu that "blue chip DeFi is very safe, [but] banks are debasing across the world and growing less safe. If you have situations like in the GFC [global financial crisis] where you see haircuts in Greece for example. People lose 25% of their purchasing power." STORY CONTINUES BELOW "DeFi is roughly as safe as traditional finance," he said before adding that in "2026 people are going to see a real break through in terms or DeFi." Lubin had a contrasting view on bitcoin, alluding to "Q Day" as the day when "encryption can be challenged by quantum computers. "Bitcoin potentially has an existential problem, it's reasonable to worry about that," he added. "I personally think it's a long way off but I also think that AI is magic, and AI is going to supercharge many scientific and technological pursuits. Ethereum is going to be in great shape very soon, and the rest of the world is going to be a kind of Y2k situation," he said. More For You DeFi is not really decentralized, it is unavoidably centralized 20 minutes ago Rules are required to ensure DeFi projects grow and mature, which means they need layers of centralization before becoming truly decentralized. . What to know: A panel at Consensus Hong Kong 2026 argued that most DeFi protocols must pass through a pragmatic, temporarily centralized “incubation phase” before they can safely decentralize. Speakers contrasted Ethereum’s base layer as a neutral “government” with layer 2 founders acting like growth-focused businesses that use admin keys and guardrails to protect young protocols from early exploits. Industry leaders said institutional adoption will require professional, rule-based infrastructure that sacrifices some early-stage decentralization so protocols can mature and withstand scrutiny from global financial markets. Read full story