Finance, at its core, serves the real economy, and financial innovation must not drift into self-circulation or detach from tangible activity. The Bank for International Settlements has proposed that currency should have singleness, elasticity, and integrity, and the essence of currency lies in credit rather than mere symbols. Virtual currencies require transparent credit support and credible institutions to be viable. If the algorithm or the linked assets lack transparent supervision, or trust is built on an impenetrable technical “black box”, the credit system of virtual currency is difficult to establish and its value foundation is fragile.
Decentralization is not the elimination of centers but a rebalancing through technology. DeFi is often re-centralized around platforms, code, or technical architectures, and Bitcoin shows a platform-centered pattern with large mining pools dominating. Stablecoins are concentrated among a few issuers, and as of January 2026 they accounted for more than 80% of the global stablecoin market share, with USD-denominated stablecoins comprising about 96% of the market. Without open global participation, the risks of 51% attacks and concentration risks cannot be effectively prevented.
Disintermediation promises cost reductions and real-time efficiency, but the financial system remains a public good that requires deposit insurance and financial stability. Therefore, full-scale restoration of DeFi costs, including deposit insurance, infrastructure use, and public-function undertakings, is necessary to prevent short-term arbitrage from becoming a systemic risk. RWA tokenization should be pursued within a regulated framework to anchor assets in the virtual space to real resource allocation and value creation. Only when RWA improves real use values and resource allocation in the interaction of real and virtual economies can its potential be realized.
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