Unlocking the liquidity code of decentralized finance: from tokenized nodes to AI empowerment

Why Decentralized Finance Needs a Liquidity Revolution

The current blockchain ecosystem faces a paradoxical dilemma: users want to participate in DeFi to earn yields, but assets are locked, preventing flexible allocation. This is precisely the significance of liquidity in decentralized finance.

Liquidity in decentralized finance is not just a concept; it is a fundamental restructuring of the traditional financial system. By eliminating intermediaries and improving capital efficiency, it allows users to maintain asset liquidity while engaging in various DeFi applications. This model is attracting more and more institutional and individual investors. Whether small investors or large funds, everyone can find suitable opportunities within this ecosystem.

How Liquid Staking Changes the Staking Game Rules

Traditional staking requires users to lock assets for a long period. However, liquid staking breaks this limitation—users can stake assets (such as Ethereum ETH) while simultaneously using liquid staking tokens (e.g., stETH) to continue participating in DeFi.

This innovation brings threefold benefits

First is capital efficiency surge. Staked assets can serve as collateral in DeFi protocols, allowing users to earn staking rewards while profiting from other DeFi activities.

Second is flexibility leap. Liquid staking tokens are fully tradable and composable, enabling participation in lending, trading, yield farming, and various strategies.

Finally, is lower participation barriers. Small investors no longer need to run full nodes; they can participate in the staking ecosystem simply through liquid staking protocols.

Scale data in the Ethereum ecosystem

After the Merge and Shanghai upgrade, the staked ETH in Ethereum has rapidly increased. Currently, about 35 million to 37 million ETH are staked, accounting for 29-31% of the total ETH supply. This figure clearly demonstrates the importance of staking for network security but also exposes a deeper issue: market concentration among large staking service providers.

The Hidden Risks of Centralization: Centralization Trap

The rapid growth of liquid staking is accompanied by an undeniable problem—rising centralization risk. A few major staking providers control a large portion of ETH, threatening the decentralization and resilience of the network.

If these providers encounter issues due to regulation, technical failures, or other reasons, the security of the entire Ethereum network could face severe challenges. This not only endangers the interests of stakers but also threatens the healthy development of the entire blockchain ecosystem.

Distributed Validator Technology (DVT): The Decentralization Cure

Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) is becoming a key solution to this dilemma. The core idea of DVT is to distribute validator responsibilities across multiple independent nodes, rather than concentrating them in a few large operators.

This architecture offers three major advantages:

Significantly enhanced decentralization—dispersing validator power from a few major players, enabling more participants to bear validation responsibilities.

Strengthened network security—risk is spread across a broader network of nodes, preventing single points of failure from causing network-wide collapse.

System resilience greatly improved—even if some nodes go offline or fail, the network can still operate stably, maintaining the integrity of the consensus mechanism.

Tokenized Nodes and AI Infrastructure Integration

The most exciting innovations are happening at the intersection of DeFi and AI. Tokenized nodes are injecting new vitality into decentralized AI infrastructure.

Through tokenization technology, the previously high-threshold AI infrastructure participation becomes accessible to everyone. Small developers and investors can participate in AI progress by holding tokenized nodes, sharing in the network’s growth dividends.

This model also addresses three major challenges in AI development:

First, it breaks dependence on centralized resource providers, allowing developers worldwide to fairly access necessary infrastructure resources.

Second, it significantly reduces participation costs, enabling investors without technical backgrounds to find opportunities in the AI wave.

Finally, it overcomes geographical limitations, promoting global collaboration and cross-border innovation through decentralized nodes.

The Evolution of Yield Farming: From Token Speculation to Real Returns

In the past, yield farming mainly relied on project token incentives. But this model has gradually become ineffective—token supplies increase daily, diluting yields, and even shrinking them significantly.

By 2025, yield farming is undergoing a profound transformation—from illusory token incentives to real economic returns. These genuine yields come from protocol operational revenues such as transaction fees and lending interest.

What does this shift mean? It signifies increased sustainability, more assured long-term growth, and longer platform lifespans. Only DeFi protocols capable of generating real income can survive in the competition.

How AI Optimizes Yield Strategies

Artificial intelligence is becoming a new assistant for yield farming. By analyzing on-chain data, assessing market volatility, and predicting risks, AI tools can help liquidity providers make smarter decisions—maximizing returns while minimizing risk exposure.

Cross-Chain Deployment: Unlocking a New Realm of Yields

As the DeFi ecosystem matures, opportunities are no longer limited to a single chain. Cross-chain yield farming is opening new horizons.

Users can now deploy capital simultaneously on Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, and other chains to access differentiated yields. This not only improves capital efficiency but also reduces systemic risk through diversification.

The three core advantages of cross-chain strategies are:

Opportunity expansion—accessing more high-quality yield pools across multiple chains, without being restricted to a single chain’s opportunities.

Ecosystem synergy—achieving seamless collaboration between different blockchains, enabling borderless capital flow.

Risk balancing—distributing investments across multiple independent networks and platforms to reduce the impact of any single point of failure.

The Dawn of Regulation: The Era of Compliant DeFi

Regulatory waves are already here. The EU’s MiCA framework and the US SEC’s actions are clearly signaling to the market—DeFi is no longer a gray area.

For project teams, compliance has shifted from optional to mandatory. For institutional investors, a clear regulatory framework can actually reduce legal risks associated with participation. The future DeFi ecosystem will be: projects that comply with regulations will attract institutional funding, while non-compliant projects will gradually be marginalized.

Although this process may cause some pain, in the long run, it is beneficial—creating a healthier ecosystem, attracting more institutional participation, and increasing market maturity.

The Future Financial Landscape Is Within Sight

Liquid decentralized finance is standing at a crossroads. From the popularization of liquid staking to the innovation of tokenized nodes, from AI-driven strategies to seamless cross-chain collaboration, these forces are working together to reshape the financial world.

But opportunities and challenges coexist. Centralization risks, regulatory uncertainties, technological complexities—these are issues that cannot be avoided. The key to solving them lies in: adopting sustainable business models, emphasizing network decentralization, and actively embracing regulation.

When these factors come together, liquid decentralized finance will no longer be just a concept but the new infrastructure of finance.