Decentralized finance (DeFi) has emerged as one of the crypto industry's fastest-growing concepts in 2021. According to Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, DeFi protocols will soon have to decide whether they want to include know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering measures to get regulatory acceptance or "pay the piper afterwards." While the DeFi userbase continues to increase, month-over-month gains have been decreasing recently, according to Glassnode data.