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DeFi Primer

An interactive 9-section educational guide to DeFi for finance professionals. Built by Omar Moonis, Global Head of Self Custody Risk with 25+ years in institutional finance.

Covers DEXs, cross-chain bridges, liquidity pools, stablecoins, protocol risk, $5B+ in documented incidents, and a 45-term glossary — with live TVL, volume, and APY data from DeFiLlama.

What this guide covers

Frequently asked questions

What is a DEX?

A peer-to-peer marketplace where you trade crypto from your own wallet — no account, no KYC. Most use AMMs where prices are set by a formula, not an order book. Uniswap, Curve, dYdX are examples.

What is a liquidity pool?

A smart contract holding tokens traders swap against. Providers earn fees for depositing. Pools power DEXs, lending protocols, and yield strategies across DeFi.

What is impermanent loss?

The opportunity cost when token price ratios change versus holding. If ETH doubles after depositing ETH/USDC, the pool rebalances toward USDC — you hold less ETH upside than if you had held outright.

What is TVL?

Total Value Locked — the dollar value of assets in a protocol. DeFi's equivalent of AUM. High TVL signals trust, not safety. DeFiLlama data feeds this guide in real time.

What is a cross-chain bridge?

Moves tokens between blockchains via lock-and-mint or liquidity networks. Bridges have lost $2.5B+ to exploits — concentrated reserves with complex cross-chain trust assumptions make them high-value targets.

What is protocol risk?

The risk a smart contract is exploited or manipulated. No backstop, no insurance. Factors: audit recency, deployment age, oracle dependency, governance attack surface. Rated 1–5 throughout this guide.

What is restaking?

Using staked ETH to secure additional protocols for extra yield. EigenLayer pioneered it; LRTs make it accessible without running a validator. Slashing risk stacks with every added protocol.

Who is this guide for?

Finance professionals new to DeFi — risk managers, board directors, regulators. Every section maps to TradFi: TVL as AUM, AMMs as market makers, bridges as correspondent banking.

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