History of DeFi

From smart contracts, a blockchain project called Maker was able to create a stablecoin known as DAI. And with DAI, holders of ethereum were able to collateralize their tokens in exchange for the stablecoin.

Another big innovation that Ethereum enabled were ICOs.

While the ICO craze led to many scams, there were a handful of great projects that survived the 2017 bubble. Most notably, in terms of DeFi, was AAVE, which is now one of the most popular DeFi platforms to-date. AAVE is an open-source DeFi protocol that allows borrowing and earning interest on collateralized tokens.