The DeFi Market
2020 has been an important year in the world of cryptocurrencies, because it's been the birth of the DeFi market. When people say "the DeFi market" they may refer to a lot of different things, but in my case, I consider it to primarily be the cryptocurrency market as it exists outside of centralized exchanges (by this I don't wish to diminish lending, minting or other types of finance protocols, but it's the shift from CEXes to DEXes that I consider truly important). Though DEXes are nothing new in the world of cryptocurrency, the idea that a cryptocurrency can be born and traded entirely outside of centralized exchanges IS and it's quite exciting.
I have always found the alt-coin market more exciting than the BTC or ETH markets, but it's been painful to watch how essentially every coin kept on losing value ever since the huge peaks of 2017. Such a pattern naturally seeks someone to blame. Is it the impatient investors, the exit-scamming teams or the value manipulating market makers of the centralized exchanges who are to blame for all the depressing charts? The DeFi market gets rid of a couple of these culprits, with centralized exchanges existing no more and any coin wishing to succeed on the DeFi market will probably have completely new standards to adhere to when it comes to things such as "team-share" and transparency. With true DEX-trades, everything becomes visible on chain and in addition to this with AMM it's possible for anyone to be a market maker themselves.
A very inspiring phenomenon has also been currency issuers giving away their coins for free without any own starting reserves, and instead building such reserves up by buying the coins on the market just like anyone else. YFI and RIO are shining examples of this type of thing.
FUSE has done the same but is as of yet entirely existing only on the DeFi market and without any ambition to enter markets on centralized exchanges. The lack of such ambition will remain the same, unless it somehow changes through a governance decision.
Governance, being yet another interesting aspect of DeFi, where coin owners truly become their own masters, by voting together on what is the best way forward.