DeFi may not be like the ICO boom, but is that a good thing?

Cameron Winklevoss and Tone Vays disagree on the quality of the DeFi space within the context of previous blockchain booms and busts.

The crypto industry has boasted tremendous growth over the past year, largely thanks to the decentralized finance, or DeFi, boom.

Some believe that the DeFi sector resembles the initial coin offering, or ICO, bubble of 2017.

Others disagree, noting that the two eras are demonstrably different.

"At least in the 2017 ICO bubble there was effort made to come up with an idea to write a white paper on," derivatives trader, financial analyst, and YouTube host Tone Vays told Cointelegraph.

Projects named after foods have flown upward in price before subsequently plummeting back down to earth.

ICOs did indeed garner exuberant speculation back in 2017, which some see as similar to today's DeFi trend.

Many projects back then sold speculative tokens in a crowdsale-type setting, accumulating millions of dollars in investments within minutes.

"DeFi is not the same as the 2017 ICO craze," Gemini crypto exchange co-founder Cameron Winklevoss said in a Sept. 22 tweet.

In the past, Messari's Ryan Selkis has referenced DeFi and ICOs together as well, ultimately predicting the coming demise of the DeFi bubble.