CoinGecko founder explains how the platform saw DeFi mania coming

"We knew that DeFi was going to be big and important about sometime last year."

CoinGecko co-founder TM Lee has been keeping a pulse on the space since starting the platform as a project with his co-founder in 2014. The initial coin offering (ICO) boom of 2017 multiplied the traffic tens of times over, cementing CoinGecko as a popular crypto metrics provider. 

Now, CoinGecko is in the midst of another boom — the decentralized finance (DeFi) explosion. The platform has gained even more popularity listing hundreds of DeFi tokens, becoming a hub of information on for those interested in the ever-increasing projects. 

But even though CoinGecko saw the DeFi explosion on the horizon thanks to a few team members interested in the space, on this week's episode of The Scoop, Lee said he wasn't expecting the magnitude seen today.

"If you asked me last year, would DeFi be big today? I just couldn't see that. Will Uniswap be a billion dollar trading volume that beats Coinbase? I would also say that's not possible. But we are in this world right now," he said.

On this week's episode, Lee talked about how DeFi mania is changing up the platform's approach as well as:

• The genesis of the platform, from early days in 2014 through the ICO craze of 2017 to today
• What's driving Coin Gecko's growth now, and why the explosion came only recently
• How the platform balances offering a wide array of DeFi projects with protecting users from possible scams
• How the team is working to stay ahead of the curve during DeFi mania
• Why the investment side of the team's operations is key in the current climate.