While traditional financial intermediaries are often seen as crucial in reducing transaction costs and addressing information asymmetry issues, the rise of decentralized finance (DeFi) has the potential to diminish or even eliminate the need for such intermediaries and central authorities. DeFi functions on a decentralized network where information is publicly shared, validated through dispersed consensus, and stored across multiple peers to establish distributed trust using blockchain technology. This chapter intends to explain the conceptual framework of DeFi, its advantages and drawbacks, and its business models. Furthermore, the chapter explores how the future of the banking industry and DeFi might evolve. Although there are some disadvantages to DeFi, it appears to be a viable alternative to traditional finance. While a hybrid approach may be more likely at present, it would not be surprising if DeFi completely replaces financial intermediaries in the future, with technological advances overcoming current limitations.