Decentralized finance (DeFi) has largely been dominated by Ethereum since its inception just a couple of years ago. Industry pioneers are now seeking ways to bring Bitcoin to the ecosystem.

One of Bitcoin’s earliest advocates is now turning to DeFi with his latest acquisition. According to Bloomberg, BTC pioneer Erik Voorhees has bought Israeli startup Portis.

The ShapeShift CEO clearly sees a need to bring Bitcoin into the DeFi ecosystem and will be integrating Portis into his exchange.

The startup has built the leading Web3 wallet SDK for crypto developers with client-side encryption, ensuring full self-custody. The wallet is integrated into 70 DeFi applications, according to the report.

DeFi took a beating last month as crypto prices plunged and collateral was liquidated. From over a billion dollars locked into platforms in February, the total value today has fallen to $690 million [AU$1.09 billion], according to Defipulse.com.

Voorhees remains unperturbed, however, adding:

“The DeFi stuff, I think, is the most interesting, because of how quickly it’s moving, of how many tiny startups are emerging every day, and how each of them work together.”

He also said that market volatility is not a concern and he is still hodling, as he says, “We’ve been through a lot of these ups and downs.”