The Edge Podcast

Cole Kennelly is the Founder and CEO at Volmex Labs.In this episode, we dive into how Volmex created the first crypto-native volatility indices, BVIV and EVIV, and how traders can now measure, track, and even trade crypto market volatility using tools modeled after the VIX.------

Sam MacPherson is CEO at Phoenix Labs, a service provider to Spark.In this episode, we explore how one of the top 5 largest DeFi protocols scaled to billions in liquidity onchain without a token, and why its upcoming SPK launch, RWA strategy, and “not a bank” campaign prove it's just getting started.EDITOR'S NOTE: Since recording, liquidity deposited into Spark grew from $3.6B to $4B.------

Jack O'Holleran is the CoFounder of SKALE and CEO at SKALE Labs.In this episode, Jack breaks down why they built FAIR, a new L1 blockchain designed to eliminate MEV at the consensus level and unlock a new wave of AI and DeFi applications.------

Aya Kantorovich is the Co-CEO and Co-Founder at August and Upshift.In this episode, we explore how Aya's team is building institutional-grade infrastructure to unlock the next wave of capital into DeFi. Plus, how everyday users can earn the same curated, risk-managed yield as institutions!------

Jared Phillips is the CoFounder and CEO of GolfN.In this episode, we dive into GolfN, a new golf rewards app built on Solana that lets you earn crypto and other rewards for playing golf, tracking your game, and sharing your love of golf with friends. With over 40,000 golfers on the waitlist and an app launch just around the corner, GolfN is one of the most promising new consumer apps built on Web3 rails, delivering crypto-native rewards that users can benefit from without ever needing to think about the tech behind it.------

Kedian Sun is the CoFounder at Level.In this episode, we dive into Level, a new stablecoin protocol offering yield lending USDC and USDT to blue-chip protocols, including how Level's design enables higher yields, what risks and tradeoffs come with that, and how stablecoin farmers can put lvlUSD to work across DeFi protocols like Pendle and Morpho.------

Brandon Kumar is the CoFounder of Layer3 and former Vice President of Accolade Partners, one of the world's top crypto-specific fund of funds.In this episode, we unpack the mindset that separates crypto's best investors. Brandon shares why being “long-term greedy” pays off, how to spot the DNA of top founders and top investors, and what it takes to win in evolving token-based capital markets.------

Sean Li is is the CEO and CoFounder at Magic Labs.In this episode, we explore the self-driving car of crypto wallets. Newton aims to fix and automate the crypto user experience by establishing a secure rollup for AI-driven strategies, automated trading and a marketplace for AI developers.------

Miles Jennings is the Head of Policy & General Counsel at a16z crypto.In this episode, we discuss why U.S. crypto regulation is finally starting to turn a corner. From promising bipartisan momentum for stablecoin regulation to renewed institutional interest in tokenization and DAOs, Miles breaks down how policy is catching up with innovation, and why it's bullish for crypto's next chapter.------

TN Lee is the CoFounder of Pendle Finance and Stephen is the Founder at DeFi Dojo.In this episode, we host a deep dive on ideas and strategies for farming with stablecoins on Pendle along with updates for future permissionless market listings, plus their unreleased leveraged yield trading platform Boros.------

Mads Mathiesen is a Research Partner at Maven 11.In this episode, we're joined by a crypto-native VC fund Maven 11 to explore what it really means to be early in crypto. We discuss how their team identifies high conviction investments, like opinionated applications, consumer apps, and stablecoin payment systems. Plus, more on why the next wave of winners may look different from the last!------

Omnia is the CoFounder of Kinetiq.In this episode, we cover the native liquid staking protocol for Hyperliquid, with the upcoming launch of its LST for HYPE, called kHYPE. We dive into how kHYPE can unlock new utility and yield opportunities across Hyperliquid DeFi, the architecture behind its staking design, and the early institutional demand for exposure to HYPE through Kinetiq's platform.------

Zeus is the Founder of Olympus.In this episode, the anonymous DeFi founder Zeus does his first podcast appearance in 4 years to share how Olympus survived the bear market, restructured its vision, and is now scaling the programmatic money OHM with new products like Cooler Loans V2 and a $275M treasury.------

Ryan Berckmans is an Ethereum community member and ETH investor.In this episode, we unpack the disconnect between Ethereum's surging fundamentals and its lagging market price, exploring what's driving real adoption, why ETH demand hasn't followed through (yet), and what could finally flip the narrative.------

Joe Flanagan is CoFounder of Maple Finance and Martin de Rijke is Head of Growth.In this episode, we explore how Maple Finance is creating real yield for stablecoin holders by connecting DeFi lenders with institutional borrowers, plus how Syrup.fi unlocks a yield-bearing composable token for any DeFi lender to access.------

Rob Montgomery is the CoFounder and CEO at InfiniFi Labs and Ken Deeter is General Partner at Electric Capital, who led InfiniFi's most recent round.In this episode, we explore how InfiniFi is introducing duration matching to DeFi to unlock more sustainable, higher-yield opportunities for stablecoin holders, alongside insights from Electric Capital on the future of yield innovation.------

This episode comes from a recent panel discussion hosted by the DeFi team at GAIB. We were joined by DeFi experts such as Patrick, Founder of Dynamo DeFi, an anonymous DeFi investor who goes by DeFiMaximalist, and crypto YouTuber / investor Joe Takayama. We found the discussion to be very insightful and so we agreed to edit and republish the conversation as a podcast. We hope you enjoy it!------

Benjamin is the Founder of cap.In this episode, we dive into how Cap aims to unlock a new era of scalable stablecoin yield generation on Ethereum and MegaETH, by tapping into competitive markets and institutional players like Susquehanna, Franklin Templeton, and potentially DeFi powerhouses like Ethena and Maker.------

Jason Zhao is the CoFounder at Story Protocol.In this episode, we explore how Story Protocol aims to turn IP (intellectual property) into programmable, onchain assets, enabling creators and even AI agents, to register, protect, and license IP more efficiently.------

Amir Forouzani is the CoFounder and CEO at Puffer Labs.In this episode, we unpack why Ethereum builders according to Amir, remain heads-down focused on building, how based rollups like Puffer UniFi could unlock a simpler UX across all rollups on Ethereum, and what's coming this year to boost Ethereum/ETH's fundamentals.------

Dr. Redouane Elkamhi is Economics Lead at GOAT Network.In this episode, we explore how GOAT Network is pioneering a sustainable, real BTC yield by sharing sequencer revenue and BTC mining rewards with BTC and DOGE holders on a new multi-coin Proof-of-Stake network.------

Phil Fogel is the CoFounder and CEO at Cork Protocol.In this episode, we explore how Cork enables a massive new cohort of DeFi users and crypto institutional investors to hedge against stablecoin and (re)staking token depegs, unlocking a new market for trading and earning through tokenized risk.------

Vivek Raman and Danny Ryan are the CoFounders of Etherealize.In this episode, we speak with Etherealize about their highly touted team focused on marketing, business development, and product on behalf of Ethereum. Despite Ethereum's dominance as the most trusted and secure blockchain for DeFi, tokenization, and institutional adoption, ETH remains undervalued so we get right into the weeds about how they believe we can fix the disconnect between Ethereum the network and ETH the asset. Plus, we get an inside look at the conversations they're having about Ethereum/ETH with Wall Street investors and governments!------

Mikael is the Inventor of Gearbox, while Ivan and Ilgiz are Core Contributors to Gearbox.In this episode, we explore how Gearbox is reimagining onchain lending with 10x credit, high-yield passive lending, and wallet-native credit accounts, unlocking seamless leverage and DeFi access for users.------

Gentleman James is the Founder of iYield and Adam Blumberg is the Founder of Interaxis, and VP at Enclave Group.In this episode, we explore how applying a financial planning mindset to crypto can help investors manage wealth, navigate market cycles, and prepare for a future dominated by onchain finance.------

Clouted, Napenjoyoor, and EconDegen are all Founding Contributors at ETH Strategy.In this episode, we break down Michael Saylor's legendary BTC strategy, how MicroStrategy has leveraged convertible debt to accumulate Bitcoin, and why it's been so effective. Then, we explore how The STRAT Protocol is bringing this playbook onchain for ETH, using an autonomous ETH treasury and long-dated convertible debt to create a DeFi-native version of the trade--plus what it means for ETH holders and how to get involved!------

Pranav Kanade is Portfolio Manager for Digital Assets at VanEck.In this episode, we break down why altcoins have struggled this cycle, what sets the few winners apart, and where real opportunities lie—both in crypto and public markets. We also explore how stablecoin legislation could unlock new value and what's next for ETFs in the digital asset space.------

Brandon Goh is the CoFounder and CEO of Treehouse.In this episode of Yield Talks, we dive into how Treehouse is building the decentralized fixed income layer for DeFi. Brandon breaks down Treehouse Assets (tAssets) and Decentralized Offered Rates (DOR), how they bring stability to onchain yields, and why fixed income products could be the next major evolution in crypto.------

Thomas Heremans is the CEO at the Obol Association.In this episode, we dive into why decentralization isn't just an ideology in crypto—it's a critical security feature. We explore how Obol is strengthening Ethereum's infrastructure, how much decentralization is enough, and why projects like Rocket Pool, Lido, and ether.fi are betting on Obol to secure the future of staking.------

Kain Warwick is the Founder of Synthetix and Infinex.In this episode, we discuss how speculation drives the world of crypto, why it fuels innovation, and how it unites us and divides us. Applying this thinking, we break down Ethereum's narrative challenges this cycle, its misunderstood value prop, and why ETH should already be a trillion-dollar asset. We also dive into the disconnect between TradFi and The Ethereum Foundation, and why better communication and maybe a CMO could shift momentum for ETH, before covering the latest updates on the non-custodial crypto app, Infinex.------

Ali Husain is the CoFounder/CEO and Milton Lopez is the CoFounder/CPO of Navigate. Vivaldi and Chopin are Founding Contributors to Symphony and Sympson AI.In this episode, we host a Yield Talks panel on how the data layer and agent layer will power new DeFi opportunities, including earning yield with our own data and how agents might be able to leverage our DeFi data.------

Bing and Lei are CoFounders of MegaETH and Enzo is the CoFounder of GTE.In this episode, we dive into one of the most hyped crypto infrastructure teams launching this year--MegaETH. MegaETH promises to bring Web2 real-time performance to crypto, including high transaction throughput up to 100,000 transactions per second, abundant compute capacity, and millisecond-level response times. We also dig into the insights of GTE's CoFounder on how MegaETH unlocks new possibilities for developers to build and compose the most demanding applications on a high performance network that still settles on Ethereum.Can MegaETH make Ethereum great again? Tune in to find out!------

This podcast panel features Liquity AG CEO Michael Svoboda, plus the CoFounder of DeFi Dojo (Stephen), CoFounder of Felix (Aaron) and CoFounder of Quill Finance (Roberto).In this session of Yield Talks, our panel of builders and DeFi experts discuss the new design behind Liquity V2 including user-set interest rates and the upcoming launch of a yield-bearing asset for holding exposure across all stability pools called sBOLD. We also spend time on the economics of friendly forks like Felix and Quill Finance and why they were drawn to Liquity V2.------

Mike Cahill is the Founder and CEO of Douro Labs, building oracle tooling, products, and Web3 infra for Pyth Network's suite of decentralized data services.In this episode, we discuss the vision for Pyth Network to make the price of everything, available everywhere onchain. Pyth is a household name among DeFi oracle providers for a reason, with 600 data feeds, 470 apps, and over 90 blockchains supported. But it didn't happen overnight! As a former high frequency trader at Jump, Mike shares the origin story for recognizing where DeFi would evolve and why he leaped at the chance to build Pyth. We also dive in their latest release of Pyth Lazer 1 ms price feeds, their partnership with Revolut, and where they are focused building next in 2025 to support a world rapidly migrating onchain.------

This podcast panel features Bharat, Head of Growth at Royco, Beartic, CoFounder of Kodiak, Miri, CoFounder of Origami Finance, and Corey Caplan, CoFounder of Dolomite. In this session of Yield Talks, we invite a panel of top Berachain protocol founders from Kodiak, Dolomite, and Origami Finance to discuss how they're navigating Boyco markets before a 90-day lockup kicks off as Berachain goes live. The deadline to deposit into Boyco markets is February 3rd, 2025 at 12 am UTC so this episode offers timely insights with just 48 hours to go before Boyco ends! ------

Misha Putiatin is CoFounder of Symbiotic and Francisco Agosti is CoFounder of Tanssi. In this episode, we interview Misha and Francisco break about the launch of Symbiotic Mainnet and how it finally brings to fruition a long anticipated vision for shared security for decentralized networks. We also dive into how Tanssi is making blockchain deployment seamless, enabling developers to spin up sovereign chains with ease. ------

Gaspard Peduzzi is CoFounder of Spectra Finance, joined by Tim Shekikhachev, CoFounder of Resolv and Amadeo Brands, Founder of YieldNest. In this episode, we host a panel to discuss how to use the decentralized, permissionless interest rate protocol that is Spectra, how it grew to over $220M TVL in less than 8 months, and how it enables users to earn fixed rates and trade yields while protocols can grow liquidity. ------

Juan Leon is a Senior Investment Strategist at Bitwise. In this episode, we sit down to discuss Bitwise's recent CIO memo, 'Ethereum: The Comeback Kid of 2025.' We explore why Juan's team sees a turning point ahead for Ethereum and ETH, the significance of surging ETH ETF inflows, the $100T opportunity in tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), and how these trends could drive value accrual for ETH the asset. ------

Tarun Gupta is the Founder at Coinshift. In this episode, we review a new yield-bearing stablecoin called csUSDL, designed to be the ultimate treasury reserve asset. With hundreds of billions sitting idle in stablecoins, Coinshift hopes to provide DAOs, onchain liquid funds, and even retail DeFi users with permissionless access to a more scalable yield-bearing stablecoin backed by RWAs. This is a great episode to also understand why builders work with Morpho, and why they see such a huge opportunity to meet the demand for yield-bearing stablecoins onchain. ------

Miguel de Vega is the Chief Scientific Officer at Nillion. In this episode, we discuss the potential for what's known as "humanity's first blind computer" and its role to play alongside AI and crypto. Miguel unpacks how Nillion addresses the challenges of handling high value data, by leveraging privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) to enable users to securely store data on a peer-to-peer network, and allow for computations to be executed on the masked data, without the traditional need to decrypt data ahead of computation. We review a variety of Web3 and Web2 use cases unlocked by Nillion for massive emerging markets such as decentralized AI, plus why Nillion will soon launch its own tokenized incentives. ------

Tycho Onnasch is a contributor to Stacks, Stacking DAO, and Zest Protocol. In this episode, we catch up on the state of DeFi on Bitcoin L2 Stacks. Speaking with the top DeFi protocol on Stacks, we learn how Stacking DAO is unlocking new yield opportunities, how stSTX will deliver liquid stacking rewards in sBTC, and why Stacks TVL is more than ready to grow. ------

Jai Prasad is the CoFounder of DEFINITIVE. In this episode, we review our favorite app to trade onchain, an institutional-grade trading platform built for DeFi by the team who built products for Coinbase customers such as Michael Saylor, BlackRock, and Tesla. Thanks to a proprietary off-chain engine and non-custodial smart contracts, DEFINITIVE empowers users like us with unparalleled trade execution, advanced order types onchain, and gasless trading on a chain-abstracted app. We learn why DEFINITIVE is being used by the biggest crypto institutional traders, hedge funds, whales, and everyday DeFi power-users like ourselves. ------

kmets is a Core Contributor to f(x) Protocol. In this episode, we dive into f(x) Protocol's V2 launch offering 10X non-liquidatable leverage with no funding fees, high USD-based yields, and a seamless trading experience on blue-chip assets. Discover how V2 improves leverage consistency, supports key collateral types, and what's next for the protocol, including BTC leverage and L2 expansion. ------

Patrick is the Creator of Dynamo DeFi and Stephen is the Founder of DeFi Dojo. In this year-end episode, we review who are the biggest winners of DeFi in 2024 and what we can expect next in 2025! From Solana DeFi's breakout year to Base's remarkable growth onchain, we dive into all the protocols, trends, and narratives that defined this part of the cycle. We discuss Ethena's tokenized basis trade, Hyperliquid's explosive volume, the rise of RWAs, ether.fi's lead in liquid restaking, and the killer apps driving adoption, including memecoins and tokenized AI agents. Plus, we explore emerging opportunities in liquid tokens, innovative primitives like Instadapp Fluid, and the regulatory shifts that could shape DeFi's future. ------

MilliΞ is the CoFounder of Truemarkets. In this episode, we explore why decentralized prediction markets are still in the early innings of development and how they will redefine forecasting global events and uncovering truth. We also learn how Truemarkets is addressing key challenges in dispute resolution, integrating AI for permissionless market creation, and implementing a token to accelerate early community involvement in the success of their platform. NOTE: We recorded this episode just before the US election results in November 2024, but the conversation is still just as relevant post-election. If you hear any comments related to the election, we were still uncertain who would win and whether Polymarket's results would prove to be a leading indicator for voter sentiment in the election. ------

Thomas is the CoFounder of Arcadia Finance. In this episode of Yield Talks, we dive into Arcadia Finance and its one-click strategies for leveraged liquidity positions, automated vault strategies, and lending on Base. Join us as we explore how Arcadia's innovative leveraged LPs, directional strategies, and new upcoming features are offering users next-gen DeFi yield optimization. ------

Ryan Rasmussen is the Head of Research at Bitwise. It's a holiday tradition every December on The Edge Podcast to explore Bitwise's bold predictions for crypto in the year ahead! Join us as we dive into their top 10 forecasts for the new year, from BTC reaching $200,000 to Coinbase surpassing Charles Schwab as the most valuable brokerage in the world to stablecoins doubling to $400B. With insights on the future of crypto adoption, DeFi, and real-world assets, this episode is packed with thought-provoking predictions and industry-shaping trends. ------

Austin King is the CoFounder of Omni Network and CEO of Omni Labs. In this episode, we discuss how Omni Network is reuniting Ethereum's L2 scaling ecosystem. With Omni's Core Mainnet live, we explore how Omni empowers developers to access users and liquidity across all rollups, without smart contract upgrades. This conversation covers why Austin's team at Omni believes the solution is more obvious than ever to fixing what's been broken for DeFi users navigating L2s and what we can expect from a more united Ethereum UX in 2025, while maintaining the benefits of maximum decentralization. ------

Jared and Jiang are Core Contributors at Neutral Trade. In this episode of Yield Talks, we explore Neutral Trade, a protocol bringing hedge fund strategies onchain for anyone to access permissionlessly. Learn how their JLP-powered strategies have delivered sustainable double-digit real yields on assets such as USDC, SOL, ETH, and wBTC, and what's next for the protocol. ------

Weekee (aka everythingempty) is the CoFounder of Virtuals Protocol. In this episode, we unpack how co-ownership of AI agents has taken the crypto markets by storm. We discuss the massive addressable market for tokenized AI agents, what is the Virtuals Fair Launch platform, why they focus so much on recruiting top AI talent, how AI talent can monetize their research with Virtuals, and what's the role of the VIRTUAL token in this groundbreaking new ecosystem. ------

Charlie Pyle is the Founder of Hourglass, Mike Silagadze is the CoFounder of ether.fi, and Maksym Repa is the DeFi Lead at Lombard. In this episode of Yield Talks, we dive deep into Hourglass, a protocol growing sticky liquidity for protocols through time-bound staking. We explore how Hourglass markets provide new leverage and liquidity for assets like eBTC, eETH, and LBTC through Hourglass Boost, along with deeper liquidity for leveraged airdrop farming thanks to Hourglass RFQ. If you're a Pendle degen, you're going to want to learn more about how Hourglass works. ------