On The Brink with Castle Island Bhavin Vaid (Birch Hill) on Better Markets for Tokenized Assets (EP.700)
Feb 11, 2026
Bhavin Vaid, co-founder of Birch Hill and an institutional risk curator bridging traditional capital to on-chain credit markets. He discusses why curation arose in DeFi and how curators price, isolate, and manage risk. They cover lessons from past blowups, where value accrues between curators and protocols, and how tokenized credit and stablecoins may drive institutional on-chain adoption.
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Value Accrues To Trust And Distribution
- Trust and distribution determine where value accrues in the stack more than pure protocol ownership.
- Curators win by owning user relationships and translating products, not just by providing infra.
Vet Partners With Ops And Audit Checks
- Assess operating history, partner stack, and use third parties for smart-contract and OPSEC reviews.
- Pursue SOC2-like operational practices and top auditors to reduce counterparty and operational risk.
Make NAV Accurate And On-Chain
- Prioritize accurate on-chain NAV and real-time reporting for tokenized real-world assets and credit funds.
- Implement guardians and reliable valuation processes to avoid inflated or stale NAVs.