The Defiant - DeFi Podcast

A new DeFi exploit triggered millions in losses, but the deeper story is about risk. In this episode, Omer Goldberg, founder of Chaos Labs, explains how the attack unfolded, why the damage spread across lending markets, what vault curators got wrong, and whether DeFi is truly ready for mainstream adoption. If you want to understand stablecoin risk, oracle design, curator incentives, and the future of safer onchain finance, this is the conversation to watch.Big thanks to our sponsors;NEXONexo is a premier digital assets wealth platform that helps clients build, manage, and preserve their wealth through advanced interest-generating products, crypto-backed credit, advanced trading tools, and 24/7 client care. Get started at nexo.com/defiant MERCURYOYour Web3 product deserves solid payment infrastructure. Global on/off-ramps, custom APIs, and DeFi connectivity trusted by the biggest names in crypto: mercuryo.ioROCKET POOLRocket Pool is Ethereum’s decentralised liquid staking protocol. Node operators can join with just 4 ETH, or liquid stakers can hold rETH and automatically earn staking rewards. rocketpool.net

Tom Sullivan, Managing Director at DTCC Digital Assets, leads efforts to tokenize securities and modernize market infrastructure. He discusses why regulatory clarity unlocked tokenization, which assets (Treasuries, Russell 1000 stocks, ETFs) are targeted, and how tokenized securities preserve legal rights. Short takes cover collateral mobility, 24/7 markets, interoperability across ledgers, and a careful Q3 controlled rollout.

Stani Kulechov, co-founder of Aave and DeFi builder behind Aave v4, discusses a major proposal to redirect protocol revenue to the AAVE token. He explains governance dynamics and defends voting integrity. Stani breaks down Aave v4’s hub-and-spoke design, liquidity bootstrapping, B2B credit lines, and plans to support tokenized real-world assets like solar farms and GPUs.

Jing Wang, co-founder of Optimism and builder of customizable roll-up chains, explains Optimism’s shift into a Superchain of interconnected chains. He discusses enterprise-ready OP Enterprise, tradeoffs between privacy, UX and decentralization, the practical debate over L1/L2 labels, and why ZK proofs and revenue-aligned tokenomics matter for bringing finance on-chain.

Yuval Rooz, co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset and Canton, brings trading and crypto market infrastructure experience. He discusses whether Layer 2s fragment Ethereum, the tension between composability and privacy, why public chains act as expensive databases, Canton’s selective privacy model for on-chain finance, and tokenized treasuries and real-world asset use cases.

Errol Binari, developer who built the canonical BRC20 indexer, recalls pivoting EVM tools to Bitcoin during the Ordinals surge. Isabel Fox, Bitcoin researcher and commentator, traces how Ordinals, BRC-20s, and Runes shifted culture and tooling. They discuss Ordinals’ technical twist, the BRC-20 token mania, fee spikes and backlash, the Rune refinement, and the lasting infrastructure focus sparked by 2023’s boom.

Rune Christensen, DeFi entrepreneur and creator of Maker/DAI and Sky, discusses why decentralized governance inevitably becomes political. He recounts Sky’s architectural overhaul, the separation of core risk versus agent business functions, USDS’s native yield model, Basel-inspired risk frameworks, and how agents and foundations scale tokenized real-world assets.

Johann Kerbrat, Head of Crypto at Robinhood — leads crypto product strategy and engineering including their Layer 2 work. He discusses Robinhood’s Arbitrum-based Layer 2 testnet, tokenized stocks and real-world assets, how public chains can satisfy institutional compliance, and plans to bring DeFi primitives and self-custody UX to mainstream users.

Nikhil Chandhok, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Circle who leads USDC and payments engineering, discusses stablecoins as a global financial network. He covers trust rebuilding after the banking crisis, expansion into emerging markets, compliance and reserve transparency. He also outlines tech gaps for instant programmable cross-border payments and why Circle is building the ARK layer one.

Brett Tejpaul, co-CEO of Coinbase Institutional who builds institutional crypto infrastructure, explains why 2025 was crypto’s turning point. He discusses banks integrating public blockchains, tokenization actually happening, major bank and ETF integrations, and how stablecoin regulation unlocked institutional participation. Short, forward-looking conversation on infrastructure, custody, and mainstream adoption.