The Defiant - DeFi Podcast

Camila Russo
  • 4.3 (72)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED SEMIWEEKLY

The internet of money is being built with blockchain technology and without banks. We call it DeFi, short for Decentralized Finance, and this is where you can hear the builders and users of this cutting edge world tell their stories first hand. Hosted by Camila Russo.

  1. 1D AGO

    Robinhood’s Crypto Head Johann Kerbrat on Why Public Blockchains Will Win

    Robinhood is opening the testnet for its Arbitrum-based Ethereum Layer 2. In this episode, we sit down with the fintech’s head of crypto, Johann Kerbrat, to discuss the strategic move to build on Ethereum. He believes institutions can get the privacy and compliance guarantees they need on public chains like Ethereum, so building on private chains doesn’t make sense as they are just a “fancy database.” Kerbrat says he sees a future where most financial infrastructure and assets transact on public blockchains. Topics:Robinhood Layer 2 LaunchTokenized Stocks & Real-World AssetsThe "Adapt or Die" moment for BanksSelf-Custody vs. Platform Safety

    41 min

  2. 5D AGO

    Rebuilding Global Payments with Stablecoins | Circle & USDC with Nikhil Chandhok

    Stablecoins have quietly become the most successful use case in crypto.In this episode, Nikhil Chandhok, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Circle, explains why USDC is more than a digital dollar — it’s a global financial network.We discuss economic inclusion, internet-scale finance, programmable payments, emerging markets, AI-driven payments, and why stablecoins are becoming the backbone of global money movement.

    46 min

  3. FEB 4

    Crypto’s Point of No Return: Institutions are Finally Here, with Brett Tejpaul

    2025 marked a turning point for crypto.In this episode, Brett Tejpaul, head of Coinbase Institutional, sits down with Camila Russo to explain why institutional adoption accelerated last year. From ETFs and stablecoin regulation to banks using public blockchains in production, crypto crossed a line it can’t uncross.We explore how Coinbase evolved from a retail exchange into a global financial infrastructure layer, why tokenization is finally happening for real, and what regulation unlocked that years of innovation couldn’t.This is about the moment crypto became part of the financial system.

    49 min

  4. JAN 30

    Why OG DeFi Failed | Kain Warwick, Founder of Synthetix

    Kain Warwick—DeFi OG and founder of Synthetix and Infinex—is back on The Defiant Podcast with Camila Russo for a no-BS conversation at a pivotal moment: Infinex just ran its INX token sale and is heading into its TGE. We get into: Why Kain believes DeFi’s biggest bottleneck isn’t “more decentralization,” but UX + distribution The hard lesson OG DeFi learned: users won’t “learn to love complexity”—the product has to be holistically better The INX sale controversy: $2,500 cap → cap removed, one-year lockup stays, and why he says the sale “didn’t need to happen” (but still closed) What he’d do differently: market-driven pricing for locked vs. liquid tokens (and why he thinks the liquidity premium is brutal right now) Kaito / InfoFi: how incentives turned crypto Twitter into slop—and why he thinks it “blew up the public square” What INX actually does: early access, fee discounts, governance—and what demand looks like from power users Infinex’s product roadmap: Safe support, hardware wallets, integrating “competitors” like Hyperliquid, and the real metric he watches—share of wallet The bigger vision: a one-stop, non-custodial front-end that can serve both whales and newcomers (and why that’s the only way DeFi competes with fintech) Subscribe for more founder interviews and deep dives from The Defiant.

    54 min

  5. JAN 29

    Ethereum is for Institutions: Danny Ryan Says Tokenization Isn't Enough

    In this interview, Camila Russo sits down with Danny Ryan — former Ethereum Foundation researcher and a key leader behind Ethereum’s shift to proof of stake — now Co-Founder & President at Etherealize, to talk about the next big wave for crypto: institutional adoption of Ethereum. Recorded in Buenos Aires during Devconnect, Danny breaks down why the mood inside banks has flipped from “we can’t touch crypto” to “if we don’t adopt it, we’ll be left behind.” We dig into what institutions actually want beyond ETFs, why the biggest opportunity isn’t “tokenizing assets” but rewiring markets from first principles, and why privacy is table stakes for institutional-grade onchain finance. We also cover the regulatory whiplash of the last few years, what’s changed, what still needs to be written into law, and why Danny believes Ethereum is uniquely positioned for serious capital markets infrastructure. Key topics: Why banks suddenly have Ethereum FOMO The difference between “tokenizing assets” vs rewiring markets Where the biggest inefficiencies are (credit, fixed income, esoteric institutional markets) Why privacy + ZK are essential for institutionsCoordination problems, incentives, and who doesn’t want markets to upgrade Ethereum’s edge: neutrality, uptime, decentralization, and security 👍 If you enjoyed this episode, like, subscribe, and share it with someone who still thinks institutions only care about ETFs.

    26 min

  6. JAN 9

    How Stablecoins Are Rewiring Global Payments | Borderless CPO Alex Garn

    In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, Chris Storaker sits down with Alex Garn, Chief Product Officer at Borderless, to unpack how stablecoins are quietly transforming cross-border payments — and what it actually takes to move money at scale across jurisdictions. Alex walks through Borderless’ role as an orchestration layer for global on- and off-ramps, why the company stays out of the flow of funds, and how a single API can replace dozens of fragmented integrations across local regulators, liquidity providers, and banking partners. We explore why stablecoins are moving beyond trading and DeFi collateral into real-world enterprise payments, where they already outperform legacy rails on settlement speed, transparency, and custody — especially across emerging market corridors like Latin America and Southeast Asia. The conversation also digs into the hard parts: liquidity constraints by corridor, KYC and compliance friction, why US–EU payments still favor SWIFT, and whether incumbents like Visa, Mastercard, and SWIFT are more likely to be disrupted or to acquire their way into the future. Finally, Alex shares his outlook on regulatory clarity post-GENIUS, the coming wave of corporate stablecoin adoption, and why distribution — not branding — will determine which stablecoins ultimately win. 00:00 — Intro: Alex joins The Defiant Podcast 01:30 — From DeFi & data science to stablecoin payments 04:10 — What Borderless does: orchestration vs custody 07:10 — Why cross-border on/off-ramps are still fragmented 10:00 — Stablecoins beyond DeFi: real enterprise payment use cases 12:45 — Treasury management, payouts, and B2B adoption 15:30 — Liquidity realities: when $10M+ stablecoin payments work 18:10 — Why US → Latin America leads stablecoin adoption 20:30 — Where stablecoins don’t win (yet): US–EU & SWIFT 22:50 — KYC as the biggest bottleneck in crypto payments 26:00 — Self-custody, bank risk, and corporate treasuries 29:30 — Stablecoins vs SWIFT: speed, cost, and settlement 33:00 — Visa, Mastercard, SWIFT, and the M&A race 36:40 — Regulation after GENIUS and global spillover effects 39:40 — What enterprise adoption looks like in the next 2–3 years 42:30 — Stablecoin fragmentation, liquidity, and consolidation 45:00 — Closing thoughts: what excites Alex most about the future

    26 min

  7. JAN 5

    The Rise of the Fan Economy | Consumer Crypto | Avalanche Ecosystems Ep. 4

    For consumer crypto to thrive it needs to embrace financialization to deliver a better experience, and maker sure crypto disappears everywhere else. Projects doing this right sit in an emerging sector called fantech. In this episode of the Avalanche Ecosystem Series, we explore the rise of Fantech: a new category where sports fans, music fans, creators, and event-goers become participants in real digital economies. From loyalty programs and ticketing to creator monetization and on-chain rewards, we look at how these experiences get a 10x lift when they go onchain, and why Avalanche is emerging as one of the leading infrastructures powering this shift. The episode opens with a real story from the Champions League final and expands into a global look at how blockchain is quietly reshaping fan engagement, payments, and ownership at scale. Featured conversations: Rain — using stablecoins to power global consumer payments and rewards Uptop — building wallet-based loyalty for major sports teams The Arena — enabling creators to monetize directly through social crypto Tixbase — rebuilding ticketing with on-chain transparency and fan identity In this episode: Why loyalty and rewards are a multi-billion-dollar global marketHow on-chain points and fan engagement differ from traditional programs Why ticketing may be one of the most natural consumer use cases for blockchainHow creators and fans are earning, not just speculating Why Avalanche’s architecture is uniquely suited for consumer-scale apps Why the future of consumer crypto won’t feel like crypto at all Chapters: 00:00 – The Ticket That Didn’t Work 01:30 – What Is Fantech? 04:00 – Payments as the Base Layer 06:30 – Loyalty Goes On-Chain 10:00 – Social + Fan Economies 13:00 – Fixing Ticketing 17:00 – Why Avalanche Works for Consumers 19:00 – The Future of Fandom Subscribe for more deep dives into crypto, DeFi, and the technologies reshaping finance and the consumer internet.

    18 min

  8. 12/22/2025

    Uniswap is about to “turn on the switch.” with Hayden Adams

    In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, Uniswap founder Hayden Adams joins us right as the UNIfication (Unification) proposal has moved to a final governance vote—a sweeping plan from Uniswap Labs + the Uniswap Foundation that would activate protocol fees, introduce a programmatic UNI burn, and realign how value accrues across the Uniswap ecosystem. We go deep on what’s actually inside the proposal (and what isn’t), why this moment feels like the end of one DeFi era and the start of another, and how years of “regulation by enforcement” shaped Uniswap’s product decisions—down to Hayden’s firsthand experience with debanking, legal pressure, and the chilling effect on builders. What we coverWhy UNIfication is being pitched as a once-in-a-cycle reset for UniswapThe real mechanics of the fee switch(es) (plural) and how the “token jar” burn design worksThe perceived tension between UNI token holders vs. equity/VC value capture and whether this vote changes thatWhy Uniswap wants to shift from “best frontend” to protocol-first infrastructure (APIs, ecosystem engineering, aggregator hooks)How Unichain fits into the broader strategy—and what “near-free trading” could mean in practiceGovernance backlash: is Uniswap becoming more centralized or more decentralized?Context: the vote is live! Hayden shared that the UNIfication proposal is now in the final governance vote stage.Subscribe for more founder-level conversations at the intersection of DeFi, regulation, and market structure.

    1h 8m
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4.3
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The internet of money is being built with blockchain technology and without banks. We call it DeFi, short for Decentralized Finance, and this is where you can hear the builders and users of this cutting edge world tell their stories first hand. Hosted by Camila Russo.

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