Billion-Dollar Liquidity: Inside Turtle Club’s Rapid Rise with Nick Thoma

Today Sam sits down with Turtle Club CTO Nick Thoma for the first deep dive on how the project has quietly brokered nearly a billion dollars in liquidity for new chains and DeFi apps. Nick explains the brokerage model, the tooling that keeps funds non-custodial, and why a background in NASA robotics shaped his approach to yield markets. If you build protocols, need TVL, or manage capital, this conversation is for you.Timestamps00:00 Intro, Squid contributor rewards, Substack plug01:00 Meet Nick Thoma, robotics to crypto in one jump02:45 How Turtle tracked a billion in TVL before anyone noticed11:00 Vaults, boost deals, and the two-track product line18:15 Pricing yield, risk scoring, and market-rate expectations24:30 Using Veda vaults and Merkle rewards to stay non-custodial27:20 Treasury strategy, revenue, and upcoming token launch32:10 AI agents, account abstraction, and the next five years of DeFi UX41:30 Advice for builders seeking efficient liquidity43:30 Where to find Turtle Club and Leviathan NewsLinks from the show• Turtle Club: https://turtle.club• Leviathan News Substack: https://leviathannews.substack.com• Squid on Fraxtal: https://app.frax.com• Nick Thoma on X: https://x.com/nickjtomaSubscribe to Leviathan News for daily livestreams, protocol breakdowns, and long-form interviews. Hit the bell so you never miss a session, and join our Telegram bot to earn Squid for contributing clips, memes, or story leads.