WAGMI Ventures Podcast

Andrey Chabanov is the Co-Founder & CEO of Wellspring (wellspring.money), a next-generation high-yield savings platform that transforms everyday USD deposits into up to 12% APY through stablecoins and decentralized finance (DeFi).Wellspring bridges the gap between conventional banking and the world of on-chain finance — delivering accessible, high-yield opportunities powered by audited DeFi lending protocols like Aave and HypurrFi, while keeping funds in self-custodial wallets and maintaining a simple, user-friendly experience that requires no crypto expertise. In this episode, Andrey breaks down how Wellspring makes DeFi yield effortless for everyday savers — converting bank deposits to stablecoins, automating deployment into proven lending strategies, and emphasizing self-custody so your money never fully leaves your control. He explores the real drivers of on-chain yields in 2025, the advantages over traditional high-yield savings accounts, strategies for risk management and security in DeFi, the impact of evolving regulations on mainstream adoption, and why platforms like Wellspring represent the future of personal finance — where transparency, automation, and higher returns empower users without middlemen taking the lion's share. He also dives into practical tips for beating inflation, avoiding common pitfalls, and why now is the moment to rethink how your savings work in a digital-first world.

Kony Kwong is the CEO and Co-Founder of GAIB AI, a pioneering platform transforming physical GPUs into a new yield-bearing asset class. As AI drives exponential demand for computational infrastructure, GAIB stands at the forefront of a new financial frontier — where AI and DeFi converge, to provide additional funding channels for cloud/data centers, while offering investors direct access to the explosive AI economy. With a background spanning quantitative trading, machine learning engineering at top-tier firms, and early bets on the AI + blockchain convergence, Kony brings a sharp operator-investor lens to one of the fastest-moving sectors in tech. In this episode, Kony unpacks WAGMI Ventures’ thesis on why AI agents are the killer app for crypto in 2025 and beyond, how GAIB is transforming physical GPUs into a new yield-bearing asset class, designing autonomous onchain agents that actually own assets, trade, and compound value, and the unique model of simultaneously building and investing behind its own convictions. He dives deep into the technical and economic breakthroughs needed for truly agentic crypto systems, the massive alpha in AI economies, and how GAIB is positioning itself as building the first economic layer for AI compute, bringing new investment possibilities into this surging sector.

Jin Kwon is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Saga, a Layer-1 protocol pioneering the future of chainlets and infinitely scalable, parallelized blockchain infrastructure for gaming and high-throughput consumer applications. With deep roots in both traditional venture capital and the cutting edge of Web3, Jin brings a rare blend of strategic insight and hands-on building experience to the rapidly evolving world of decentralized entertainment. Jin dives into Saga’s bold vision of bringing a million chains to life, the economics and incentives behind developer adoption, the critical importance of seamless user experience in mass-market Web3 gaming, and how Saga is positioning itself as the ultimate infrastructure layer for the next generation of onchain worlds. He also shares his perspective on where capital is flowing in the current cycle, why gaming remains the killer use case for blockchain, AI and Saga, and stablecoins.

Francis Berewa is Head of Investments and Growth at zkPass, (https://zkpass.org/), a private data oracle using zero-knowledge and multi-party computation to enables users to selectively and privately validate their data. Backed by Binance Labs, dao5, Animoca Brands, WAGMI Ventures, and others, zkPass empowers decentralized identity verification, on-chain compliance, and seamless data portability across ecosystems. Francis shares his journey from co-founding Homebloc—a blockchain platform for real estate investments—to venture roles, and finally landing at zkPass to drive growth. He discusses zkPass's milestones, powering ZKKYC for identity proofs without document uploads, and partnerships with zkSync, LayerZero, and Galxe to secure millions of private data verifications. Francis dives into the protocol's role in bridging Web2 and Web3 through anti-cheating mechanisms and hybrid ZK proofs, enhancing developer tools for on-chain privacy, and his vision for a decentralized future where users control their digital personas amid rising data regulations and AI-driven threats.

Stephen Hess is Director of the Metaplex Foundation (https://www.metaplex.com), the decentralized steward of the Metaplex protocol on Solana, empowering creators with no-code tools for NFTs, digital assets, and programmable on-chain experiences. Stephen shares his journey from product leadership at Solana Labs and roles at Omada Health to becoming CEO of Metaplex Studios and Director of the Foundation, a key player in Solana's ecosystem backed by Multicoin Capital, Jump Crypto, and a $46 million token sale. He discusses Metaplex’s growth milestones, including pioneering the Solana NFT standard in 2021, introducing compressed NFTs and the Core asset protocol, facilitating billions in trading volume across independent marketplaces, and the July 2025 launch of Genesis—a groundbreaking audited smart contract framework for fair token launches. Genesis prevents front-running and enhances trust with features like configurable launch pools, sealed-bid auctions, fixed-price presales, and on-chain airdrops with vesting, integrated with Solana DEXs for seamless liquidity. Stephen dives into the protocol’s evolution toward a fully decentralized digital asset economy, addressing community debates on governance, protocol fees, and immutability, while sharing his vision for a creator-centric Web3 where programmable NFTs, Solana’s speed, and innovations like Genesis enable equitable ownership and dynamic applications in gaming, music, and beyond.

Justin Waldron is the Founder of Open Game Protocol, (https://www.opengameprotocol.com), a trailblazer in creating innovative gaming platforms that bridge social, mobile, and Web3 ecosystems. With a robust background in game development and entrepreneurship, Justin shares his journey from co-founding Zynga—redefining social gaming with iconic titles that captivated millions—to launching Playco, a platform focused on instant, accessible gaming experiences, and now spearheading the Open Game Protocol, a groundbreaking decentralized framework for the future of gaming. He emphasizes the importance of user-centric design in gaming, the modular and scalable architecture of the Open Game Protocol, and its role as a leading framework for developing decentralized, player-driven gaming experiences, empowering developers to create with unparalleled freedom and ease. 

David Phelps is the Co-Founder of JokeRace (https://jokerace.io), a dynamic, decentralized platform designed to foster community-driven competitions and incentivize innovation within Web3 ecosystems. With a robust background in technology and entrepreneurship, David shares his journey into the decentralized space, from his early contributions in tech to co-founding JokerRace, where he focuses on building an engaging and inclusive Web3 environment. He emphasizes the importance of community-centric infrastructure, the flexible design of JokerRace’s platform, and its critical role in empowering developers and creators to drive innovation through competitive and collaborative frameworks.

Grigore Rosu is the Founder & CEO of Pi Squared, (https://pi2.network/), a groundbreaking Web3 infrastructure company revolutionizing verifiable computing with its Universal Settlement Layer. As a distinguished professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and founder of the K framework and Runtime Verification, Grigore brings unparalleled expertise in formal methods and blockchain innovation. He dives into his journey from NASA to Web3, the philosophy behind Pi Squared’s “Proof of Proof” technology, and the mission to unify fragmented blockchain ecosystems with language-agnostic, zero-knowledge solutions. He dives into his seasoned perspective on unifying the fragmented Web3 space, the art and science behind building trustless, scalable systems, and the nuances of leveraging zero-knowledge proofs for universal computation.

Oliver Shen is the Co-Founder of GATA AI (https://gata.xyz), a pioneering decentralized AI infrastructure platform transforming the trillion-dollar AI economy with tools like GataGPT, DataAgent, and decentralized model inference. Backed by YZiLabs, Gate Ventures, IDG Blockchain, and others, GATA is breaking data and compute monopolies to empower community-driven AI innovation. In this episode, Oliver shares his journey from conceptualizing Aggregata to launching GATA, overcoming challenges in decentralized data curation, and building a privacy-first, on-chain ecosystem where users retain data ownership. He discusses Gata’s innovative product matrix, including GataGPT’s intelligent interaction layer and DataAgent’s decentralized validation, alongside strategic partnerships like Mind Network for enhanced privacy via Fully Homomorphic Encryption. Oliver also highlights GATA AI's roadmap, positioning GATA AI as a leader in scalable, censorship-resistant AI infrastructure.

Ammar Zaeem is the CEO & Co-Founder of Revolving Games (https://revolvinggames.com), a leading innovator in blockchain gaming, building immersive, decentralized gaming experiences powered by Web3 technology. Backed by top-tier investors like Pantera Capital, Animoca Brands, and Polygon Ventures, Revolving Games is redefining the gaming industry with scalable, player-owned ecosystems. In this episode, Ammar shares his journey from traditional gaming to pioneering Web3 game development, overcoming challenges in blockchain scalability, and creating engaging, community-driven gaming universes. He discusses Revolving Games’ innovative approach to integrating NFTs and decentralized economies, their robust tech stack, and strategic partnerships that empower players with true ownership and interoperability. Ammar also highlights Revolving Games’ latest milestones, positioning the studio as a trailblazer in the future of decentralized gaming.

Josh Benaron is the Founder & CEO of Irys (https://irys.xyz), the world’s first programmable Layer-1 datachain designed to integrate low-cost, scalable storage with high-performance, EVM-compatible execution via IrysVM. Backed by Lemniscap, Framework Ventures, and Primitive Ventures, Irys is revolutionizing onchain data infrastructure for AI, IP, and consumer applications. In this episode, Josh shares his journey from building Bundlr Network to launching Irys, overcoming challenges in transaction scalability on Arweave, and creating a network where data is not just stored but programmable—embedded with instructions to automate AI workflows, enforce ownership, and trigger smart contracts. He discusses Irys’s innovative multi-ledger system, hybrid consensus model, and strategic partnerships, which enable composable utilities and cost-efficient data solutions. Josh also highlights Irys’s testnet achievements, positioning Irys as the future of trust and scalability in decentralized ecosystems.

Yat Siu is Co-Founder and Chairman of Animoca Brands (https://www.animocabrands.com), a global leader in blockchain gaming, investing and web3, championing digital property rights through decentralized ecosystems. Yat shares his thoughts on stakeholder capitalism, redefining economic models by empowering users as network owners, as well as  groundbreaking initiatives like Open Campus, which integrates blockchain into education to revolutionize student loan financing. He discusses the emergence of  AI crypto use cases, and its role in enhancing transparency, reflections on the positive developments in the evolving U.S. regulatory landscape, and his vision for a decentralized future where crypto fosters equitable digital economies and cultural innovation. Yat's insights are some of the most valuable in the world.

Deborah Simpier is Co-Founder and CEO of Althea (https://althea.net), a decentralized infrastructure platform revolutionizing internet access through blockchain-based, community-driven networks. Deborah shares her journey from advocating for net neutrality and running a rural IT business to co-founding DePIN network, Althea, a company pioneering multi-stakeholder networks with innovative products like KeyLTE and Liquid Infrastructure. She discusses Althea’s milestones, including deploying networks in rural Oregon, powering connectivity in the Arctic Circle, and enabling the first ApplePay transaction on CBRS spectrum. Deborah dives into how Althea’s price-aware routing protocol and blockchain-based payment system empower communities to build affordable, resilient internet infrastructure, challenging legacy telecom models. She also shares her vision for a decentralized future where blockchain and 5G converge to democratize connectivity, foster equitable digital access worldwide, and usher the convergence of DeFi, DePIN, and real-world utility pushing forward the vision of democratized, autonomous infrastructure.

Itai Turbahn is Co-Founder and CEO of Dynamic (https://www.dynamic.xyz), a Web3 authentication platform that simplifies wallet-based login and onboarding through a flexible SDK, combining authentication, smart wallets, and secure key management. Itai shares his journey from product management leadership roles and consulting at the Boston Consulting Group to co-founding Dynamic, a company backed by a16z crypto, Founders Fund, and others. He discusses how Dynamic’s growth, milestones, including sponsoring six major hackathons, supporting 400 teams, and powering millions of monthly user logins, has advanced Web3 adoption. Itai dives into the platform’s role in simplifying developer workflows, enhancing user onboarding with features like social logins and Global Identities, and his vision for a more intuitive crypto future where wallet infrastructure empowers seamless cross-chain interactions.

Kurt Larsen is Co-Founder of Rhinestone (https://www.rhinestone.wtf), a platform revolutionizing Web3 by building modular smart account infrastructure to enhance interoperability, security, and developer accessibility. Kurt shares his journey from a banker to launching markets for Deliveroo and leading a machine learning product division, to co-founding Rhinestone, which recently raised $5 million in a seed round led by 1kx, with support from CoinFund, Lattice, Heartcore, Circle Ventures, among others. He discusses how his early fascination with crypto in 2017, coupled with insights from building Deliveroo’s marketplace algorithms, exposed the flaws of centralized networks and fueled Rhinestone’s mission to create user-friendly, self-sovereign tools that rival Web2 simplicity. Kurt dives into Rhinestone’s platform for developers to build and monetize smart account modules, the challenges of improving Web3 UX, and his vision for smart accounts as the dominant interface for users, AI agents, and blockchain-integrated systems in the next three to five years.

Nirav Murthy is CEO, Co-Founder of CAMP Network (https://www.camp.network), a Layer-1 blockchain designed to modernize intellectual property (IP) infrastructure, empower decentralized identity and data sovereignty, and power the next generation of AI Agents on verifiable IP. In this episode, Nirav shares his journey from advising global media and tech brands at The Raine Group to co-founding CAMP Network’s modular platform that empowers creators to own and monetize their IP. He discusses how CAMP’s Proof of Provenance (PoP) Protocol and zero-knowledge technology tackle scalability and privacy challenges, his insights on bridging social media data with on-chain value creation, and driving innovation to deliver intellectual property (IP) infrastructure, enabling user owned IP.

Rich Rines is a Initial Contributor at Core DAO (https://www.coredao.org), the first proof-of-stake (PoS) layer for Bitcoin, pioneering self-custodial Bitcoin staking and hosting the largest Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem. In this episode, Rich shares his journey from re-discovering Bitcoin in 2013, captivated by its potential as a non-sovereign store of value, to becoming a key figure in Core DAO’s mission to bridge Bitcoin’s security with DeFi innovation. He dives into how Core DAO’s layer-1 revolutionary infrastructure leverages the complementary qualities of proof-of-stake (PoS) alongside proof-of-work (PoW), and discusses his prior experience leading money movement engineering at Coinbase. He provides insights into how Core DAO’s Satoshi Plus consensus mechanism integrates Bitcoin miners and non-custodial Bitcoin staking to unlock Bitcoin’s potential for DeFi applications. He also addresses navigating technical challenges, his vision for user-friendly decentralized solutions, and driving global adoption to make Bitcoin-powered Web3 accessible to all, no matter where they are.

Ezra Kebrab is CEO and Co-Founder of Caliza (https://www.caliza.com), a platform leveraging stablecoin infrastructure to revolutionize cross-border payments, enabling instant, cost-effective international transactions, with a focus on Latin America. Ezra shares his journey from leading fintech initiatives at Visa and Intuit to building Caliza’s API-driven platform that bridges the gap in global finance. He also discusses how Caliza is reshaping the future of stable finance in Latin America, tackling regulatory and compliance challenges, his thoughts on the on-chain settlement buildout - DREX in Brazil, and driving innovation to make digital dollar accounts accessible to all, no matter where they are.

Tom Trowbridge is CEO and Co-Founder of Fluence Labs (https://fluence.network), a decentralized, enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure with global compute. Tom dives into Fluence’s mission to reshape the future of the internet through its cloudless computing platform, offering resilient, low-cost, and open alternatives to traditional cloud services. He discusses how Fluence’s DePIN platform, governed by the Fluence DAO and powered by FLT on Ethereum, delivers cheaper decentralized compute compared to conventional providers while enhancing security, scalability, and censorship resistance. Tom shares his journey from launching Hedera Hashgraph to building Fluence Labs, addressing challenges like customer acquisition and simplifying messaging for non-crypto audiences.

Illia Polosukhin is Co-Founder of NEAR, (https://www.near.ai), a high-performant, AI-native blockchain platform that provides the infrastructure needed for AI applications and agents to transact, operate, and interact across both Web2 and Web3. With a deep background in machine learning and software engineering, Illia shares his journey into crypto, from early contributions in tech to co-founding NEAR, where he focuses on building an accessible Web3 ecosystem. He emphasizes the importance of user-centric blockchain infrastructure, the modularity of NEAR’s design, and its role as a leading stack for creating decentralized applications, empowering developers to innovate seamlessly. 

Patrick O'Grady is Founder and CEO of Commonware, (https://www.commonware.xyz), an open-source set of primitives that developers can use to build and reassemble their applications without resorting to a complicated fork. Patrick shares his journey into crypto, building in the early days at Coinbase and thereafter joining Ava Labs, where he left to pursue his passion for simplifying blockchain development with the founding of Commonware. He discusses the importance of application specific blockchains, the modularity of Commonware and how it is being designed to be "the best verticalized stack" for building blockchain applications. 

Ryne Saxe is CEO and Co-Founder of Eco, (https://www.eco.com), a network for apps that use stablecoins and stablecoin liquidity, providing a frictionless stablecoin experience that accelerates user onboarding and streamlines money movement onchain. Ryne is quite the polymath, sharing his journey as a physicist, coder, lawyer, turned technology founder. He shares his unique perspective on the evolution of payments technology over the last decade, its embrace of crypto, stablecoins as crypto's killer use case, and insights into building Eco to a platform that maximizes money’s value, with seamless user experience, especially as his second run as Eco’s CEO.

Siddarth "Sid" Sridhar is Founder and CEO of BIMA Labs (https://www.bima.money), a decentralized finance platform that enables users to stake assets like Bitcoin and Bitcoin derivatives such as Liquid Staked Tokens (LST), to borrow USBD, a stablecoin pegged to the US Dollar. Sid talks about his journey from being a Draper-backed investor at 19 years old to being a crypto founder in the BitcoinFi space, the role of USDB plays in social impact by promoting financial inclusion, why over-collateralization is crucial for stability in the USBD model, how USBD differs from other traditional stablecoins - and insights on how BIMA's stablecoin, the USBD, fits into the broader financial ecosystem. 

Aki Balogh is Founder and CEO of iBTC, (https://www.ibtc.network), a platform that harnesses the power of Discrete Log Contracts (DLCs) to establish the safest, theft-proof, and institutionally compliant trustless bridge between Bitcoin. Aki shares his journey into entrepreneurship and consequently crypto, discusses his vision of how Discrete Log Contracts (DLCs) can unlock BTCFi, the mechanics of iBTC fka dlcLink, and his thoughts on the exploding Bitcoin Layer 2 ecosystem.

Elias Tazartes is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Kakarot, (https://www.kakarot.org), a zero-knowledge EVM written in Cairo aiming to allow users to leverage the scaling benefits of validity roll-ups while maintaining compatibility with the Ethereum ecosystem. Elias shares on the emergence of verifiable computing and how Kakarot is innovating applied Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) to transform the blockchain industry securing billions of transactions. Elias dives deep into Kakarot’s evolution as it crosses its two-year anniversary, discussing the challenges ahead, the ambitious goals for 2025 and beyond, and how Kakarot is delivering Ethereum-compatible block proving in real-time. He also sheds light on the larger vision of ZK's role in evolving Ethereum and the broader digital ecosystem.

Jason Li is Co-Founder of Solayer Labs, (https://www.solayer.org), builder of Solayer, the hardware-accelerated blockchain, infinitely scaling the SVM to enable high-throughput, near-zero latency use cases. Jason returns this season to share the latest on this revolutionary innovation in blockchain, which enables a mind-blowing 100 Gbps throughput while maintaining an atomic state. He walks us through Solayer's vision of a world where billions of people can process USDC transactions, game in real-time, stream 8K videos, and trade at lightning speed—all within the Solayer blockchain ecosystem.

Eric Won Choi is CEO and Founder of The Guild, a decentralized web3 protocol that combines gig economy elements with social networking, enabling users to monetize their networks and build verified on-chain reputations. Eric shares about his crypto and founder journeys, key insights on on-chain community development, why he is innovating in the on-chain community space, growing the blockchain ecosystem in Korea, the future of web3 communities, and the work behind building the world’s first fully on-chain multi-tier, multi-level affiliate program, a key part of the Guild protocol's stack.

Alex Ryvkin is CEO and Founder of Rho Labs, an institutional grade decentralized crypto native marketplace that allows retail and professional traders to efficiently trade swaps and futures on-chain compliantly. Alex joins us to discuss his journey in traditional finance and crypto, building the first crypto interest rates derivatives exchange, an asset class currently valued at over $500 trillion, opportunities for investors and traders given the broader risk-off sentiment, and the road ahead for Rho Labs. 

Ash Arora, is an Investment Partner at LocalGlobe, (https://www.phoenixcourt.vc/localglobe), a top-tier European early-stage venture capital firm renowned for backing unicorns like SoRare, LayerZero, Robinhood, Figma, Wise, and Twitter (X). As a Strategic Partner and valued member of the WAGMI Ventures family, Ash leads LocalGlobe’s Enterprise AI and Frontier Technology Investments practice. She dives into her seasoned perspective on investing in crypto, navigating crypto market cycles, the art and philosophy behind spotting winning investments, and the nuances of deploying capital in today’s complex global macro environment. Sharp insights and actionable wisdom from one of the industry’s most dynamic frontier tech investing voices.

Miguel de Vega is the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Nillion, a decentralized infrastructure network based on the use of various privacy enhancing technologies to support private storage and computation of sensitive data, while seamlessly connecting to existing blockchain infrastructure. Miguel discusses his journey into crypto, his extensive background in AI, how Nillion seeks to provide decentralized privacy and compute solutions leveraging multi-party computation and fully homomorphic encryption, the importance of decentralization, and ethics and responsibility in AI.

Charlie Hu is the Co-Founder and CEO of Bitlayer, a pioneering Bitcoin security-equivalent Layer 2 solution aimed at overcoming scalability and smart contract limitations of Bitcoin utilizing BitVM paradigm and zero-knowledge proofs. Charlie shares his journey in the Bitcoin ecosystem, Bitlayer's approach to scaling and enabling a more programmable and secure Bitcoin ecosystem, the road ahead for Bitlayer, and how this innovation is redefining the decentralized finance landscape.  

Michael Heinrich is the Co-Founder and CEO of Zero Gravity (0G), the fastest modular AI blockchain, providing unmatched infrastructure to scale both Web3 and AI, future-proofing the massive demands of AI infrastructure. 0G recently closed a $40 million seed round and secured another $250 million in liquid funds for its blockchain-based decentralized AI infrastructure. Michael shares his interesting journey into crypto, personal story on what drives him, how 0G achieves high data availability through its unique architecture separating data storage and data publishing, AI as a public good, and his takes on the future of AI x Crypto.

Dmitriy Berenzon is a Partner at Archetype (https://archetype.fund), an early-stage venture fund focused on accelerating the decentralized future, by backing the next generation of crypto founders disrupting the status quo. Dmitriy drives research, investments, portfolio support and fund strategy at Archetype. He shares his extensive experience as a crypto investor through the different phases of crypto development and adoption, the investment philosophy at Archetype, and his insightful thoughts across DePIN v DeVIN, verifiable compute, and the massive network effect of stablecoins.

Daryl Xu is Co-Founder of NPC Labs (https://npclabs.org), a core contributor to B3.fun, a game ecosystem built on Base, committed to building a seamless and open game ecosystem to change the ownership and incentive model of gamers and developers, as well as provide web2 gaming developers the necessary infrastructure to transition on-chain and to create an engaging user experience with casual and hyper-casual games. Backed by Pantera Capital, Makers Fund, Hashed, Collab+Currency, Mirana Venture among others, Daryl discusses his experience building at Coinbase, the vision and creation of NPC Labs, challenges building an ecosystem of chains, managing strong user engagement, and the potential for blockchain to revolutionize the gaming industry.

Rushi Manche is Co-Founder of Movement Labs (https://www.movementlabs.xyz), developer of the Movement Network, an ecosystem of modular Move language based blockchains, creating the Move Virtual Machine Layer 2 for Ethereum, that enables developers to launch high-performance Move-VM rollups easily, bridging Move and EVM ecosystems. Backed by Polychain, Hack VC, Placeholder, Archetype,  Aptos Labs, among others, Rushi discusses the limitations of monolithic blockchains, and how Move-VM, through parallelization of execution threads addresses Ethereum's shortcomings.

Jordan Oroshiba is CTO and Co-Founder of Astria (https://www.astria.org), a modular blockchain that allows individuals to deploy their own censorship-resistant rollup without relying on a centralized sequencer, easily allowing many rollups to share a single decentralized network of sequencers that’s simple and permissionless to join. Jordan shares his thoughts on the modular blockchain ecosystem, issues Astria addresses across data availability and sequencing, and how Astria is re-inventing the space post mainnet. 

Chjango Unchained is host of Interchain.FM (https://interchain.fm), a technical podcast that covers cutting edge crypto projects, and was one of the founding members of Cosmos Network. Actively involved in Cosmos appchains as a validator, investor, and advisor, Chjango is a long standing crypto evangelist, community builder, and specialist on Layer 1 consensus protocols. She shares about her journey from NASA Jet Propulsion Labs to being an early crypto builder and adopter, the evolution of crypto from 2017 to present day, building out the multichain vision, barriers to entry for building in crypto today, and her macro narrative on true decentralization.

Ron Bodkin is CEO and Co-Founder of TheoriqAI (https://www.theoriq.ai), the first on-chain multi-agent system, enabling users to build, deploy, and earn via a community-governed AI agent marketplace, developed under the ChainML AI agent research and development platform. Ron has held pioneering AI roles at the world's most innovative tech companies, shares his journey from Google to founding TheoriqAI, his passionate commitment to community governed AI, the role of decentralization in ensuring safe and ethical AI, and his reflections on data economy creation as a use case.

Chris Yin is Co-Founder at Plume Network (https://www.plumenetwork.xyz), a purpose built public layer-2 blockchain and ecosystem optimized for the rapid adoption and demand-driven integration of real world assets (RWAs). Backed by Haun Ventures, Galaxy Ventures, Superscrypt, Reciprocal Ventures and others, Chris passionately shares about his founder to investor to founder journey, how Plume Network is transforming the RWA/RWAfi space, building fullstack RWA infrastructure to deploy any asset onchain compliantly, and managing their fast growing ecosystem. 

Ani Pai is Partner at Dragonfly (https://www.dragonfly.xyz), one of the largest and most successful global crypto-focused venture capital firms, investing across all stages of blockchain and crypto-native companies, protocols and tokens. Ani discusses his journey as an investor, Dragonfly's contrarian and long term approach to investing, the due diligencing framework that continues to deliver winning projects, rate cuts and its impact on investing into 2025, and his view on the current venture capital cycle.

Albert Castellana Lluis is CEO and Founder of GenLayer (https://www.genlayer.io), the world’s first intelligent blockchain, enabling smart contracts to use Large Language Models (LLMs) to access the internet’s knowledge to make complex decisions in a decentralized manner. Albert, a serial entrepreneur, shares about his extensive background building in blockchain, integration of artificial intelligence to developing intelligent smart contracts, and security considerations in this innovative approach.

Ittai Svidler and Jonah Erlich are Co-CEOs and Co-Founders of Den (https://www.onchainden.com), a self-custodial, multi-signature wallet for on-chain organizations managing protocols, DeFi and on-chain operations. The duo share behind the scenes takes on their viral hit project, ConstitutionDAO, and how it led them to the journey of building Den's suite of multi-signature tools that make it easier for crypto projects to move their operations fully on-chain, addressing key coordination challenges.

Ryan Bozarth is CEO and Co-Founder of Dakota (https://www.dakota.xyz) a modern, crypto-native banking platform allowing companies to easily accept and make payments in USD or crypto, operate globally, and generate yield automatically. Ryan shares his journey in crypto, from working as Head of Product at Anchorage, CEO of Coinbase Custody, to founding Dakota – building a stellar team across fintech, traditional finance, and crypto security to deliver modern business banking powered by crypto.

Luca Prosperi is CEO and Co-Founder of M^0 Labs (https://www.m0.org) Backed by Bain Crypto, Pantera Capital, Galaxy Ventures, SCB 10X and others, M^0 democratizes access to money issuance infrastructure, with a decentralized architecture and best-in-class collateral design, allowing institutions to issue fungible cryptodollars. Luca shares his journey from traditional finance to innovating in crypto, the evolution of stablecoin assets, and building an open, decentralized and interoperable money middleware disrupting legacy monetary infrastructure.

David Aronchick is CEO and Co-Founder of Expanso (https://www.expanso.io). Backed by General Catalyst, Hetz Ventures, and Array Ventures, Expanso, simplifies data governance with an architecture that streamlines management and control of data flows without losing functionality, delivering compute over data. David discusses his journey from big tech firms to co-founding Kubeflow at Google, leading innovative startups and now building Expanso, where they are revolutionizing distributed data processing, enabling edge computing to help organizations innovate and scale quickly.

Yitong Zhang is CEO and Co-Founder of Agora (https://www.agora.xyz). Backed by Haun Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and Consensys Ventures, among others, Agora is a cross-chain platform that offers a new standard of on-chain governance for protocols. Yitong discusses how Agora is simplifying on-chain governance and developing tooling for the future state of token-backed voting and collective governance.

Sergey Gorbunov is CEO and Co-Founder of Axelar Network (https://www.axelar.network). Axelar is a programmable interoperability platform that unifies web3 across chains. Sergey joined us to chat about his work building Axelar, solving blockchain interoperability and the security challenges along the way, and insights into shaping the future of open interoperability.

Matt Katz is CEO and Co-Founder of Caldera (http://caldera.xyz). Caldera specializes in building high-performance, customizable, and application-specific layer-two and layer-three blockchains. In this episode, Matt shares his thoughts on the modular blockchain ecosystem, how Caldera is enabling the growth and development of modular blockchains, and the Metalayer: Caldera's innovative interoperability ecosystem.

Fisher Mingchao Yu is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Babylon Labs (http://babylonchain.io). Babylon is an innovative project designed to improve the security of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchains by enabling Bitcoin holders to earn yield by putting their idle Bitcoins to work to bolster the economic security of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) chains and dApps. In this episode, we chat with Fisher as he breaks down in systematic detail, the unique challenges of building staking infrastructure on the Bitcoin blockchain, Babylon's trustless and decentralized approach to enabling the scaling of bitcoin to secure PoS chains and dApps, and the innovation journey of the protocol.

Jason Li is Co-Founder of Solayer. Backed by Polychain Capital, Hack VC, Binance Labs, Big Brain Holdings, ABCDE and others, Solayer is the restaking protocol on Solana, securing both endogenous AVS (dApps) through stake-weighted quality of service and exogenous AVS via Solana-based POS primitives. In this episode, Jason unpacks why (re)staking is one of the strongest narratives in crypto today, it's importance to the development of crypto, and how Solayer is leveraging the economic principles of staking with its unique innovative network bandwidth optimization approach, and how it can extend security beyond Solana.