Recap: The State of DeFi - What Leads the Next Cycle
Produced in partnership with Funders VC. On the same evening another wave of exploits hit the sector, yet the room stayed firmly bullish. Seven founders and investors sat down to work through one question: what actually drives DeFi's next cycle? These were the sharpest takes.
The best takes of the evening
"DeFi shouldn't be the selling point, it's the distribution layer. If we keep segregating ourselves from fintech we just stay in the trenches. The next wave of users wouldn't even know they're touching DeFi."
Funders VC
On the actual state of the sector - and where the next users come from.
"$300B worth of stablecoin supply is still just the beginning. The US will weaponize stablecoins to distribute their debt and keep the dollar on top."
Tangent
On stables: two live use cases today - payments and yield, with leverage looping pulling 15-20% APR.
"If you want retail, stop selling the tech, sell the outcome. The only outcome of a perp DEX should be: you make money."
Noon Capital
The GTM lesson from Robinhood - fresh off launching on Base to make yield accessible to everyone.
"Hype was never a sustainable model. Yield is the only business model that gives revenue back to users - that's what survives."
BackYard Finance
On what leads now: the market's already repricing - everything trading at a premium has real revenue.
"New protocols pop up every day. Understanding what your fund actually holds - the risk, the compliance - that layer still isn't there. Whoever delivers 'legible onchain' is who institutions trust with size."
0xPratter
On the infrastructure that still doesn't exist.
"Order flow is the origin of everything. It brings yield, yield brings the business model. We hunt order flow every day. AI lets us backtest a strategy in days instead of weeks - tech wins right now."
affixpin
On where it all starts, and why an optimized stack wins today.
"89% of what we see is just an API wrapper around OpenAI or Claude. Build your trading agents yourself - if you don't control the agent's moves, it's like not keeping your seed phrase a secret."
Tim Arno
On AI trading agents and the difference between wrapping and building.
The throughline
One idea kept resurfacing across all seven speakers: the next cycle rewards real revenue and real distribution, not hype. Yield that returns value to users, stablecoins treated as infrastructure, DeFi hidden inside familiar fintech flows, and AI that is built rather than wrapped. Exploits and volatility barely dented the conviction. Fundamentals carried it.
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Speakers: Funders VC, Tim Arno, Tangent, BackYard Finance, 0xPratter, Noon Capital, affixpin. Full thread on X ↗