How Vaults Become the Next Stablecoin Narrative | Sun Raghupathi
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Sun Raghupathi, CEO of Veda, about how DeFi evolved from speculation to a robust financial backend for users, fintechs and asset managers. Sun explains why degens were essential beta testers for early DeFi systems, how vault infrastructure bridges the gap between onchain complexity and traditional finance, and why idle balances should automatically generate yield for users instead of enriching banks. He walks through Veda's growth from serving DeFi projects like Ether.fi to powering yield products for centralized exchanges like Kraken and Coinbase. He also explains why stablecoin yield is the killer use case driving fintech adoption, and how vault infrastructure works across multiple chains. The conversation covers the net interest margin disruption facing traditional banks, enterprise L2 announcements going quiet, and Sun's advice to DeFi founders on meeting reality where it's at during this critical window for execution.
TIMESTAMPS
(0:00) – Intro (1:06) – What most people misunderstand about DeFi today (1:22) – Getting into DeFi at the 2021 peak and the Wild West era (2:32) – Degens as beta testers for early DeFi systems (2:54) – DeFi transitioning from speculative to robust financial backend for the real world (3:49) – Two kinds of DeFi builders: changing the system vs getting rich (4:33) – Night and day difference between DeFi and traditional finance transparency (4:59) – Veda as a DeFi engine for asset managers, fintechs and financial apps (5:38) – Idle balances should generate yield automatically and vault infrastructure explained (6:59) – Starting Veda in mid-2024 with Ether.fi partnership (7:44) – Exchanges and fintechs entering DeFi unexpectedly (8:24) – Kraken DeFi Earn and Coinbase onchain yield vault products (11:35) – Stablecoin yield as the killer use case driving fintech adoption (14:00) – Veda's TVL growth, yield generation and operating across multiple chains (17:39) – Regulatory environment improving and asset manager interest in onchain products (20:30) – Vaults as the primitive for DeFi adoption at scale (22:03) – Technical architecture, security and risk management in vault design (25:10) – Smart contract audits and safety measures (26:49) – Vaults vs other DeFi yield products (28:43) – Recognizing legitimate vs sketchy vaults through track record and scale (29:44) – Groups Veda wants to tap into and traditional banks engaging with DeFi (30:46) – Hardest trade-offs for banks moving onchain and net interest margin disruption (31:45) – Will DeFi disrupt finance or will finance become DeFi? (32:34) – Watching enterprises building L2s and the quiet period on new chain announcements (33:19) – Advice to DeFi founders: small window to stay relevant and execute (34:00) – Meeting reality where it's at and ensuring the transition happens responsibly
ESSENTIALS
You can subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please leave a review — it really helps. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141 Follow us on X Jacquelyn: https://twitter.com/jacqmelinek Talking Tokens: https://twitter.com/_TalkingTokens Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/_talkingtokens/ Note: This podcast is for informational purposes only. Views shared are opinions, not financial advice. The host or guests may have financial interests in discussed content.
How Vaults Become the Next Stablecoin Narrative | Sun Raghupathi
Subscribe & Listen
Why Onchain Vaults Are Following Stablecoins Everywhere | Hunter Horsley
Why Bitcoin’s Price Isn’t Affecting Institutional Interest in Tokenization | Thomas Cowan
More from Talking Tokens
How RockawayX Is Building the Actively Managed DeFi Vault | Samantha Bohbot
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Samantha Bohbot, partner and chief growth officer at RockawayX, about why DeFi vaults have evolved from simple yield products into the foundation for actively managed, institutional-grade credit strategies. Samantha, who spent nearly four years as VP of growth at DCG before joining RockawayX, explains how the firm allocates over $2 billion across venture, liquid tokens, and onchain credit, and why it launched its own vaults on Morpho and Camino after spending years as one of the largest depositors into these products itself. She walks through what separates a serious vault from a commoditized one, why credit underwriting and risk infrastructure matter more than yield numbers, and how AI agents could reshape how capital flows into DeFi. The conversation also covers the Resolve exploit, why prediction markets are overhyped relative to actual usage, how to spot confirmation bias in crypto venture, and why building real financial infrastructure takes longer than a hackathon. TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Intro (01:14) Samantha's background at DCG and path to RockawayX (01:49) What RockawayX is: venture, liquid tokens, credit fund, and infrastructure (03:11) Why vaults are the next stage of the DeFi promise (05:24) How RockawayX differentiates its vault strategy from the crowd (07:22) Why credit underwriting and risk infrastructure are what separate real vaults (08:21) Why RockawayX decided to build vaults itself rather than wait (09:03) How the first RWA mixed pool works (13:37) Generative finance and how AI agents change vault UX and product fit (16:19) Embedding vaults into fintech products to reach non-crypto users (19:45) The Resolv exploit: how the attack worked and what curators got right (22:30) RockawayX's 2026 priorities and where to allocate time and resources (26:02) Why prediction markets are getting too much attention (27:14) Running a market-neutral strategy on Polymarket and its liquidity limits (33:16) Confirmation bias in crypto venture: pitching decks instead of businesses (40:09) OCC charters and the future of crypto banking regulation (42:37) Final advice: trust your gut on people and ideas You can subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please leave a review — it really helps. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141 Follow us on X Jacquelyn: https://twitter.com/jacqmelinek Talking Tokens: https://twitter.com/_TalkingTokens Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/_talkingtokens/ Note: This podcast is for informational purposes only. Views shared are opinions, not financial advice. The host or guests may have financial interests in discussed content.
Why Public Markets Are About to Move Onchain | Michael Tannenbaum
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Michael Tannenbaum, CEO of Figure, about how the company processes over $1 billion in mortgages monthly and why it went public in 2025. Michael, who was first employee at Brex and chief revenue officer at SoFi before joining Figure in 2024, explains why the company tokenized its own stock first to prove the model works before approaching other issuers. He walks through Figure's 100% year-over-year growth with 50% margins by using blockchain tech to cut mortgage origination costs, why tokenization is now part of the buying criteria for capital markets, and the difference between creating liquidity versus just tokenizing assets. The conversation covers the Provenance blockchain, OPEN launch and demand, its DeFi marketplace, and why private credit needs institutional owners for long-term assets rather than retail investors. TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Intro (01:17) Career path: SoFi chief revenue officer, first employee at Brex, now Figure CEO (03:21) Why Michael bet on Brex (05:09) Reconnecting with Mike Cagney on Figure (08:41) His framework for building through crypto and fintech cycles (10:34) Figure's IPO timing and being publicly traded while building onchain markets (15:56) Why Figure tokenized its own stock first before approaching other companies (18:35) Liquidity in tokenization: just because you tokenize doesn't mean it's liquid (22:00) Launching with Figure’s own inventory to avoid guinea pig problem (23:26) What it means to have “hair on fire” problems (25:37) When to emphasize blockchain benefits versus meeting skeptics where they are (27:26) Breaking the rule of 40: 100% growth with 50% margins using blockchain technology (28:27) Revenue growth: 100% year-over-year across mortgages, stablecoins, and DeFi marketplace (33:11) Capital markets highway thesis: blockchain infrastructure not SaaS as next fintech model (46:26) Watching private credit nervousness around retail investor redemptions ESSENTIALS You can subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please leave a review — it really helps. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141 Follow us on X Jacquelyn: https://twitter.com/jacqmelinek Talking Tokens: https://twitter.com/_TalkingTokens Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/_talkingtokens/ Note: This podcast is for informational purposes only. Views shared are opinions, not financial advice. The host or guests may have financial interests in discussed content.
Framework Ventures Is Deploying $2.5 Billion Into Institutional-Grade Yield | Parker Edwards
In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Parker Edwards, partner at Framework Ventures, about deploying a $2.5 billion mandate to bring institutional-grade yield onchain through Obex, a Sky-focused incubator. Parker announces the first cohort where it’s deploying $1 billion across eight companies including Maple, Centrifuge, Securitize, River, and Better Home & Finance, spanning areas like structured credit, mortgages, energy, and AI infrastructure. He explains why real-world assets are finally reaching institutional scale, with players like Apollo and BlackRock actively participating. The conversation covers why established companies with deep domain expertise are better positioned to scale with Obex than early-stage startups, how Sky grew to $11.5 billion in USDS stablecoin supply, and the plan to hit $20 billion by 2026.This episode is sponsored by Securitize, the proven leader in tokenized funds, equities, and private markets. Discover more at securitize.io. TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Intro with Parker Edwards, partner at Framework Ventures (00:25) What is Obex and its $2.5 billion mandate to deploy capital into Sky ecosystem (01:09) Sky's growth to $11.5 billion in stablecoin supply as third largest stablecoin (02:06) Why Framework Ventures is administering the Obex incubator (02:52) First cohort: Maple, USD.ai, Centrifuge, Securitize, River, Better, and others deploying $1 billion (04:12) Why it chose more established players over early-stage startups for day-one scale (06:06) State of RWAs: institutional-grade founders with deep domain expertise entering the space (08:03) Asset manager mandates: structured credit, private credit, energy, and AI infrastructure (10:05) Why Better Home & Finance chose to build on Sky for mortgage tokenization (13:33) Real cash-flowing assets onchain without artificial yield incentives (15:15) How DeFi is competing with banks and credit funds on quality assets (17:13) Apollo and BlackRock participating onchain (20:16) Sky's recent $435 million revenue and $20 billion stablecoin target by end of 2026 (22:20) Why USDS won't replace USDC or USDT but serves different institutional roles (27:26) Final advice ESSENTIALS You can subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please leave a review — it really helps. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141 Follow us on X Jacquelyn: https://twitter.com/jacqmelinek Talking Tokens: https://twitter.com/_TalkingTokens Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/_talkingtokens/ Note: This podcast is for informational purposes only. Views shared are opinions, not financial advice. The host or guests may have financial interests in discussed content.