Yeah Robin Hood's crypto general manager says crypto is becoming the infrastructure for the global financial system.
In 2025, DFI has boomed in the form of tokenized real world assets, stablecoins, and yield bearing instruments, as well as decentralized application projects.
And decentralized exchanges are accelerating.
Block works data showing the percentage of decentralized exchange spot volume compared to centralized exchanges has grown from 5% 2 years ago to 29% this year.
Well joining me to weigh in this morning is Samantha Bobot, partner and chief growth officer at RockawayX.
Good morning and thank you so much for joining us.
So first and foremost, take us through the state as well as trajectory of DI.
Yeah, so, so for us at Rockaway X, and I'll just set the stage quickly, we look at DeFi as a user.
So our main job is putting capital to work on chain.
So when we think about the state of DeFi, it really comes down to how many products are appealing, that if you are running a portfolio on a blockchain or across these ecosystems today, you have enough to diversify your book, right?
So can you put meaning meaningful capital to work on blockchains, um.
I saw you're pulling up a a chart there in terms of the state of DeFI today we, we see that that kind of measurement, right, of how many interesting products are there that offer different risk return profiles or superior investment experiences for investors like us feels like it's continuing to expand.
Um, it's not something that is marked by volatility, right?
It's really a question of are there products that are coming on chain, um, where tokenization and accessibility can improve their reach.
And Samantha, walk us through the state of private markets when it comes to crypto.
Yeah, so private markets, it's felt a bit right now.
The crypto sort of front runs what we're seeing maybe in equities, as in the skittishness that is starting to play out, a bit of this mixed picture, right, where on the one hand you have Q3 earnings that look really strong and you feel that on the crypto side of that there might be cause to be bullish, but then you have events like you had last month where Where you know, $19 billion in interest is wiped out and it cascades across, so it feels like this climate of a bit of just risk fear, um, volatility up, how that impacts the private markets and crypto, so on the venture side for us is is just this feeling that it takes a lot for investors to feel that something's a hell yes.
Um we see a lot of deals that are either really crowded or where.
Uh, founders struggle to fundraise.
The other shift has been obviously perhaps the more jubilant one is the increase in IPOs.
So on the growth stage we're seeing a lot of OTC deals where investors who might not have had access to the companies like Kraken or Ripple or other leading businesses in the industry as they've grown are thinking that their final kind of bite at the apple might be right before an IPO.
So we're seeing a lot of increase there on the secondary side.
Yeah, and you just mentioned risk as well as volatility, and you're joining us on this Friday morning and we're looking at volatility across all asset classes whether we're looking at equities, crypto, or commodities.
So give us an understanding of where we are right now as well as some of the conversations that you're having with stakeholders.
It feels as though we're in this really weird limbo, right?
So on the one hand, the opening of the week, you know, we had the relief bounce after it was confirmed that Congress, you know, agreed to reopen the government, but now we're looking at, I think, an 18% Bitcoin drop since the start of the week, and you kind of scratch your head and think, what is that?
Is it the, I think someone who was on before spoke about, you know, with the CPI release being delayed and employment data murky, but people are just wondering what happens next.
Um From where I sit, kind of where we straddle private markets, we also invest in liquid crypto, um, uncertainty kind of just feels like the thing that creates paralysis, right?
And it's um kind of unwelcome, um, and so, so I think that's what we're feeling very much right now is that there's people, you know, on the one hand you have things that you could be optimistic about.
You have those earnings, um, and then on the other hand you have.
This kind of fear that markets still haven't totally recovered from the liquidation event of a few weeks ago.
You have fear that there's the AI bubble, and even in a place that should be somewhat distinct from that, right, crypto, where there are other fundamentals in play, it feels like it kind of hangs in the balance on how how investors view those those metrics or those risks.
And Samantha, we are fast approaching year end, and this is the time of year that people start talking about 2026 and the outlook.
So what role do you think real world assets, stablecoins, and yield bearing instruments will play as we head into 2026?
When we look back at 2025, we think the most exciting thing has been the clarity around stablecoins with the Genius Act and kind of, you know, first you have clarity and then you should have innovation.
And so to us that's, that's coming together in 206.
I mean, I look at the things Stripe is doing and I, I sit there and I think.
You know, we're getting to the point where the stripe wallet is going to have stablecoins, perhaps challenge the dominance of MasterCard and Visa, but they're also doing fascinating things with stablecoins.
And looking ahead, what that means is you suddenly unlock this e-commerce landscape of merchants that are going to have wallets that hold stablecoins with a ton of opportunity of what you can do with them, right?
They'll be looking for yield generation sources.
They'll be looking to diversify how these different stablecoins are backed.
And so we just see so much, I guess it's coming of, of innovative things that that a lot can come to fruition pretty early in 2026.
So, yeah, for us it's, it's really this question of.
We know the stablecoin volumes on chain are going to increase, and we're looking next to how are the stablecoins going to be deployed, what products are going to be used to generate yield on the stablecoins that are going to be in much different hands than they've been in the past, so institutional, commercial enterprise.
OK, Samantha, well, we will have to leave it there.
Thank you so much for joining us on this Friday morning and thank you so much for sharing your insights.
Thank you so much for having me.
