The Endofunctor

🎙️What if leverage did not require liquidations at all and yield became something you can actually trade in real time?In this episode, Alex sits down with Alan from Covenant Finance to unpack a different way to think about DeFi markets. Instead of isolated positions and liquidation driven risk, Covenant treats risk like a banking system does through tranching, turning the “equity side” into a fungible leverage token that anyone can hold and trade. Alan connects this to how banks create liquidity on top of long duration assets, and why tranching can be a cleaner mental model for crypto yield markets.They also go deep on the mechanics that make Covenant feel “self balancing” including how the market targets specific leverage ratios, why yield changes create instant trading opportunities, and how denomination choices change the need for fast oracles like Pyth (and potentially Chainlink streams). The conversation lands on the most eye opening part: Covenant’s leverage design can avoid the liquidation game entirely, which reframes how people think about safety, solvency, and “robust leverage” on chain.Host:Alex WattsX: ⁠@ThogardPvP⁠Founder&CEO at ⁠@0xFastLane⁠Guest:Alan Hampton X: ⁠@ahampt0n Founder & CEO at ⁠@covenantFi

🎙️What happens when a DeFi protocol turns its launch into a global competition?In this episode, Alex sits down with PBJ, co founder of Perpl, to share everything happening as they move toward mainnet. This includes a high stakes testnet trading tournament with real prizes, possibly even PBJ’s car. PBJ also explains how Perpl is reimagining on chain trading by opening up their market making SDKs, releasing example bots in Rust, and creating a permissionless playground where anyone can experiment, compete, and build.Listeners will hear what to expect in the coming weeks, how developers can get hands on with the tools right now, and the mainnet secrets early users should not miss. Whether you are a trader, a developer, or someone curious about the future of on chain markets, Perpl wants you to jump in, try the product, and get on chain.Host:Alex WattsX: ⁠@ThogardPvP⁠Founder&CEO at ⁠@0xFastLane⁠Guest:PBJ X: ⁠@0x70626a⁠ Founder & CEO at ⁠@PerplTrade⁠

🎙️What happens when the economics of blockchains collide with their technical limits?In this episode, Alex Watts sits down with Max Resnick, Lead Economist at Anza, to explore the invisible costs of scaling blockchains. They dive into state rent, compression, and validator incentives—unpacking why memory growth and transaction propagation are not just engineering challenges but economic design choices.Listeners will learn how censorship resistance both empowers and complicates MEV, why inactive state is the hidden bottleneck for performance, and what compression and broadcast innovations like vector commitments and Turbine mean for the next generation of performant, censorship-resistant networks.Follow Us:Host:Alex WattsX: @ThogardPvPFounder&CEO at FastLane Labs;Guest:Max Resnick X: @maxresnick1 Lead Economist for Anza (Solana) @Anza_xyz

🎙️ Exploring Anoma, where intents guide the system and users choose what to reveal.What if a blockchain worked more like an operating system than a ledger? And what if instead of submitting transactions you could simply express your intent and let the network figure out how to make it happen?In this episode of The Endofunctor, host Alex Watt sits down with Apriori (Patrick) from Anoma to explore a project that is trying to rebuild crypto infrastructure from the ground up. The conversation traces the origins of Anoma and the design of an intent based system that puts privacy and composability at its core.Patrick explains why Anoma talks about “shielded computation” rather than privacy, how programmable disclosure lets users decide what to reveal and when, and why building the right developer and user experience matters as much as the cryptography underneath.Along the way we get a glimpse into the philosophy and personal history that shape his work, from long hours wrestling with accounting homework to the role of meaning in good product design.Whether you are a developer, a founder, or simply curious about where the next generation of blockchain ideas might lead, this episode offers a grounded look at the thinking behind Anoma.

🎙️What does it take to build a decentralized exchange that trades with the speed of a CEX, but the fairness of DeFi?In this episode, Rohan, co-founder of Kuru, breaks down how his team is designing one of the first fully onchain orderbook DEXs on Monad — and why this chain’s unique performance opens up a new design space for trading.Kuru’s mission is clear: create a trading venue that is capital efficient, MEV-resistant, and user-friendly. They’re introducing concentrated liquidity and cross-margining so liquidity providers can put their capital to work more effectively while traders benefit from tighter spreads and deeper books.But they’re not stopping at the orderbook. With the launch of their aggregator, Kuru is building the connective tissue for Monad’s DeFi stack — routing trades across multiple venues, reducing fragmentation, and moving toward becoming the true liquidity hub of the ecosystem.Kuru also collaborates with FastLane to tackle one of DeFi’s thorniest issues: MEV protection. By aligning validators with traders and designing orderflow that minimizes predatory extraction, they’re creating a trading environment where fairness is built in, not bolted on. Add to this their work on slippage controls, low-latency execution, and composability with other Monad dApps, and you get a vision for DeFi markets that are faster, smoother, and more accessible than ever.This conversation isn’t just about building an orderbook. It’s about how Kuru is re-engineering market structure, incentives, and user experience — and why they believe Monad is the perfect foundation for the next generation of onchain trading.Follow Us:Host:Alex Watts,Founder&CEO at FastLane Labs; Twitter: @ThogardPvP https://x.com/ThogardPvPGuest:Rohan Shrothrium Co-founder of @KuruExchange X handle: @0xtrojan_

🎙️Navigating Incentives, Risk, and Outlandish Bets with Figment CapitalIn this episode, host Alex Watt sits down with Jim Parillo, Managing Partner at Figment Capital, to demystify the inner workings of venture capital in crypto. From how VC partnerships are structured to the real meaning of “carry,” Jim shares candid insights on incentives, risk, and founder–investor dynamics.The discussion covers the challenges of pitching VCs, pivots, and why founders shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help. Jim also breaks down complex topics like L1 premiums, foundations, and regulatory risk, before closing with a memorable story of Figment Capital’s investment in the unconventional world of sperm racing.Whether you’re a founder, builder, or investor, this episode delivers a rare inside look at how crypto VC decisions are made.

In this episode we sit down with Matthew (aka the based rollup guy) co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Spire to unpack the philosophy and technical design behind based rollups and why they might be the most powerful unlock for composability since flashbotsFrom his roots running MEV bots in cloud terminals before he had a credit card to helping define the architecture of Spire’s rollup stack Matthew shares an insider’s perspective on sequencing consensus and the social layer of economic securityWe covered:What makes a rollup based and why sequencing reuse unlocks atomicity MEV coordination and cross-chain callsHow Spire's sidecar architecture and priming transactions enable fast predictive L3 execution across ecosystemsWhy economic security isn’t just about staked ETH — it’s about avoiding hard forks and understanding who actually holds powerDeep dive into superblocks DA strategies and the difference between predictive and introspective executionAsync programming trust assumptions and what it means to operate inside a shared consensus zoneWhether you’re scaling infra debating consensus models or just trying to understand the next evolution of L3s this one is packed with insightFollow Us:Host:Name: Alex WattTitle: Founder&CEOX handle: @ThogardPvPCompany Name: FastLane Labs (@0xFastLane)Guest:Name: Matthew Title: Co-founder, Chief of Product X handle: @mteamisloading Company Name: Spire (@spire_labs)

In this episode, we sit down with Hyunsuk Kang, founder of Standard, to explore what it means to build not just infrastructure but identity, story, and community into the heart of a DeFi protocol.Standard is building a fully onchain CLOB (central limit order book) on Monad, complete with smart contract-level execution logic, slippage controls, and gas-aware design. But the real unlock isn’t just technical — it’s cultural.We dive into:How Hyunsik’s background in AI, IoT, and stablecoins shaped his approach to product and protocol designWhy going fully unchained is about more than transparency — it's about ownership and auditabilityHow Standard rethinks UX through slippage protection, curated listings, and execution safeguardsWhy waifus aren’t just trading agents, but a cultural interface that blends automation with storytellingWhat it takes to build for real users — especially across Asia, Africa, and emerging DeFi communitiesThis is a conversation about infrastructure — but also about narrative, aesthetics, and designing crypto products people actually want to engage with. If you believe culture is a moat, this one’s for you.Haifu is going live on Monad Testnet in July.Join the Husbands’ Club by subscribing to Standard’s waifu-powered membership.Follow Us:Host:Alex Watts, Founder&CEO at FastLane Labs - https://x.com/0xFastLaneTwitter: @ThogardPvP https://x.com/ThogardPvPGuest:Hyungsuk Kang CEO of Digital Native Standard Ltd - https://x.com/standardweb3Twitter: @standard_hk https://x.com/standard_hk

Inside Mace: The Aggregator Powering Capital Efficiency on MonadIn this episode, we sit down with Aritz and Harm from Mace, one of the most technically advanced aggregators in the Monad ecosystem, to unpack how they’re building capital-efficient infrastructure for the next generation of DeFi.We cover everything from the transition from Solana to Monad, to how Mace is architecting its off-chain engine, optimizing pricing execution, and thinking deeply about MEV, order flow privacy, and gas abstraction. You’ll also hear their take on Monad’s unique asynchronous EVM and how it impacts aggregator design.Whether you’re into protocol design, MEV strategy, or just curious about how real DeFi infra gets built, this one’s for you.Don’t miss the alpha: new features, open-source tooling, and how to claim early access to Mace’s beta pass access to win additional points.

This episode dives into the story behind Curvance, the most active lending protocol on Monad’s testnet. We sit down with its founder to explore how his background in TradFi shaped the design of a high-performance DeFi protocol. From navigating one of crypto’s toughest bear markets to building on Monad’s cutting-edge architecture, it’s a conversation full of insight, challenges, and unexpected moments of fun. A great example of how real-world experience meets next-gen DeFi innovation.🔗 Follow us:Host: Alex Watts, Founder&CEO at FastLane Labs; Twitter:@ThogardPvP https://x.com/ThogardPvPGuest: Chris, CEO of Curvance, Twitter: https://x.com/_jhunsaker🌐 Learn more about the companies: https://www.fastlane.xyz/; https://www.curvance.com/