Finality Crypto Podcast

Episode 10 of Builder's Diary is live. In this conversation, host Juri Maibaum sits down with JP Grabs, Founding Partner at Areta, to explore the world of M&A in crypto through the lens of discipline, ambition, and long-term thinking. From growing up in Germany to studying in Europe's top finance universities in Frankfurt and St. Gallen, to building a career across BCG, Barclays, Partners Group, a...

Institutions are entering crypto through staking and stablecoin yield—changing how returns are generated and who's participating. In today's episode, we sit down with Tobuas Jung from Staing Rewards to break down what this shift means, why it's happening now, and what the Staking Summit reveals about the next phase of the industry. Apply to participate at Staking Summit 2026: https://events.stakin...

In this episode, Juri Maibaum sits down with Douwe to unpack how Hyve is tackling one of crypto's biggest blind spots: the hidden centralization of data and infrastructure. The conversation dives into how blockchain systems are secretly far more centralized than most people realize, why data layers have become the weakest link in decentralization, and how Hyve is rebuilding the stack from the grou...

In this episode, Juri Maibaum is joined by Max Windhagen to break down how the crypto industry could evolve in 2026, covering market structure, macro conditions, institutional adoption, and ecosystem-level shifts. Topics include: Key lessons from 2025 and how they shape the year ahead The macro backdrop for crypto in 2026: inflation, central banks, and geopolitics Whether macro conditions turn int...

In this episode from Sovereign Day in Buenos Aires 🇦🇷, we sit down with Mariana Kotik, Chief Commercial Officer at LNET, to explore why Latin America is leading the world in real-world blockchain adoption. LNET is a nonprofit organization based in Uruguay, created in 2021 as part of an IDB Lab–sponsored initiative to accelerate blockchain adoption across Latin America and the Caribbean. Mariana ex...

In this episode from Sovereign Day in Buenos Aires, we sit down with Nick White, COO of Celestia Labs, to discuss Celestia's evolution, comeback, and long-term vision for modular blockchains. Recorded live at Sovereign Day, the conversation comes as Celestia approaches its two-year anniversary, reflecting on what the team got right, what surprised them, and where the broader crypto ecosystem stand...

After a rocky start to November and a skipped Uptober, crypto markets have investors wondering if the cycle is running out of steam. In this episode, we dig into the data: staking ratios, ETF flows, price action, and the broader stock market, to separate signal from noise. No hopium, no fluff! Just what's really happening in the trenches. Follow Finality: https://x.com/finality_res   Follow Juri:...

Welcome to State of the Trenches , Episode 1: "November Forecast." We kick off this new weekly series with a deep dive into what's really moving crypto markets as we head into the final stretch of 2025. Is November shaping up to be a bullish rebound after "Downtober"? We break down Solana's historic leap onto Wall Street with Bitwise's record-setting Solana Staking ETF (BSOL), Grayscale's GSOL app...

In this episode of Finality, we explore how Linera is rethinking blockchain scalability and network economics for the next era of decentralized systems. Host Juri Maibaum sits down with Mathieu Baudet , Founder & CEO of Linera and former researcher at Meta's Novi, to discuss how Linera's microchain architecture enables ultra-low-latency transactions and why it might be the ideal infrastructure for...

Celestia, with its ticker $TIA, pioneered the modular blockchain thesis, separating consensus from execution and redefining how blockchains scale. Two years after its mainnet launch, how is the modular vision holding up, and can modular blockchains actually become profitable? What is a revival plan for $TIA?  In this first Finality interview, Viet, Head of Developer Relations at Celestia Labs, joi...

Frens Validator is now Finality. After building one of the leading retail validators and staking integrations in the space, we decided to pivot. Earlier this year, Frens Validator was acquired by Swyke, which is why we are taking on a new path. We continue to run our own nodes, but with a crisper focus on research and media to explore the business and economics of decentralized networks. Over near...

The EigenLayer Token unlock of $EIGEN finally took place. But now the question is: what's next and what strategy should one follow? Accumulate more? Stake $EIGEN? Or sell? Is $EIGEN fairly rated at $4 Billion? What will the EigenLayer ecosystem look like in a few years from now and what does the EigenLayer roadmap look like? And what will the competition, like Symbiotic, do now?  This and much mor...

Lava Network launched very recently and is about to become the access layer for blockchains. In today's episode, we sit down with Lava Network Co-Founder Yair Cleper and we are going to elaborate on what the access layer for blockchains means, why $LAVA has one of the most exciting tokenomics models in the industry, RPC Nodes, and so much more! Follow Finality: https://x.com/finality_res?s=11&t=m2...

What is TOKI and how is the project about to bring IBC to Ethereum and BNB Chain? Toki's testnet is about to go live very soon and the project is working on shipping IBC to corners of the crypto industry that are not associated with IBC whatsoever - Ethereum and BNB Chain. Today we are talking about how TOKI further develops IBC, why cross-chain transfers are so interesting for big financial playe...

What is Vase Finance? Vase Finance is the liquid staking hub of Berachain for all PoS assets outside of the Berachain ecosystem, like $ETH, $TIA, $ATOM, and many more. The protocol even overcomes previously seen issues with liquid staking, such as governance voting rights issues. In today's episode, we uncover, together with DeFi Dojo, how Vase's novel approach aims to tackle these problems and dr...

What is the Union Network all about? Union is one of the most anticipated launches in the interchain as the project is about to bring interoperability via IBC to every corner of the crypto industry. In today's episode, we are going to talk about cross-chain asset transfers, ZK-cryptology, Union's most important integrations, Union's value accrual, horizontal scalability, and so much more! Follow F...

#particlenetwork #particle #abstraction What is Particle Network? Particle Network is one of the most exciting upcoming mainnet launches in the crypto industry. The team recently raised $25 million and announced an interesting collaboration with Berachain. Particle Network focuses on abstraction. The project enables that by being a settlement layer for all cross-chain transactions in the crypto in...

Wen Berachain? In today's episode, we welcome Mara and Danny from DeFi Dojo. We're diving deep into the highly anticipated launch of Berachain. Is Berachain more than just a meme? How does its ecosystem operate? What is Proof of Liquidity (PoL) and what does it mean for the DeFi space? We'll be answering these questions and more. Topics we'll cover: A high-level overview of Berachain: PoS-chain, C...

What is the Babylon blockchain? This episode features a deep dive into the world of Bitcoin and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) with Fisher Yu, the Co-Founder of Babylon. Babylon is an innovative PoS blockchain integrating Bitcoin staking to secure other blockchains. This episode explores BabylonChain's ecosystem, discusses Bitcoin maximalism, and provides insights into the growing interest in the Bitcoin ec...

The Institutions are coming! After all the bullish news and the crypto market going sideways, will there be new $BTC, $ETH, and $SOL all-time highs in September? This and much more is what we discuss in today's episode. Illia Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srp2PAp166Q&t=63s Solana Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAnqICPr8No   - - - Our EigenLayer Operator:  https://app.eigenla...

What are the risks of restaking on EigenLayer? What do you need to know before starting restaking on EigenLayer? Today we are going to talk about the risks involved with re-staking. Since we recently launched our Eigenlayer operator together with Defi Dojo Blocks, we are committed to keeping our community as informed as possible! - - - Our EigenLayer Operator:  https://app.eigenlayer.xyz/operator/...

The recent EigenLayer launch on the Ethereum mainnet was the most anticipated launch in all of crypto. Today we are going to talk about why the EigenLayer ecosystem is going to be the airdrop ecosystem of 2024. Plus, we will discuss how to maximize your airdrop eligibility chances by a few simple steps. - - - Catch up with FRENS VALIDATOR: 📲 FOLLOW FINALITY:   https://x.com/finality_res?s=11&t=m2...

What are the best airdrop and yield opportunities on EigenLayer? And how can you maximize your airdrop eligibility chances for all of the EigenLayer AVS services that will launch soon? This is what we discussed with DeFi Dojo. DeFi Dojo informs its Discord Members about the best Yield Opportunities in all of crypto. Besides, the team runs validators on various chains. That's why we have decided to...

Today's episode marks the eleventh episode of "Builder's Diary". If this is your first "Builders´ Diary," episode, this format sheds light on the amazing people behind your favorite Proof of Stake chains and applications. Let's find out what visions our fellow builders follow, how they got to where they are today, and what future developments they anticipate. Today we are joined by Sunny Aggarwal,...

Today we are going to talk about EIP-4844 (also called danksharding), which is a new Ethereum upgrade that went live a few weeks ago. The Ethereum danksharding upgrade promised to bring down Ethereum Layer2 fees significantly. It promised to make Ethereum scalable just like Solana Avalanche and Co. If that turned out to be true, this could be huge for the Ethereum ecosystem. So in this episode, we...