May 21, 2026
From Market Making to AI Rails: Alexis Sirkia of Yellow
Alexis Sirkia, captain of Yellow, joins The Smart Economy Podcast to discuss how decentralized clearing and settlement infrastructure could reshape crypto trading, AI agent economies, and institutional adoption. Sirkia shares his journey from early market making to building Yellow, explains how state channels are designed to remove counterparty risk, and why AI agents may become crypto’s biggest real-world use case.
In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Alexis Sirkia, captain of Yellow, a decentralized clearing and settlement network designed to enable trustless trading and high-speed transactions across crypto markets. Together, they explore how Yellow lowers counterparty risk from centralized exchanges, why state channels are making a comeback, and how AI agents could drive the next major wave of blockchain adoption. Sirkia also shares insights from his early days building one of crypto’s first market-making firms and explains why institutions may finally have the infrastructure they need to participate at scale.
What you’ll learn:
- Why counterparty risk remains one of crypto’s biggest unsolved problems
- How state channels enable high-frequency, trustless trading
- Why centralized exchanges still dominate volume despite DeFi growth
- How Yellow allows users to access exchange liquidity with lower custody risk
- Why AI agents could become the primary users of crypto infrastructure
- How agent-to-agent payments create new demand for blockchain rails
- Why institutional adoption depends on better settlement and clearing systems
- How crypto may quietly power AI economies behind the scenes
- And much more!
Alexis Sirkia is the captain of Yellow and an early builder in the crypto industry. Prior to Yellow, he co-founded GSR, one of the first market-making firms in digital assets, helping establish liquidity for early networks like Ethereum and Ripple. With a background spanning software engineering, trading systems, and financial infrastructure, Sirkia brings a rare combination of technical and market expertise. His current work at Yellow focuses on building trustless trading infrastructure, enabling AI-driven economies, and bridging the gap between crypto-native systems and institutional finance. His perspective is especially relevant as crypto shifts from speculative cycles toward real infrastructure powering AI agents, trading systems, and global financial coordination.
Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:
- Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
- David Hoffman - Bankless
- Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
- Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
- Sid Powell - Maple Finance
And many others!
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