June 5, 2025
From Wall Street to Web3: How Plaza Finance is Bringing TradFi Sophistication to DeFi
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In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Ryan Galvankar, the founder of Plaza Finance, a platform built on Base that is specializing in programmable derivatives.
What you’ll learn:
- How traditional finance expertise shaped Plaza's approach to building decentralized derivatives
- Why Base was chosen as the L2 solution for Plaza's products
- The mechanics behind bondETH's stable 10% annual yield through quarterly coupon payments
- How levETH achieves "leverage without liquidation" through self-balancing protocols
- Why institutional adoption of Ethereum continues despite market sentiment fluctuations
- The relationship between bondETH and levETH in creating balanced risk profiles for different investors
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How programmable derivatives can bridge TradFi and DeFi by offering familiar financial products
And much more!
Ryan Galvankar is the founder of Plaza Finance, a platform built on Base that is specializing in programmable derivatives. With a background in electrical engineering and finance from the University of Pennsylvania, Ryan brings vast traditional finance experience from roles at Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Magnetar Capital, and Atalaya Capital Management, where he focused on structured credit and trading. As Plaza Finance's founder, Ryan is pioneering innovative DeFi solutions that bridge traditional finance with blockchain technology, creating products like bondETH and levETH
Episode
Highlights:
- [00:00:00] Bridging DeFi's Risk Spectrum
- [00:15:24] Understanding Programmable Derivatives
- [00:36:09] Bond ETH: A Bridge to Conservative Investors
- [00:46:04] LevETH: Sustainable Leverage Innovation
Previous guests include: Rusty Matveev, Chief Strategy Officer at Calaxy; Andrew Lawrence, CEO and Co-Founder of Censo; Zac Townsend, CEO and Co-Founder of Meanwhile; Jesper Johansen, CEO and Co-Founder of Northstake; Tama Churchouse, COO of Cumberland Labs; Holly Wood of Boson Protocol; Sid Powell of Maple Finance; Chad Barraford of THORChain; and many others.
Check out our three most downloaded episodes:
- Laying the Groundwork for a Billion-User Blockchain with Rich Rines, Contributor at Core DAO
- Staking the Future: From Blockchain Beginnings to Institutional Innovations with Chen Zhuling of RockX
- The Unstoppable Nature of Blockchain: A Conversation with Bonart Mati of Obligate
Attention all blockchain, crypto, and Web3 professionals! If you're a founder, CEO, or expert doing something innovative in this space, we're interested in speaking to you! Apply to be a guest on our platform and connect with our vibrant community of blockchain professionals: https://fame.so/nnt-guest
The Smart Economy Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at fame.so
