Graham Nelson leads DeFi at Centrifuge, the tokenization protocol bringing real-world assets from institutional managers like Janus Henderson, S&P Dow Jones Indices, and Apollo onchain. With a TradFi banking background before entering crypto in 2016, he's spent nearly a decade bridging traditional finance and DeFi infrastructure.
RWAs flopped in 2017. They're scaling now in 2026. Graham breaks down what changed and where institutional capital flows next.
In this conversation, we cover:
→ How TradFi banking shaped Graham's approach to risk, security, and compliance in DeFi
→ Why RWAs are gaining traction now when the same thesis failed in 2017
→ How Centrifuge works: from asset tokenization to DeFi composability
→ The looping debate — is leverage healthy capital efficiency or dangerous hidden risk
→ What institutional allocators need from DeFi infrastructure before deploying capital
→ The next unlock in tokenized assets and why fintech neobanks will act like bank credit teams
→ What DeFi needs to prove for 10x growth: security, simplicity, and institutional-grade risk management
DIA deployed a Proof of Reserves oracle for tokenised GBP (tGBP), a top 5 non-USD stablecoin backed 1:1 by GBP reserves held with regulated UK banking partners.
What we built:
An oracle that prices tGBP from its actual reserve backing rather than from thin secondary market trades. When tGBP is fully backed, the feed reads 1.00. When reserves fall short, it discounts immediately and proportionally.
Why it matters:
tGBP has £20M in market cap but only £6M in monthly trading volume. Pricing from thin Coinbase and Kraken prints doesn't reflect the issuer's actual obligation, which is reserve adequacy.
This feed gives protocols the data they need to accept tGBP as institutional collateral. Reserve-backed pricing unlocks DeFi integration for regulated stablecoins.
The feed is live on Ethereum, with expansion planned to the five other chains where tGBP is deployed.
Dan Anthony leads growth at Pendle Finance, the protocol that controls over 50% of DeFi's yield trading market with zero meaningful competitors. After 10 years building automation systems at Schneider Electric, he joined Pendle early and scaled it from under $300M TVL in early 2024 to over $13B peak by September 2025.
When Element Finance and Yield Protocol shut down, Pendle became the only protocol to successfully scale yield tokenization at institutional size. Dan breaks down the journey to $1B+ TVL, the Kelp validator-spoof hack, and building toward TradFi's trillion-dollar interest rate swap market.
In this conversation, we cover:
→ The path from early struggles to finding product-market fit in the LRT points meta
→ Universal limit orders enabling $10M+ swaps with minimal slippage on Pendle
→ Inside the Kelp hack: validator-spoof attack and what it reveals about bridge security
→ Boros — bringing TradFi's interest rate swap market onchain, including -600% funding rate trades
→ Why Pendle killed vePendle and what it reveals about institutional onboarding challenges
→ How Pendle fits into vault infrastructure with PT looping on Morpho and Aave
→ RWAs, institutional capital, and why regulatory clarity matters