From: thepipeline_xyz
This episode features Sushan and Terry from Pike Finance, providing insights into the project’s origins, core functionalities, and the backgrounds of its key team members [00:00:06]. The discussion also highlights the strong synergy between the Monad and Pike communities [00:00:37].
What is Pike Finance?
Pike Finance is a cross-chain lending market [00:06:38]. Its primary goal is to unify liquidity across various DeFi ecosystems, including EVM chains like Ethereum, Optimism, and Monad, as well as non-EVM ecosystems such as Solana, IBC/Cosmos, and Move power chains like Aptos and Sui [00:06:48]. Pike’s tagline is “a universal liquidity protocol” [00:07:09].
Instead of using bridges for cross-chain functionality, Pike leverages cross-chain messaging, specifically Wormhole messaging [00:07:36]. This means assets are not sent between chains; rather, messages confirm deposits on one chain to enable borrowing on another [00:07:47]. Pike exclusively deals with native assets, aiming to eliminate the complexities of bridged or derivative tokens (e.g., LP tokens, receipt tokens) to simplify the user experience for a broader audience [00:08:21].
Nuts Finance: The Development Studio
Nuts Finance is the development lab and studio behind Pike Finance [00:04:54]. Since 2018, Nuts Finance has built and launched multiple DeFi protocols across various ecosystems, including EVM and non-EVM chains [00:05:01]. Their thesis has always been that no single chain will dominate, leading them to build in interoperable environments like Polkadot [00:05:26].
Guest Backgrounds
Sushan
Sushan’s background includes several years as a startup founder, which fostered his entrepreneurial spirit and enjoyment for building products from ideation to completion [00:01:23]. He also consulted for startups and had DeFi as a hobby, appreciating its unique community and culture [00:01:36].
He participated in the 2017 bull run but became a significant enthusiast during “DeFi Summer” (2020) [00:01:50]. Sushan was particularly drawn to the Polkadot ecosystem due to its focus on interoperability [00:01:59]. He secured a job at a Polkadot parachain, where he met Terry [00:02:13]. His admiration for the Nuts Finance team (Terry, Daniel, and others) led him to join Pike, where he has been for almost 18 months [00:02:29].
Terry
Terry entered the crypto space in late 2017/early 2018 [00:03:02]. His initial exposure came from his previous startup, a margin FX trading platform, where users began requesting crypto pairs [00:03:09]. After selling his first startup, he decided to dive full-time into crypto [00:04:01].
His personal background is in finance; he started his career doing bond ratings and worked in various countries including Canada, the US, and Asia [00:04:17]. Upon returning to Asia, he met his co-founder Daniel in early 2018 [00:04:33]. Together, they developed their vision for Nuts Finance, focusing on how blockchain could enhance financial applications [00:04:41]. Their initial venture included building the first DeFi protocol on top of Acala in the Polkadot ecosystem [00:05:37].
Pike Finance’s Commitment to Monad
Pike Finance made an early commitment to supporting Monad, which was notable given Monad’s early stage of blockchain maturity (not yet live on testnet or mainnet) [00:09:51]. The primary reason for this early embrace is Monad’s focus on performance and cost [00:10:31].
Pike recognized Solana’s success in demonstrating that users prioritize performance and low fees, despite its monolithic nature and friction in user adoption [00:11:24]. Monad, however, uniquely combines the performance and low fees of Solana with the familiarity and liquidity of the EVM ecosystem, offering a consistent user experience with tools like MetaMask and ease of development akin to Ethereum [00:13:29]. This blend led Pike to believe Monad has the potential to be a significant winner in the future [00:14:31].
Mainnet Launch and User Adoption
Pike Finance launched its mainnet on February 1st [00:16:03]. This was a capped launch to allow for stress testing and to ensure the reliability of building on arbitrary message bridges (AMBs), which is still a very new technology [00:16:10].
Key metrics from the first five days of the capped launch include:
- Close to 4,000 unique wallet counts [00:17:02].
- Strong interest from users genuinely keen on trying native cross-chain applications [00:17:32].
- Pike utilizes a hub and spoke model, with current spoke chains including Ethereum mainnet, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base [00:17:49].
- Arbitrum has registered the most cross-chain messages, followed by Optimism and then Base, reflecting the existing DeFi activity in these networks [00:18:10].
- Liquidity is observed flowing freely between Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base, demonstrating the “universal liquidity protocol” thesis [00:19:00].
The Power of Community
Pike Finance views community as a reflection of how the project treats its members [00:35:16]. They prioritize fostering genuine connections and meaningful conversations over vanity metrics like high follower counts or easily botted engagement [00:35:09].
A significant example of this is the Pike NFT project, which was entirely community-driven from its inception [00:20:51]. A community member named Mojo initiated the project, seeking feedback and ideas from others to create the “Pikneans” collection [00:21:40]. This project became a symbol of identity and belonging for the community, with members creating diverse content like memes, art, songs, and even nail art featuring the Pike logo [00:22:21]. The team supports and amplifies these community efforts while respecting their organic, independent nature [00:23:03].
The long-term strategy for community building involves:
- Doing things that don’t scale: Focusing on meaningful conversations even with a small group of early users to entice more participation [00:28:19].
- Maintaining quality: Ensuring the community remains a place for genuine discussion, free from bots or short-term farmers [00:30:34].
- Empowering community content: The community’s organic creation of content (memes, art, music) helps keep Pike top-of-mind for users without the team resorting to spamming promotional material [00:32:09].
- Adopting community lore: Embracing internal jokes and symbols (like the “Mandak” hedgehog or Keone memes for Monad) allows the community to shape the project’s culture organically [00:36:31].
This community-first approach fosters a loyal fan base and aligns users who genuinely care about the project and DeFi [00:33:34].
Future Roadmap and Developments
Short-Term (March)
- Uncap Supply: The next immediate milestone is to uncapped the supply on the mainnet, which requires diligent work internally and with security partners [00:43:50].
Mid-Term
- New Asset Support: Exploring support for new asset types like LSTs (Liquid Staking Tokens) and LRTs (Liquid Restaking Tokens) [00:44:48]. This includes anticipating the expansion of LSTs/LRTs beyond Ethereum to other ecosystems [00:45:01].
- Monad as a Hub: Leveraging Monad’s high-performing EVM as a potential hub to connect liquidity with other chains [00:45:20]. This aspect of the roadmap depends heavily on Monad’s development schedule [00:45:51].
Long-Term
- Cross-Chain Governance: As arbitrary message bridges (AMBs) become more robust and more dApps build on them, there will be a growing need for efficient governance across multiple chains [00:46:05]. Pike aims to develop solutions for cross-chain governance to minimize overhead while maximizing participation across all chains where Pike is deployed [00:46:59]. The goal is to create a “melting pot” concept that extends beyond liquidity to community and governance participation [00:47:25].
Final Alpha
Terry’s final advice includes two key points:
- Identify Teams That Last Through Cycles: When looking for projects to invest in or partners to work with, prioritize teams that have continued building through multiple crypto cycles, regardless of past success [00:50:01]. These teams tend to consistently improve their product and community building [00:50:49].
- Talk to Young People: Engage with younger generations to gain insights, as they often process information quickly and can provide valuable perspectives, even if unrelated to crypto [00:51:22].
Sushan’s final advice is to not “fade” Base: He believes Base will be a significant vehicle for millions of people familiar with traditional finance (e.g., Coinbase users) to enter the on-chain world [00:53:36]. Coinbase’s efforts in improving UX and positioning itself as a brand focused on financial freedom for future generations suggest Base will play a crucial role, particularly in North America [00:52:48]. This aligns with the broader theme of creating financial opportunities and financial freedom and rights for a wider audience.