Ben Lakoff and Arnav Pagidyala from Bankless Ventures lay out how they’re thinking about crypto investing heading into 2026.
The conversation spans four persistent pillars of every cycle: DeFi, tokenization, capital formation, and speculation and how each is evolving as crypto matures.
Topics include the next wave of on-chain lending, equity perps, DeFi neobanks, verticalized tokenization platforms, compliant ICOs, prediction and opinion markets, and where AI agents may reshape crypto-native finance.
A candid look at what’s investable now, what’s changing, and how Bankless Ventures is underwriting the next cycle.
------
📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24
https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium
------
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:
🔵COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS
https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow
🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, & EARN
https://bankless.cc/fraxnet
🦄UNISWAP | CONTINUOUS CLEARING AUCTIONS
https://bankless.cc/uniswap-cca
🛞MANTLE | GLOBAL HACKATHON 2025
https://bankless.cc/mantle-hackathon
💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP
https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep
------
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
11:59 DeFi
36:20 Tokenization
50:25 Capital Formation
1:00:44 Speculation Markets
1:09:58 AI
1:13:26 Founders & Teams
1:15:31 Closing & Disclaimers
------
RESOURCES
Ben Lakoff
https://x.com/benlakoff
Arnav
https://x.com/0xArnav
Bankless Ventures
https://x.com/banklessvc
------
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
