Today Sam sits down with Turtle Club CTO Nick Thoma for the first deep dive on how the project has quietly brokered nearly a billion dollars in liquidity for new chains and DeFi apps. Nick explains the brokerage model, the tooling that keeps funds non-custodial, and why a background in NASA robotics shaped his approach to yield markets. If you build protocols, need TVL, or manage capital, this conversation is for you.

Timestamps
00:00 Intro, Squid contributor rewards, Substack plug
01:00 Meet Nick Thoma, robotics to crypto in one jump
02:45 How Turtle tracked a billion in TVL before anyone noticed
11:00 Vaults, boost deals, and the two-track product line
18:15 Pricing yield, risk scoring, and market-rate expectations
24:30 Using Veda vaults and Merkle rewards to stay non-custodial
27:20 Treasury strategy, revenue, and upcoming token launch
32:10 AI agents, account abstraction, and the next five years of DeFi UX
41:30 Advice for builders seeking efficient liquidity
43:30 Where to find Turtle Club and Leviathan News

Links from the show
• Turtle Club: https://turtle.club
• Leviathan News Substack: https://leviathannews.substack.com
• Squid on Fraxtal: https://app.frax.com
• Nick Thoma on X: https://x.com/nickjtoma

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Billion-Dollar Liquidity: Inside Turtle Club’s Rapid Rise with Nick Thoma