I sat down with Oliver from CMT Digital to discuss what they look for in crypto founders before investing. We covered their unique approach as both a trading firm and VC, the intersection of AI and blockchain, why stablecoins will win for micropayments, and Oliver's contrarian take that crypto DApps will become invisible. CMT has been in crypto for nearly a decade and manages four funds focused on pre-seed to Series A investments. If you're building in stablecoins, agentic payments, tokenization, or crypto infrastructure, this episode is packed with insights on what VCs actually want to see.

Key Points with timestamps

• [00:00] Introduction to CMT Digital and Oliver's role

• [00:04:25] What sets CMT Digital apart from other Web3 VCs

• [00:06:00] CMT's three pillars: trading, private equity, and venture

• [00:10:34] CMT focuses on pre-seed to Series A stage investments

• [00:11:10] What outlier founders do differently when approaching VCs

• [00:13:33] The intersection of AI agents and blockchain payments

• [00:16:00] Why agents will use both credit cards and stablecoins

• [00:17:07] Micropayments use case: paying fractions of a cent with stablecoins

• [00:20:00] Sam breaks down the 6% cost of Stripe vs. <0.03% with stablecoins

• [00:22:08] Trends in stablecoin adoption and tokenization of real world assets

• [00:25:44] Using blockchains in boring but inefficient industries

• [00:26:55] Founder anxiety about the fast pace of AI and crypto

• [00:29:26] Why SaaS moats are distribution and network effects, not tech

• [00:32:00] How CMT uses AI internally for deal sourcing and analysis

• [00:36:16] Oliver's contrarian opinion: crypto DApps will become invisible

• [00:39:26] Not every project needs a token - when tokens make sense

Connect

CMT Digital Website: https://cmtdigital.com

https://x.com/CMT_Digital

https://www.linkedin.com/company/cmt-digital-ltd

Be a guest on the podcast or contact us -

https://www.web3pod.xyz/

Disclaimer

Nothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research. It would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend.

I sat down with Mehdi Lebbar, founder of yo.xyz (Yo Labs), to talk about how they're revolutionizing yield in DeFi. After raising over $10 million, Mehdi and his team built the Exponential Risk Framework—the best predictor of DeFi pool safety in the world. Pools rated A or B have a 0% probability of losing your money. We dive into how they assess risk across protocols, chains, and assets, why AI agents aren't ready for serious financial products, and why crypto offers freedom that AI never will. Mehdi shares his journey from traditional finance at Credit Suisse and the World Bank to discovering Bitcoin as the ultimate inflation hedge. We also discuss how DeFi is giving the unbanked access to savings, why Dubai's 'bubble' moments create opportunity, and what's next for multi-chain vaults. If you care about making DeFi accessible, safe, and truly decentralized, this episode is for you.

Key Points with timestamps

• [01:31] How Mehdi discovered Bitcoin in 2017 as a levered inflation hedge for his portfolio• [05:03] The gap in DeFi yield: too complicated and too risky for most people• [06:22] Exponential Risk Framework: A and B rated pools have 0% probability of loss• [07:04] Mapping DeFi as a risk graph with 100+ questions per protocol• [10:05] Building protocol-agnostic, chain-agnostic vaults for seamless yield• [14:30] Why algorithms beat curators and AI black boxes in financial products• [19:42] Founder lesson: take the ego out, sustain pain, stay optimistic• [21:43] Why crypto empowers the many while AI empowers the powerful• [24:14] Crypto is freedom—AI is control• [26:23] Real stories: how crypto enabled financial freedom during Dubai tensions• [30:26] Yo.xyz roadmap: ubiquitous multi-chain vaults and vaults-as-a-service

Connect with YO

https://www.yo.xyz/

https://x.com/yield

https://t.me/yo_protocol

Disclaimer

Nothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research. It would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend.

Be a guest on the podcast or contact us - https://www.web3pod.xyz/

In this episode, I sit down with Renee Davis from OpenMatter to explore the intersection of AI agents and blockchain infrastructure. We discuss why 51% of internet traffic is already agents, the critical security vulnerabilities in tools like OpenClaw, and how multi-party computation (MPC) enables privacy-preserving machine learning. Renee explains why crypto is essential for the agent economy—hint: credit cards can't handle micro-transactions like a two-cent payment. We also dive into OpenMatter's three pillars: masked computing, MatterML, and DataVisor, plus what's coming in the next 12 months. If you're building with AI agents or curious about the convergence of Web3 and AI, this conversation is packed with insights.

--- CONNECT ---

OpenMatter: https://onboard.openmatter.network

--- KEY POINTS WITH TIMESTAMPS ---

• [01:42] Renee's journey from enterprise analytics to DAOs and AI

• [03:11] AI and NLP have been around for decades—longer than most realize

• [04:42] OpenMatter solves agent hosting, ZK safety checks, and output compliance

• [08:17] Multi-party computation (MPC) explained: collaborative computing without sharing raw data

• [10:08] 51% of internet traffic is already agents or bots

• [14:42] Why agents need crypto: credit cards can't do micro-transactions like X402 can

• [16:29] DataVisor: one-click agent deployment with OpenClaw, IronClaw, ZeroClaw templates

• [19:17] Security guardrails for agents are still underdeveloped

• [21:52] OpenMatter is built on lattice-based cryptography—post-quantum safe

• [24:35] AI startups are in a bubble; many hinge on token prices from Claude or OpenAI

• [28:03] Roadmap: mainnet launch, MPC updates, MatterML SDK release, and hackathons

---DISCLAIMER---

Nothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research. It would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend. Be a guest on the podcast or contact us - https://www.web3pod.xyz/