My next guest has written books about two important crypto hubs — Hong Kong and now the UAE. He is also the CEO of the dYdX Foundation, one of crypto's biggest DeFi derivatives protocols. Welcome to the show, Charles d'Haussy.
Thanks for having me. Very excited to be here.
What is the dYdX Foundation, and what is the mission for the protocol?
The idea is a decentralised finance protocol focusing on crypto derivatives. It started in 2021 and has been growing ever since — with a cumulative trading volume of $1.5 trillion. The ambitions of dYdX are to keep producing innovations in the world of derivatives. Initially the assets traded were crypto — Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana. But now real world assets, what we call RWAs, are also tokenised on blockchain and offered for traders to express their views — going long or short. They can now trade indices like the S&P 500, and individual securities like Tesla or SpaceX.
How has the protocol navigated the volatility we have seen in crypto markets?
Being diversified into real world assets and tokenised securities has helped. The technical challenge of launching new markets like securities is about getting the right price feed and integrating traditional markets into the decentralised market. But out of that technical challenge comes innovation. One thing the public may not know — when you trade on traditional capital markets, you trade from 9 to 5, five days a week. What crypto and DeFi bring is continuous trading opportunity 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You can trade commodities and securities over the weekend. That is a real value that traditional markets cannot yet deliver.
How is AI converging with crypto, and how are they enhancing each other?
The convergence is really interesting. There was a period of mistrust in crypto. Now, with AI, similar questions are coming up — which LLMs do you use from which geographies, should you put all your eggs in one basket behind one company, what data is used? It is a new opportunity for cryptography and crypto platforms to bring trust into the AI opportunity through encryption, small transactions, and tokenised assets. The same trust problems that crypto had to solve are now emerging for AI. That is the new wave — and the convergence of crypto and AI is an opportunity for both.
You wrote Block Kong about Hong Kong's blockchain ecosystem. What was the impetus for your UAE book, The Arabian Crypto Story?
After leaving the Hong Kong government, where I was head of fintech, I decided to document the crypto industry there. When I moved to the UAE, everyone was asking me — how is it, tell me more. So we put together an executive and entrepreneur guide for people thinking about the UAE — 15 different interviews with regulators, entrepreneurs, lawyers, and headhunters, covering as much of the industry as possible to give a snapshot of who is here and how they grew their business in the UAE.
Charles, thank you so much for coming on today.
