Discover insights from DeFi Catalyst Accelerator’s Singapore leg, highlighting the journey of six innovative teams building on Etherlink to transform DeFi.

The Future of DeFi: Insights from DCA in Singapore

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Etherlink Community

6 min readMay 7, 2024

DeFi Catalyst Accelerator (DCA) recently concluded the first two weeks of its six-week program. Participants met in Singapore for immersive in-person sessions. During this time, they had the unique opportunity to connect with industry luminaries, mentors, and investors, forging collaborations to propel their DeFi projects to success.

At the heart of DCA’s mission lies a commitment to accelerating the development of groundbreaking projects on Etherlink, an EVM-compatible L2 rollup built on Tezos.

Six teams have been guided by a wealth of insights, resources, and mentorship, from design fundamentals to go-to-market strategies and growth tactics.

The six DeFi innovators taking part in DCA are:

Hashleap: Web3 payments and financial management platform
Rivo: DeFi yield marketplace with smart contract wallet
SaveX: Self-custody Web3 wallet
Plend: Building 1inch for lending and borrowing in the EVM space
Hanji: On-chain order book trading
StableTech: Consortium building open Tezos DeFi

Join us as we unravel the highlights of DCA’s Singapore leg.

Setting the stage: plans and expectations

At the beginning of the event, participants shared their aspirations for DCA and their plans to build on Etherlink.

Plend shared their journey as Tezos natives and their excitement about building on Etherlink. They plan to create a lending and borrowing platform that resonates with the broader DeFi landscape, promising optimization across different chains. During DCA, their goal is to enhance adoption and networking in the Asian ecosystem and receive face-to-face feedback from industry experts.

Hashleap aims to simplify crypto payments for Web3 businesses and freelancers, leveraging fast transaction finalization and lower fees to deliver seamless payment experiences. Hashleap’s founder, Nasir Jamal, explained his goal for the event:

“We want to use this time to learn from the experience of the Tezos ecosystem experts to build and relaunch our app. Getting help on go-to-market and user feedback is one of our main objectives, especially since we will be coming out of the private beta towards the end of the accelerator.”

Rivo, a self-custodial mobile app designed for passive income, stands out with its innovative approach. Connecting users directly to high-yield DeFi protocols aims to democratize access to crypto passive income while ensuring non-custodial security. Iaskov, Rivo’s chief DeFi officer, explained why they’re building on Etherlink.

“The combination of EVM infrastructure, 200 ms transactions, and the lowest gas fees allows for the creation of retail applications that mimic traditional fintech experiences without gas fees and transaction execution delays. Our goal is to abstract all the complexity of building decentralized passive income, and Etherlink aligns with this vision.”

SaveX provides an on-chain neobank for underbanked populations in the US and Latin America. Leveraging Etherlink’s speed and low fees, it promises its users safer, faster, and more flexible money movement solutions. SaveX’s founder, Igor Khmel, noted the benefits of participating in DCA:

“There is a lot of help from the acceleration program to tweak the interface, build tokenomics, create all required DeFi integrations and pitch the new product to VC to deliver and scale the product across the globe.”

Week 1: Charting new territories

The accelerator started with welcome drinks and pizza, creating a friendly atmosphere to build connections for future collaborations. The startups dived headfirst into a series of workshops and masterclasses tailored to equip them for the journey ahead:

Security-first design, led by blockchain security experts from Nethermind.
Solving the ‘cold start’ problem for early-stage startups, led by TZ APAC resident growth hacker and Fortify Labs mentor Julian Low.
Developing DeFi solutions focused on using the latest and most advanced methods with Trilitech’s head of DeFi, Nicolas Streschinsky, and his team.
During a roundtable on ‘The Importance of Liquidity and Market Making,’ GSR’s managing director, CJ Fong, discussed the most effective ways to engage with major market makers.
Wilbert Johan, Web3 strategy and partnerships lead at Helix shared his experience building the DeFi community in Singapore.

In addition to group workshops, each project received personalized support and tailored assistance, including rapid audits and strategic guidance on future trajectories.

Quick audits: Swiftly identifying potential weaknesses to ensure that projects are built on solid foundations.
Guidance on OKRs and future strategies: Julian Low introduced the concept of north-star metrics, emphasized the importance of setting powerful yet realistic goals, and offered individualized support.
UI/UX and design support: Navi Arneja, a UX designer at Cryptonomic, provided UI/UX and design support, providing expert-led sessions followed by one-on-one reviews.
Security and infrastructure assessments: including advice on best practices.

During their breaks, the startups worked on their projects and attended events that drew prominent figures within the industry, including the ESG Web3 Startup Ecosystem hosted by SMU, a leading university in Singapore.

To conclude a week of events, sessions, and discussions, each team pitched their ideas to investors at an extended breakfast hosted by GSR.

Week 2: Amplifying growth strategies

As they developed and refined their projects, the second week focused on fortifying foundations, refining investment propositions, and amplifying growth strategies, spearheaded by Trilitech’s head of VC, Amar Odedra.

Workshop sessions delved into diverse facets of DeFi, UI/UX design, tokenomics, and platform gamification, supplemented by invaluable one-on-one support from industry experts and community advisors.

Design support

Phil Hedayatnia, founder of Airfoil Studio, focused on the importance of user-centric design and advocated for seamless user experiences as the cornerstone of DeFi platforms.
Lisa JY Tan from Economics Design demystified tokenomics and economic design, paving the way for robust economic models.
Trilitech product designer Bahador Katouzian led workshops on improving UI/UX design, focusing on user flows and interfaces.

GTM strategies and growth tactics

Ivan Hong, content lead at Request Finance, led a masterclass on content-led growth strategies, empowering startups with actionable insights for early-stage traction.
Julian Low returned to lead a session on customer acquisition and growth hacking.

DeFi GTM and growth strategies sessions with:

Demex, CJ (Ho Chang Jun), Chief Strategy Officer, Demex and Switcheo Labs
Jason Thompson, Senior Advisor to Openspace Ventures
Dr. Ernie Teo, Program Director, Nanyang Business School
Trilitech’s talent lead, Craig Law, discussed strategic partnerships and hiring strategies to create formidable startups that support growth.
Taisu Ventures extended its support by offering office hours and mentorship.

DCA’s first two weeks in Singapore concluded with networking at a VC dinner, facilitating connections between the startups and investors. This was followed by an overview of Etherlink’s roadmap and the positive growth of the ecosystem to set the stage for the weeks ahead.

The DCA program continues

After completing a rigorous and hands-on in-person component in Singapore, DCA continues with four weeks of remote workshops and specialized support.

Thanks to the valuable expertise of everyone involved, these DeFi innovators continue to move closer to delivering a minimum viable product for their projects.

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