From Wall Street to Web3: How Plaza Finance is Bringing TradFi Sophistication to DeFi
June 5, 2025
In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Ryan Galvankar, the founder of Plaza Finance, a platform built on Base that is specializing in programmable derivatives. Together, they discuss how Plaza's innovative bond and leverage products are making sophisticated financial instruments accessible on-chain.
In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Ryan Galvankar, the founder of Plaza Finance, a platform built on Base that is specializing in programmable derivatives.
What you’ll learn:
- How traditional finance expertise shaped Plaza's approach to building decentralized derivatives
- Why Base was chosen as the L2 solution for Plaza's products
- The mechanics behind bondETH's stable 10% annual yield through quarterly coupon payments
- How levETH achieves "leverage without liquidation" through self-balancing protocols
- Why institutional adoption of Ethereum continues despite market sentiment fluctuations
- The relationship between bondETH and levETH in creating balanced risk profiles for different investors
- How programmable derivatives can bridge TradFi and DeFi by offering familiar financial products
And much more!
Ryan Galvankar is the founder of Plaza Finance, a platform built on Base that is specializing in programmable derivatives. With a background in electrical engineering and finance from the University of Pennsylvania, Ryan brings vast traditional finance experience from roles at Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Magnetar Capital, and Atalaya Capital Management, where he focused on structured credit and trading. As Plaza Finance's founder, Ryan is pioneering innovative DeFi solutions that bridge traditional finance with blockchain technology, aiming to minimize liquidation risk in its structured leveraged products bondETH and levETH.
Episode Highlights:
- [00:00:00] Bridging DeFi's Risk Spectrum
- [00:15:24] Understanding Programmable Derivatives
- [00:36:09] Bond ETH: A Bridge to Conservative Investors
- [00:46:04] LevETH: Sustainable Leverage Innovation
Did you enjoy this episode? Check out these other great guests:
- Tomasz Stańczak - Ethereum Foundation
- David Hoffman - Bankless
- Fisher Yu - Babylon Labs
- Alexei Zamyatin - BOB
- Sid Powell - Maple Finance
And many others!
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