Building a Better Bank: Vikram on Why Crypto Keeps Rebuilding Broken Finance In this episode of DROPS, I sit down with @vik_runa, co-founder of @superformxyz and former DeFi portfolio manager at BlockTower, to discuss why most people lose money in crypto, how the industry has repeated many of the same mistakes as traditional finance, and what it would actually take to build financial products normal people can trust and use. At the centre of the conversation is a simple but ambitious idea: crypto was meant to give people more control over their money, but too often it has recreated the same custodial systems it claimed it would replace. From Fund Manager To Founder Before building Superform, Vikram was managing DeFi strategies at BlockTower during one of the most intense periods in crypto’s history. It gave him a clear view of a harder truth: most people in crypto are not actually winning. Speculation brought attention to the space, but it did not create durable outcomes for most participants. Traders chased new coins, NFTs, and perpetual opportunities, yet very few walked away with lasting gains. That realisation shaped Vikram’s transition from trading to building. He stopped trading entirely after leaving the fund and says it was one of the best things he did for his mental health. That shift matters because it reframed what he wanted crypto to do. He was no longer interested in merely surviving cycles. He wanted to help build something useful, something that could turn speculative energy into real financial infrastructure. Why Retail Traders Are Set Up To Lose One of Vikram’s clearest points in the episode is that crypto trading has become much harder for the average person. In earlier years, there were moments when retail traders could find opportunities that institutions missed. Today, he argues, that edge has narrowed sharply. Information is uneven, structural advantages are more concentrated, and many traders are effectively competing against players with better access, better systems, and better timing. “There’s no edge anymore,” he says. “There are people out there that have information that they’re trading against you.” That leads to one of the most practical lessons from the episode. Vikram no longer believes most retail users should be trading at all. His view is that many would be better served by using DeFi for yield and long-term positioning rather than trying to outplay a market that has become structurally harder to beat. It is a much less glamorous answer than the usual crypto promise, but probably a more honest one. The Real Problem: Crypto Rebuilt The Same Old System What makes Vikram interesting is that his critique does not stop at trading. He sees the deeper problem as infrastructural. Banks, in his view, failed people by controlling their money and keeping most of the upside for themselves. Fintech improved the interface, but not the core structure. It made banking feel smoother without changing the fact that users still depended on intermediaries. “Banks have failed us,” he says. “Fintech realised banks had bad UX, but they built the same platform on top of broken infrastructure.” Crypto was supposed to fix that. Instead, much of the industry rebuilt the same dependency through centralised exchanges and custodial platforms. FTX and Celsius became the clearest examples of what happens when users are shown attractive yields without actually controlling their assets. The rates were real, but the custody risk was hidden. That is the gap Superform is trying to address. Vikram describes it in very simple terms: “We’re building a better bank.” Not a prettier wrapper on top of old rails, but a financial layer where users can access onchain yield with transparency and self-custody. Why He Left A $150 Million Seat The most human part of the episode comes when Vikram reflects on leaving a stable investing role to start building. At the time, he was stepping away from a position managing a large DeFi portfolio at a moment when crypto still looked full of opportunity. It was not an easy leap. But he describes it as the moment he chose to enter the arena rather than stay on the sidelines. He was 25, the DeFi ecosystem was expanding rapidly, and there was a sense that if he wanted to build, that was the time to do it. He is also very clear that building is harder than investing. As an investor, you can go deep on a narrower set of conditionals. As a founder, you need product sense, sales ability, strategy, communication, and emotional resilience all at once. Making Defi Usable For Normal People A key part of that solution is usability. Vikram explains that Superform first started as a yield marketplace, but the team quickly realised that they had misunderstood the market. Native crypto users mostly wanted higher yields. The bigger opportunity was people in between Web2 and Web3, users who had heard the crypto promise, had often been failed by fintech or traditional finance, but still found onchain products too intimidating to use. That is who he calls the “Web 2.5” user. Instead of manually moving funds between many DeFi protocols and blockchains, Superform lets these users deposit crypto, automatically route it to yield opportunities, earn returns, and still keep self-custody of their assets. All from one interface. If DeFi is ever going to matter at scale, it has to feel safe, understandable, and emotionally usable. Vikram talks about this in terms of psychological safety. People want to know where their money is. They want clarity before they want complexity. That is also why branding comes up in the conversation. If DeFi remains cold, abstract, and intimidating, it will keep preaching to the same small group of insiders. If it wants broader adoption, it has to become more approachable without losing transparency. More Than Technology For Vikram, crypto is not just a technical improvement. It is part of a larger shift around ownership, control, and trust. “The future is bright,” he says. The reason he still sounds optimistic, despite all the failures he describes, is that he believes this moment has made the need for better systems more obvious. 👉If you enjoyed reading the summary, head over to When Shift Happens on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform to access the full convo.

E162: @coingecko: How CoinGecko became crypto's most trusted data layer @bobbyong is the co-founder and CEO of CoinGecko - the data backbone of the crypto industry, bootstrapped with $200 and now rumoured to be worth $500M. We get into the CoinMarketCap vs CoinGecko debate, a failed NFT acquisition, and the sale rumour he can't fully deny. Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 5:10 What is CoinGecko? 13:35 Partnerships: @JupiterExchange @KASTxyz @sumsub 23:58 What’s the deal with Pudgy Penguins? 30:25 Partnerships: @Trezor @BitwiseInvest @SuiNetwork 34:00 Don’t Chase Fast Cash 40:41 The Most Painful Moment of CoinGecko 50:20 Explain CoinGecko To Your Mom 1:08:08 What’s The Playbook To Survive the Cycle 1:16:01 Why Stay in Malaysia? 1:24:00 Is being #2 Frustrating or Motivating? 1:27:17 CoinMarketCap vs CoinGecko 1:30:00 Why Your Big Bet Didn’t Work Out 1:35:00 Red Flags in Acquisitions 1:38:00 CoinGecko Being Sold For $500M Rumor 1:39:00 When Is The Right Moment to Sell?

In an industry full of short term thinkers, just doing what you said you would do puts you ahead of 99% of people. Warren Buffett said it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. Crypto compresses everything - the gains, the losses, the cycles - but that same rule applies says @bobbyong from @coingecko Podcast out this week!