Billion-Dollar Liquidity: Inside Turtle Club’s Rapid Rise with Nick Thoma

Today Sam sits down with Turtle Club CTO Nick Thoma for the first deep dive on how the project has quietly brokered nearly a billion dollars in liquidity for new chains and DeFi apps. Nick explains the brokerage model, the tooling that keeps funds non-custodial, and why a background in NASA robotics shaped his approach to yield markets. If you build protocols, need TVL, or manage capital, this conversation is for you.

Timestamps
00:00 Intro, Squid contributor rewards, Substack plug
01:00 Meet Nick Thoma, robotics to crypto in one jump
02:45 How Turtle tracked a billion in TVL before anyone noticed
11:00 Vaults, boost deals, and the two-track product line
18:15 Pricing yield, risk scoring, and market-rate expectations
24:30 Using Veda vaults and Merkle rewards to stay non-custodial
27:20 Treasury strategy, revenue, and upcoming token launch
32:10 AI agents, account abstraction, and the next five years of DeFi UX
41:30 Advice for builders seeking efficient liquidity
43:30 Where to find Turtle Club and Leviathan News

Links from the show
• Turtle Club: https://turtle.club
• Leviathan News Substack: https://leviathannews.substack.com
• Squid on Fraxtal: https://app.frax.com
• Nick Thoma on X: https://x.com/nickjtoma

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