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Azura: Building an Onchain Brokerage
Azura built a unified application for trading across multiple blockchains from one interface. You can trade tokens across Solana, Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Blast, and more without jumping between wallets, bridges, and apps. Try it: app.azura.xyz
In this episode of High Bit, Initialized managing partner Brett Gibson talks with Jackson Denka, founder and CEO of Azura, about building an onchain trading platform that aims to feel more like a traditional brokerage while staying self-custodial. They dig into why crypto trading is still fragmented — and what Azura is doing about it.
Jackson explains why DeFi is powerful but still hard to use, what it takes to unify DEXs and bridges into a single trading experience, and why cross-chain execution is such a difficult technical problem. They also discuss why he believes value in crypto will accrue at the application layer, why Azura built more of its stack in-house, and what it would take for crypto to disappear into the backend.
Chapters:
(00:00) One venue for every asset
(00:46) What Azura builds
(01:07) Jackson’s origin story
(03:13) Why DeFi is hard to use
(05:39) Why the app layer wins
(09:23) Why onchain is next
(13:05) One app across chains
(15:45) Why this is so hard
(17:12) Cross-chain execution
(21:12) Hiring in DeFi
(22:36) App revenue and DEX growth
(25:44) Removing gas and networks
(27:01) Self-custody, simpler UX
(30:07) Building the stack in-house
(33:13) How Azura uses LLMs
(39:52) What’s next for Azura
Follow Jackson and Azura:
X
@jacksondenka
@AzuraTrade
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacksondenka/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/azuraxyz/
View all episodes
By Initialized CapitalAzura built a unified application for trading across multiple blockchains from one interface. You can trade tokens across Solana, Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Blast, and more without jumping between wallets, bridges, and apps. Try it: app.azura.xyz
In this episode of High Bit, Initialized managing partner Brett Gibson talks with Jackson Denka, founder and CEO of Azura, about building an onchain trading platform that aims to feel more like a traditional brokerage while staying self-custodial. They dig into why crypto trading is still fragmented — and what Azura is doing about it.
Jackson explains why DeFi is powerful but still hard to use, what it takes to unify DEXs and bridges into a single trading experience, and why cross-chain execution is such a difficult technical problem. They also discuss why he believes value in crypto will accrue at the application layer, why Azura built more of its stack in-house, and what it would take for crypto to disappear into the backend.
Chapters:
(00:00) One venue for every asset
(00:46) What Azura builds
(01:07) Jackson’s origin story
(03:13) Why DeFi is hard to use
(05:39) Why the app layer wins
(09:23) Why onchain is next
(13:05) One app across chains
(15:45) Why this is so hard
(17:12) Cross-chain execution
(21:12) Hiring in DeFi
(22:36) App revenue and DEX growth
(25:44) Removing gas and networks
(27:01) Self-custody, simpler UX
(30:07) Building the stack in-house
(33:13) How Azura uses LLMs
(39:52) What’s next for Azura
Follow Jackson and Azura:
X
@jacksondenka
@AzuraTrade
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacksondenka/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/azuraxyz/