What if privacy could unlock the next wave of institutional adoption in decentralized finance? In this episode, host Joao Simoes sits down with Chandler De Kock, cofounder and CEO of Silhouette Exchange, to explore why privacy matters in on-chain trading, how Silhouette is bringing confidential order flow to Hyperliquid, and the key strategies reshaping DeFi infrastructure in 2026. Whether you're a trader protecting your alpha, an institution seeking compliant on-chain access, or a builder exploring the future of decentralized markets, this conversation is packed with insights on bridging TradFi and crypto, the rise of commoditized perp instruments, and the unsexy plumbing that will drive massive liquidity growth. Tune in to discover how the next generation of DeFi infrastructure is being built and why Hyperliquid is becoming the epicenter of it all.
What You'll Learn:

• Why privacy in DeFi isn't about secrecy, it's about market efficiency.
• How Africa and emerging markets are becoming critical indicators for crypto adoption.
• The Lego-block approach to DeFi infrastructure. 
• How to evaluate which blockchain ecosystem to build on based on builder culture, not just TVL.
• The emerging role of decentralized RFQs, icebergs, and conditional orders in institutional adoption. 
• Which market trends will drive DeFi adoption in 2026 beyond hype cycles. 

Chandler De Kock is the Cofounder and CEO of Silhouette Exchange, a privacy-focused trading platform built on Hyperliquid that enables institutional-grade trading without exposing order flow to the broader market. With over a decade of experience in crypto since 2015, De Kock has built critical infrastructure across emerging markets at LUNA (formerly BITEX), where he spearheaded payments integration for underbanked regions in South Africa, Nigeria, and Malaysia. His deep expertise spans DeFi primitives, institutional adoption barriers, and the intersection of traditional finance and blockchain infrastructure. In this episode, De Kock explores how privacy mechanisms can unlock institutional capital and real-world use cases in decentralized exchanges, addressing a critical pain point for sophisticated traders and portfolio managers seeking to execute strategies without algorithmic front-running or copy-trading exploitation. His insights on Hyperliquid's ecosystem, the emerging infrastructure stack connecting TradFi to on-chain liquidity, and market trends for 2026, particularly stablecoins and commoditized instruments - provide actionable perspective for DeFi builders and traders looking to position themselves at the intersection of institutional finance and decentralized infrastructure. De Kock's work represents the next frontier in making blockchain-native financial systems competitive with traditional markets by solving the unglamorous but essential "boring plumbing" that institutions require.

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