It’s not every day you meet a founder who left an 18-year career on Wall Street to chase yield-bearing crypto tokens across Layer 1 and Layer 2 chains. But Kartik Swaminathan, founder of Demether and the mind behind Rolling Thunder Labs, isn’t your typical DeFi builder.
When we sit down to talk, Kartik brings a deep understanding of what it takes to extract value from the world of decentralized technologies. He has a clarity when explaining his vision that only comes from having spent years on both sides of the fintech world. After a long time learning the moves of Wall Street he is now deep inside the Web3 frontier.
“I was seduced by the dark side,” he laughs, referencing his early days at Goldman Sachs. “But after nearly two decades in investment banking, I was ready for something fundamentally different.”
The Animoca Epiphany
That something came in the form of an unplanned meeting with Robbie Young, CEO of Animoca Brands. “It was meant to be a routine finance call,” says Swaminathan, “but Robbie blew my mind.” The idea of applying blockchain to gaming was new and made a lot of sense.
What followed was a pursuit that he describes as "three years of professional FOMO." Eventually, he stopped chasing and joined the company, where he got a rare front-row seat to the mechanics of early Web3 innovation. During his time with Animoca he wore many hats, helping venture operations, M&A, portfolio management and leading the blockchain initiatives. He helped to dissect hundreds of projects, identifying patterns in terms of what worked and what didn’t work.
“There are two kinds of founders in this space,” he says. “Technically brilliant, and commercially sharp. The magic happens when you can be both.”
Unfortunately, too many builders lean into the “build it and they will come” fallacy. “They think technical superiority alone is enough. It’s not. Distribution, community, and strategic capital are just as critical.”
This realization shaped the thesis for Demether, a new protocol designed to plug the most overlooked holes in today’s blockchain economies.
Fixing Fragmentation, Fueling Ecosystems
Demether is a B2B2C protocol with a bold aim to bridge capital, users, and yield across fragmented chains. “It’s a liquidity and activity bootstrapper,” says Swaminathan. “We help Layer 1s and Layer 2s attract and retain users and TVL by giving them what people crave, yield.”
At the heart of Demether’s offering are yield-bearing tokens, demETH and demSOL, built on LayerZero’s OFT-20 standard. This omni-chain architecture allows frictionless movement across ecosystems like Ethereum, Solana, Taiko, and Arbitrum.
“Capital is like water,” Swaminathan says. “It flows to where the yield is. But until now, the industry hasn’t made it easy for that flow to be seamless or sticky. That’s where we come in.”
Security is A 3D Responsibility
Of course, in the world of DeFi, where bridge hacks and exploits have cost billions, security is non-negotiable. Swaminathan’s approach is refreshingly structured.
“We think of it in 3D, combining battle-tested infrastructure, top-tier audit partners like Resonance Security, and constant real-time monitoring.” “From the very beginning, we knew that security had to be multidimensional,” says Swaminathan . “It’s not just about audits anymore. It’s about ongoing threat detection, protocol tempering, and having battle-tested partners who understand the full landscape.”
That’s why Demether partnered with Resonance Security, one of the most respected firms in blockchain security today.
“Resonance doesn’t just audit smart contracts. They think like hackers, builders, like defenders,” Swaminathan says. “We’d worked with many of the team members back at Animoca. I’d seen firsthand how deep their expertise runs, not just across infrastructure, but also in bridging, staking, NFTs, and DeFi.”
It’s an especially important consideration when you’re building on LayerZero, a leading cross-chain protocol that underpins Demether’s omni-chain OFT-20 tokens.
“In a bridging environment, you’re only as strong as your weakest link. One bad contract, one overlooked vulnerability, and you could trigger a multi-chain disaster. ”
As someone who’s seen the collapse of projects from both inside and out, Kartik knows the knock-on effects of a single vulnerability can ripple across the ecosystem. “In crypto, we build Lego blocks. If one breaks, the whole tower can fall, ”says Kartik.
A New Wave of Synthetic Dollars and AI-Native Interfaces
In the short term, Demether is laser-focused on completing a critical piece of infrastructure, withdrawals for their core products. But the team is also preparing to launch demUSD, a synthetic stablecoin built in partnership with heavyweights like Usual and M0.
On a longer horizon? Swaminathan sees AI as a non-optional evolution. “Like the internet after 2000, AI won’t be a feature, it will be the foundation,” he says. “We’re already experimenting with how it can optimize user experience and internal operations.”
The End of Gray Zones
“I’m most excited for regulatory clarity,” Swaminathan says “We don’t need every country to love crypto. We just need clear, black-and-white rules.”
That clarity, he argues, will do more than unlock capital and it will help reshape crypto’s public perception. “This industry has been misunderstood for too long. If we want trust, we need transparency. And that starts with working in the light.”
Demether is already live with demETH and demSOL, with a withdrawal gateway coming soon, a feature Kartik describes as essential for user trust. Next up? demUSD, a synthetic stablecoin launching in collaboration with industry leaders like Usual and M0.
As the next cycle of blockchain development heats up, Demether is poised not just to ride the wave, but to help anchor it.
If your blockchain project is looking for a top-tier and reliable security audit, Resonance Security is the partner you need.
From smart contracts to cross-chain infrastructure, we help you stay one step ahead of hackers. Book a FREE consultation call now: https://calendly.com/resonance-security/.
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