Blockcast 56 | Lombard Co-Founder Jacob Phillips on Bitcoin DeFi's Challenges and Innovations

Jacob Phillips began his entry into crypto with an interest in finance and technology, leading him to a crypto fund in Cleveland during the 2018 boom. This experience deepened his understanding of blockchain and its long-term potential as major institutions and VCs entered the space.

His career accelerated when he joined Polychain in 2020, working with top investors to evaluate projects and navigate the explosive growth of DeFi. He played a role in investments like BadgerDAO, which aimed to integrate Bitcoin into decentralized finance but ultimately faced structural limitations.

In 2024, he co-founded Lombard to address these gaps, focusing on Bitcoin liquidity and staking solutions. While Ethereum and Solana rapidly iterated on DeFi, Bitcoin lacked a strong developer ecosystem—but Jacob saw this changing with new projects like Babylon and EigenLayer.

In this Blockcast episode, Jacob reflects on Lombard's core mission to enable secure, permissionless Bitcoin staking and liquidity through its liquid staking token, LBTC. He highlights the challenge of trustless Bitcoin DeFi and the importance of balancing decentralization with institutional security. Lombard first onboarded DeFi-native users before expanding to institutional players, ensuring credibility and capital strength.

Blockcast is hosted by Head of APAC at Ledger, Takatoshi Shibayama . Previous episodes of Blockcast can be found on Podpage , with guests like Samar Sen (Talos), Jason Choi (Tangent), Lasanka Perera (Independent Reserve), Mark Rydon (Aethir), Peter Hui (Moongate), Luca Prosperi (M^0), Charles Hoskinson (Cardano), Aneirin Flynn (Failsafe), and Yat Siu (Animoca Brands) on our most recent shows.

?️ Hey there, Blockcast listeners! ?️ This podcast provides commentary and discussion on cryptocurrency and related topics. It is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. Guests appearing on this podcast may discuss companies or strategies, but these discussions are not recommendations to buy, sell, or hold any particular asset or pursue any specific strategy. The hosts and guests are not financial advisors, and listeners are urged to consult with a qualified professional before making any investment decisions. Investments in cryptocurrency are inherently risky, and you could lose money.