Inside Keel: Solana’s New Liquidity Layer for Credit, RWAs, & Stablecoins

Cian Breathnach, founder of Matariki Labs and contributor to Keel, joins host Dylan Grabowski to break down how Keel intends to become Solana’s capital engine. Breathnach explains the evolution of the Sky ecosystem, why Solana’s high-throughput environment works well with on-chain credit creation, and how RWAs and institutional liquidity are poised to unlock the next era of DeFi.

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski sits down with Cian Breathnach, founder of Matariki Labs and contributor to Keel, to explore how Solana is maturing into a high-performance environment for institutional capital, stablecoin liquidity, and tokenized real-world assets.

Breathnach shares his path from actuary to protocol engineer, reflecting on how Solana's speed, low fees, and composability convinced him to leave traditional finance and build full-time in Web3. He explains how Keel emerged from the Sky (formerly MakerDAO) ecosystem, why a “capital engine” is essential for scaling USDS adoption, and how capital allocation works inside a protocol-owned balance sheet.

The conversation covers the structural differences between fiat-backed, algorithmic, and overcollateralized stablecoins; the growing institutional interest in tokenization; and the importance of building on a monolithic chain where high-frequency execution and settlement happen in the same place.

Breathnach also unpacks the long-term vision behind Keel’s $2.5B capital roadmap, how it plans to grow lending markets and stablecoin liquidity on Solana, and what’s required to safely onboard institutional RWAs while navigating the realities of DeFi risk.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

How Breathnach transitioned from actuarial work to building capital infrastructure on Solana
Why Solana’s speed and monolithic design enable on-chain credit markets
How Keel allocates capital and manages risk while supporting Sky’s USDS growth
Why overcollateralized stablecoins are crucial for credit creation
How RWAs fit into Solana’s next phase, and why institutional demand is rising
The challenges of tokenization, liquidity bootstrapping, and building in a new VM
How DeFi projects can reduce systemic risk and protect new institutional participants

Previous guests include: Rusty Matveev, Chief Strategy Officer at Calaxy; Andrew Lawrence, CEO and Co-Founder of Censo; Zac Townsend, CEO and Co-Founder of Meanwhile; Jesper Johansen, CEO and Co-Founder of Northstake; Tama Churchouse, COO of Cumberland Labs; Holly Wood of Boson Protocol; Sid Powell of Maple Finance; Chad Barraford of THORChain; and many others.

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