The Yield vs Risk Dilemma in Lending Markets - Panel

Fri, Jan 2, 2026, 12:00 AM

This panel unpacks one of the biggest tensions in DeFi: the trade-off between chasing higher yield and managing real risk. The discussion dives into user behavior (why people treat TVL as “social proof”), vault curation challenges, how Fluid loops liquidity between its DEX and lending market, and what Spark’s Savings v2 unlocks for users who want simple, transparent yield. The panel also explores what the next year of lending will look like: protocol upgrades, fixed-rate innovation, RWA expansion, and deeper integrations between DeFi and fintech/banks. Finally, the group tackles DeFi’s neglected frontier, insurance, and why meaningful coverage remains expensive and inefficient today. Nadia Alvarez - Co-Founder, Phoenix Labs DMH - COO, Fluid Carson Brown - Senior Product Manager, Gauntlet Mod: Marcin Kazmierczak - Co-founder, RedStone