How Do Markets Evolve When Finance Never Sleeps | Mike Cahill (Pyth Network) at ETHConf

Sun, Aug 2, 2026, 12:00 AM

In this talk, Mike Cahill, CEO of Douro Labs (the team building the Pyth Network), explains why markets need a new price setup and how Pyth makes the price of everything accessible to everyone. He recounts how about five years ago, while at Jump Trading with co-founders Jan and Kieran, he went deep into market infrastructure trying to figure out how to build a global harmonized market for trading real world assets on and off chain, and found the biggest bottleneck was financial market data. That industry generates around $50 billion in annual revenue but is siloed, fragmented, and dominated by Bloomberg charging $30,000 per seat as a basic package, with premium feeds like CME, NASDAQ level two, and ICE layered on top, requiring relationships and audits with hundreds of vendors worldwide. Mike explains that while this mess worked for existing markets, it breaks for blockchain-based cleared markets, which are global, programmable (requiring cryptographic proofs to preserve trust), and 24/7. Pyth solves this with a marketplace connecting data publishers to consumers, aggregating information while preserving trust and publishing proofs to any blockchain. The first-principles unlock was sourcing high quality data from major trading firms like Jump, Jane Street, and Susquehanna that had never monetized this byproduct, then anonymizing and stitching it together, making Pyth the first original price source rather than just an oracle. He shares the scale: over 100 institutions publishing data, delivery to over 100 blockchains, every asset class covered, powering more than 60% of perpetuals markets, $3 trillion in transaction volume, over 700 enterprises, and 3,000+ symbols. He walks through three product verticals: Pyth Pro (the Spotify for market data, one ever-growing subscription, adding $1 million monthly ARR toward $20 million by year end), a data marketplace (born from publishing US Department of Commerce GDP data on chain, now launched with Euronext, SGX, and OTC Markets), and new 24/7 markets that harmonize off-chain and on-chain trading into seamless indices. He closes announcing the 24/7 indices launching that week with Coinbase, Kraken, dYdX, and Market Vector as first users, after Pyth oil saw insatiable demand. 00:00 Introduction 00:35 The Problem Pyth Set Out to Solve 00:55 Where Pyth Is Today 01:17 The Bottleneck of Financial Market Data 01:38 A $50 Billion Siloed Industry 01:58 Bloomberg and the Basic Cable Model 02:19 Hundreds of Vendors and Audits 02:38 Why It Breaks on Blockchains 03:00 Why Blockchains Need a New Approach 03:22 The Pyth Marketplace Model 03:41 Rethinking Data Sourcing From First Principles 04:01 Tapping Trading Firms' Unmonetized Data 04:18 Why Pyth Is More Than an Oracle 04:35 Creating an Original Price Source 04:45 The Scale of the Network Today 05:03 Every Asset Class Covered 05:32 The Publishing Side of the Network 05:55 Sourcing the Best in Each Category 06:22 The Three Product Verticals 06:43 Pyth Pro: The Spotify for Market Data 07:15 The Data Marketplace Vertical 07:40 The Pyth Terminal 08:03 Pyth Pro Scaling Toward $20 Million ARR 08:31 Powering Kalshi Without On-Chain Proofs 08:57 Pyth Pro Video 09:26 A Reminder of the Scale 09:47 The Marketplace and the US Commerce Collaboration 10:10 Publishing GDP On Chain 10:35 Launching With Euronext, SGX, and OTC Markets 10:58 Introducing 24/7 Markets 11:24 How Pyth Constructs 24/7 Indices 11:50 From Pyth Oil to Equities, Metals, and FX 12:00 Launching This Week With Coinbase, Kraken, dYdX 12:43 Why 24-Hour Markets Will Be the Norm 12:43 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _