Aave, Ethena and Hyperliquid founders name their biggest rivals at TOKEN2049

Banks, Circle and nobody: three DeFi leaders reveal very different views of who they are really up against Ask three of DeFi’s most prominent builders who keeps them up at night, and you get three very different answers. At TOKEN2049 Singapore, Aave ’s Stani Kulechov said banks. Ethena ’s Guy Young said Circle. Hyperliquid ’s Jeff Yan said nobody. The exchange took place at TOKEN2049 Singapore, held October 7-8, 2026. The panel was moderated by Robbie Petersen of a16z crypto and also featured Kain Warwick from Synthetix alongside the three founders. Kulechov’s answer was the broadest.