#112 Untangling: Chain-Owned Liquidity w/ Marc Boiron & Simran Singh

In this episode of Untangling Web3, we’re joined by Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, and Simran Singh, Head of DeFi Trading at GSR, to explore how the Katana blockchain is reshaping the future of Web3 by tackling one of the ecosystem’s most critical challenges: liquidity fragmentation.

Built by Polygon Labs and incubated in collaboration with GSR, Katana is a bold experiment in consolidating value, optimizing capital flow, and unifying a splintered blockchain ecosystem.

Key highlights:

• The Problem with Fragmented Liquidity and DeFi Silos: Marc and Simran explain how today’s DeFi landscape is plagued by silos—with dozens of decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, and wrapped assets across multiple chains. This leads to inefficient markets and shallow liquidity pools that fail to meet the needs of both institutions and retail users.
• Katana’s Bold, Opinionated Design Philosophy: At the heart of Katana is an “opinionated” model—a deliberate departure from neutral, general-purpose chains. Katana selects a single best-in-class protocol for each DeFi function (like Sushi for swaps or Morpho for lending), limiting duplication and boosting efficiency. The ecosystem also curates preferred versions of assets (e.g. one wrapped BTC standard), reducing redundancy and maximizing network utility.
• Yield Generation and Sustainable Incentives: Katana’s yield model goes beyond emissions by integrating real economic value. The chain also incentivizes long-term liquidity provisioning rather than short-term mercenary farming. This creates a flywheel of productivity and makes Katana not just another DeFi chain—but a viable candidate for becoming the most efficient Web3 liquidity layer.

Katana represents a powerful reimagining of how blockchain ecosystems can operate—one that challenges fragmentation with focus, and replaces redundancy with purpose.

With support from industry giants like Polygon and GSR, it aims to become the go-to destination for deep, usable DeFi. Whether you're a builder, investor, or user, Katana's emergence signals a shift in how Web3 businesses and companies can collaborate to create unified, user-friendly infrastructure.

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Learn more about Katana & Polygon here:

https://polygon.technology/blog/katana-foundation-announces-katana-network-incubated-by-polygon-labs-and-gsr

https://katana.network/blog/wake-up-samurai-katana-is-here

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This episode is sponsored by the VeChain foundation. Learn more about VeBetterDAO here:

https://vebetterdao.org/

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Learn more about Web3 at:

https://untanglingweb3.com/

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Untangling Web3 is brought to you by hosts Jack Davies and Alec Burns, with music by Daniel Paigge. Got a question or topic suggestion? Send us an email at [email protected].

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The views we express here are our own, and do not represent the views of our employers. Nothing discussed or stated in the show should be considered advice.