Vokkant Thakkar

Collaborated with Circle on the Arc L1 launch, analyzing historical chain launches and on-chain behavior to define validator strategy, go-to-market, and incentive structures driving adoption and volume. Designed an incentive program for Tydro, Ink's whitelabelled Aave instance. Studied and evaluated past incentive programs across lending protocols and DEXs, modeled incentive cost and distribution across asset markets to optimize capital efficiency.

The program drove $750M in TVL within the first 90 days. Productionized Proof of Reserves tracking and monitoring systems for Agora, Frax, and Ethena, establishing robust reserve oracles consumable as active risk inputs for downstream risk management and on-chain transparency. Authored risk reports across the DeFi space evaluating collateral quality and economic and operational vulnerabilities across multiple major protocols and assets.

Built blockchain data indexing and transformation pipelines using dbt and SQL, and real-time dashboards for EtherFi, Renzo, and Pendle that tracked on-chain user behaviour, automated reporting workflows, accelerated risk simulations and assisted liquidity management. Built an AI portfolio manager prototype using MCP tools, generating personalized recommendations via custom scoring models, yield prediction, transaction cost analysis, and liquidity assessment across lending markets.

Led a three-member team managing the Renzo points program, culminating in a $50M airdrop across three seasons distributing 16% of REZ supply. Built dashboards tracking wallet behavior, airdrop performance, and financial reporting across 1.3M wallets, 8 chains, and 180 DeFi integrations including Aave, Euler, Uniswap, Morpho, etc. Worked with external stakeholders and DeFi projects to onboard ezETH with incentive distribution programs like Blast Gold Distribution, OP Summer incentives, Linea LXP-L, etc. Built and maintained the Renzo Dune Dashboard and DefiLlama page, serving as the primary public data layer for protocol metrics and TVL visibility across the ecosystem.

Contributed to internal research and governance proposals that aligned with the organization's goals including Portfolio Management for LRTs, Risk frameworks for LRTs, Solana Expansion, and more.

Conducted market research and analysis on potential investment opportunities in the blockchain ecosystem across multiple sub-sectors including Infrastructure, Gaming, and DeFi. Analyzed business models, go-to-market strategies, operating models, revenue projections, tokenomics, etc. for multiple projects and provided feedback and advice on the same as a part of our due diligence process.

Led 15+ investment deals from inception to completion and negotiated and structured the investment deals. Setup and maintained the validator node infrastructure for over six portfolio companies on Cosmos, Elrond, etc., which generated over US$1M in revenue for the fund.

Served as the point-of-contact to over 20 portfolio companies, building relationships and adding value by providing operational feedback and introducing them to various stakeholders in the ecosystem. Developed and wrote research reports and articles highlighting our thesis and investment decisions.

Worked in the Apps and Experiences division at Microsoft, building on Microsoft’s cutting-edge Surface Laptops and tablets using C# and the .NET framework