
Beyond Cosmoverse
Distribution Beats Product | Charles d'Haussy, dYdX
Charles d'Haussy spent 20 years in Hong Kong building a company, leading FinTech for the Hong Kong government at Invest Hong Kong, co-organizing Hong Kong FinTech Week, and helping build the first iterations of Project mBridge with BIS and ConsenSys. He then moved to Dubai, wrote Arabian Crypto documenting the rise of the UAE's digital asset ecosystem, and now leads the dYdX Foundation as CEO. In this episode, he maps the full arc, from Hong Kong to the UAE, from ConsenSys to DeFi, and from the early days of blockchain advocacy to a moment where institutions are building in earnest. Arabian Crypto by Charles d'Haussy: arabiancrypto.xyz Beyond Cosmoverse is the Executive Dialogue Series by Cosmoverse, the institutional digital asset summit. Hosted by Roberto Cassa, Marketing Director at Cosmoverse, each episode brings together practitioners from finance, regulation, and digital asset infrastructure. Learn more at cosmoverse.org. Chapters (00:00 ) 2026 a challenging year (01:04) Intro (02:09 ) 20 years in Hong Kong (06:56) From ConsenSys to dYdX (09:15 ) Block Kong, writing the history of Hong Kong's crypto ecosystem (12:30) The UAE, why Charles moved and what he found (15:30) Arabian Crypto, documenting the rise of a crypto-native jurisdiction (17:54 ) ADGM vs VARA, UAE's regulatory models (22:32 ) Hong Kong vs UAE (24:50 ) The CFTC approval of regulated perps, what it means for DeFi (29:06) The state of DeFi in 2026 (32:31 ) Is it institutions or technology reshaping capital markets? (36:04) App chains vs public permissionless chains (39:10 ) Distribution beats product






