Why CLOs Are Suddenly DeFi's Hottest Yield Play
Unchained | Jul 10 2026 | 00:07:49
Niklas Kunkel maps where the RWA market is heading next, from Centrifuge and Apollo's CLOs to Galaxy's first tokenized credit product, then turns to a cautionary tale: some SpaceX pre-IPO token buyers never actually owned the shares they thought they had.
Host:
Steven Ehrlich - Host of Bits + Bips and Head of Research at Sharplink
Guest:
Niklas Kunkel - Founder and CEO of Chronicle Labs
This clip is from a longer conversation on crypto oracles, tokenized real-world assets, and Chronicle Labs' work verifying them. Full episode here: https://youtu.be/HW9Cu_E8DnU ;
We go live every week - subscribe to catch it live.
Cape: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained (use code: UNCHAINED).
Chapters
🌍 00:00 Where the RWA market goes next, from the man building its plumbing: Niklas Kunkel
💰 00:44 The yield trade heating up: why CLOs like Centrifuge's JAAA and Apollo's Acred are suddenly everywhere
🌌 01:14 Galaxy's first tokenized CLO, and why it's a far bigger deal than it looks
🔍 01:56 Trust no one: how Chronicle checks Galaxy's loan book against its own custodian
🔁 03:04 The looping trick that turns a 7% CLO yield into 14% or 21%, and the risk hiding inside it
🏢 03:27 What's coming next: tokenized REITs and equities
🚀 05:28 The SpaceX pre-IPO token question Niklas keeps getting asked
📉 06:06 The catch nobody mentioned: why SpaceX token buyers never actually owned their shares
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Host:
Steven Ehrlich - Host of Bits + Bips and Head of Research at Sharplink
Guest:
Niklas Kunkel - Founder and CEO of Chronicle Labs
This clip is from a longer conversation on crypto oracles, tokenized real-world assets, and Chronicle Labs' work verifying them. Full episode here: https://youtu.be/HW9Cu_E8DnU ;
We go live every week - subscribe to catch it live.
Cape: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained (use code: UNCHAINED).
Chapters
🌍 00:00 Where the RWA market goes next, from the man building its plumbing: Niklas Kunkel
💰 00:44 The yield trade heating up: why CLOs like Centrifuge's JAAA and Apollo's Acred are suddenly everywhere
🌌 01:14 Galaxy's first tokenized CLO, and why it's a far bigger deal than it looks
🔍 01:56 Trust no one: how Chronicle checks Galaxy's loan book against its own custodian
🔁 03:04 The looping trick that turns a 7% CLO yield into 14% or 21%, and the risk hiding inside it
🏢 03:27 What's coming next: tokenized REITs and equities
🚀 05:28 The SpaceX pre-IPO token question Niklas keeps getting asked
📉 06:06 The catch nobody mentioned: why SpaceX token buyers never actually owned their shares
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices