Women Leading the Way

Web3's Infrastructure Gap: Why Liquidity Was Just the Beginning

• Drofa Comms • Episode 4

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Annabelle Huang has spent the better part of a decade watching the institutional case for crypto build, and watching the technology fail to keep pace with it. She went from Deutsche Bank in New York to AirSwap, one of Ethereum's earliest DEXs, through the years building Amber Group's trading operations. Now she is a co-founder and CEO of Altius Labs, a blockchain infrastructure company working to close the gap she kept running into.

Her thesis: liquidity is largely a solved problem. Infrastructure is not.

In this episode of Women Leading the Way by Drofa Comms, Annabelle sits down with host Maria Tunikova to trace what crypto actually needs before institutional adoption moves beyond early positioning. She walks through why general-purpose chains are giving way to purpose-built, application-specific infrastructure.

She also makes the case that regulation, not technology, is the real unlock for the next phase. The GENIUS Act has already demonstrated what a single piece of legislation can do for stablecoin adoption. The CLARITY Act could do the same for tokenised assets. Ideas that people tried to build in 2017, Annabelle argues, were just waiting for the regulatory framework to arrive.

Then the conversation turns to what founding and leading in one of the most technical corners of Web3 actually looks like for a woman. Annabelle candidly says that the challenges are consistent. They manifest themselves in how leadership style gets read by others, in who survives on your team, and in the quiet cost of over-correcting yourself to fit a room.

She mentors early-stage founders, and when asked what women need most at the beginning, her answer is confidence and the deliberate, conscious practice of it.

Connect with Annabelle Huang via LinkedIn.


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Women leading the way.

SPEAKER_00

Hey everyone, welcome to Women Leading the Way by Draw for Counts, a podcast about women shaping the future of finance, fintech, blockchain and technology. Here we don't talk about titles or success stories, we talk about real moments that shape a career and how leadership changes when women are in the room. I'm Maria, and in each episode we explore Rambi Korea through a personal journey. Today we are talking about what comes next for crypto, how it moves beyond experimentation, and what needs to be built for it to become a real financial infrastructure. Our guest is Annabel Huang, co-founder and CEO of Elters, a blockchain infrastructure company building high-performance chains. Annabelle's career spans Wall Street, decentralized trading, infra-institutional crypto, and now Web3 infrastructure. She studied in traditional finance, later joined ASWARP as head of Asia, spent several years helping build Amber Group into a major digital asset platform, and now leads Altis. Together we will talk about her moves from traditional finance into crypto, the infrastructure gaps, which still hold back the industry, and what it means to build and lead as a female founder in one of the most technical parts of Web3. So, Annabelle, welcome to the show. Thanks, Maria, for having me here. I'm really excited to have you here because your career gives us such an interesting view of how finance has evolved over the past decade in general. You started in traditional finance, then moved to decentralized trading and institutional crypto, and now building the infrastructure for the next phase of web for you. So maybe let's start with your journey and let's unpack how did your transition from traditional finance into crypto happen?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I would say part of it is by chance. I think as good things happened, I started at Georgia Bank in New York. And it was a great platform, learned a lot about institutions, uh, about risk management, um, seeing uh really large how large institutes uh work. But a part of me always feel like uh it's a very set career path and there's always a ceiling. And at the same time, that's when fintech was really taking off, not just in the US, but also globally. Um, so I grew up in China and then I that was when Ali Pei and Wetchat Pei was um at the peak, really. So I was searching for maybe the next evolution of finance. Um fintech, or maybe you know, even something more at the emergent tech. Uh, and by chance, through New York social circles, um, I met the co-founders of AirSwap who went to the same universities as me. Um, we bonded, they tried to explain to me that the future of finance through Ethereum. And before then, I had only heard about Ethereum as a token or have friends trying to mine it in college dorms. Um, so I didn't realize about outside of Bitcoin and Ethereum as a token, that's also a platform where you can build applications on top. So that was really fascinating. And I decided to take a leap in faith and join the team, uh, building one of the earliest Xs on Ethereum. But it was uh definitely a challenging time because that was DeFi before, you know, DeFi was anything, uh, was very low liquidity, uh, not that many players know how to even use the wallets or trade on chain. Um, so there's the liquidity gap and also the infrastructure gap.

SPEAKER_00

Wonderful. And you just mentioned that there was a liquidity infrastructure gap. But what was it about crypto at that time that really makes you feel that it was worth taking seriously, not just like a trend, but really start building here?

SPEAKER_01

That's a great question. Um, because I remember during the 2017 run-up, you know, all the ICOs and the tokens. Part of me as a trader was looking at it more as, oh, it's just another asset class or another type of currency you can trade. Uh, but it really was when I realized there are so many smart and bright people that is building actual applications on top of Ethereum. That's when it clicked and I realized this is bigger than just the ICO tokens. I resisted, I guess, going uh full-time in crypto because so I considered maybe instead of trading FX, I could just also easily trade Bitcoin or Ethereum or any of the tokens. But I think I'm a builder at heart. I think it was really the building, the possibilities of um the applications you can build on top uh that drew me into the world. Uh, and that's also part of my search for what the future finance could look like, because I saw firsthand, even back in the days, right? Even as nascent as DeFi wise, it was still much easier for me to send stable coins to settle with my friends who are outside the US. Uh, and of course, we've come such a long way since then.

SPEAKER_00

That's very interesting, especially what you said about being drawn to the possibilities of building on Ethereum. And when you joined SWAP and started working with the technology more closely, what did you begin to understand about both like the potential and the limitations of decentralized finance?

SPEAKER_01

The potential is huge, and I still believe in it to this date. And we're seeing it being realized maybe step by step. And a lot of it was also because of the evolution of the regulatory side as well. But back then, I think a lot of it limitation was around uh this being a new technology, people don't really know how to interact with it, and there was not enough infrastructure or tooling that's being built. So it makes it easier for people to set up a wallet and then to on-ramp and then to transfer. And the risk, uh the operational risk and market risk was so much higher than. But of course, the reward was there too. Um, the limitation, I think we quickly ran into congestion at the Ethereum side when the cost to transact was too high. But I think the technology has to evolve based on the demand, right? So we're not gonna build the most performant, the best technology from day one. We innovate step step by step and we continue to innovate further based on what the current bottlenecks are, and we continue to solve it. And I think that's the beauty is people from all different backgrounds from all around the world working on really one goal together. Um, and I think that's the beauty of uh consensus as well.

SPEAKER_00

Wonderful. Yeah, absolutely. I like that. People end up for in crypto. Uh, there is also a sense of community. I think it this is one of the major forces that drives uh the industry forward. Women leading the way. And maybe looking back now uh to your traditional background, what parts of your traditional finance background still shape the way you think about crypto and Web3?

SPEAKER_01

I think there's a few parts. Uh one, as much as I hate to admit, but I think that institutional training really drilled all of the compliance and the basic professionalism in me, and I think in a lot of people coming from similar backgrounds. Uh, and I think that makes it easier, especially as crypto mature. Uh, and now we're talking to not just a crypto-native audience, but also the more traditional, the enterprise institutional audience. And I think that makes it easier because we understand their culture, their language, uh, given that we we were trained there. Um, and second, I think the most important thing is risk management. That is important, of course, when you're on a trading desk, but more importantly, when you're an operator in crypto. And the risk can manifest in so many different ways. It's not just the market risk, where of course price would move, but so much underpriced uh counterparty risk, as we later found out, operational risk of you can get really hacked so many ways any any day of the year. Uh, and I think having that risk management mindset really helps throughout my career, not just in trifly, but in crypto as well. Um, and really understanding where the where the where to draw the line, where's the red line? Um, as much as you want to innovate, uh, you still have to maintain uh, you know, certain legal and compliance uh line. So I think these are the takeaways for me without really realizing.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's such an important point. Like innovation matters, but so the risk management and also compliance and knowing like where to draw the line. And so far, we've been talking about how you entered crypto and what drew you to the space. But uh, what I find really interesting is that your career didn't only stay on trading or maybe financial services side, for example, at SWAP and later at Ember Group, uh, you saw the industry from the inside, like liquidity, market structure, and institutional clients, and also the challenges of building products from zero to one. And now with alters, uh your focus also moved beyond and deeper even to the infrastructure layer. So I'd love to talk about uh the market problem you kept seeing and why it led you to build alters. And also, I read your opinion, Peace in News Week, uh, and you wrote about a very clear idea that institutional interest in crypto is growing. But now the technology itself has to catch up. So let's unpack a little bit this. What are the biggest infrastructure gaps still holding crypto back from like deeper institutional adoption?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, for sure. And I think a lot of people are surprised because on paper, I've just been dealing with uh more market making, liquidity, financial services related. But I think people have to understand building financial products in crypto, especially dealing with uh on-chain products, a lot of the time we spend on optimizing for infrastructure. And I mean infrastructure uh to uh both on-chain and off-chain. And I think that's uh an area that people often underlook. And the fact that, of course, sure, we are we're almost two decades in Bitcoin, 10 plus years into Ethereum, but the infrastructure itself is still very nascent. I think it's and it's not really tailored to the type of institutional adoption that we are all asking for or uh we're all hoping for. Um, so part of the reason that that drove me to build LTS and focus on solving the infrastructure gap is um, I think first of all, we collectively as an industry has been more successful in uh I was saying, um, yes, I think back to my original feeling of uh the two bottlenecks, and one being on liquidity, which is more immediate, and infrastructure which will be solved over the long term. And I think we as an industry and um and you know, being Amber Group, being all the other market makers and now all the traditional financial participants, we have generated enough demand for liquidity on-chain, and we've more or less solved that problem. So I think the logical next step is then how do we scale beyond what we have now? Stablecoins, great, but what about using it really for payment, uh cross-border settlement, et cetera? What is infrastructure that's going to host all of it, that's going to be compliant uh to all the different local jurisdictions with different regulations. And for trading, we are seeing new markets being created of all the tokenized assets, be it stocks, equity, or commodities, and maybe even more asset types, more derivatives will be brought on-chain in a tokenized format. But the question is also what infrastructure is going to host the trading of all of that? That's going to be competitive enough to uh the you know traditional high-frequency trading operations that you see on centralized venues. So LTS is part of the solution, we hope, to keep uh upgrading the existing infrastructure to try to build not completely new systems, but actually leverage a lot of the high-frequency trading HFT principles, uh, and but to apply that onto even more distributed systems such as uh blockchain networks, to see where we can push the envelope, where the limit is. And at the same time, really being the infrastructure that helps build customized uh purpose-built infrastructure for different use cases and needs. Uh, payment chain might look different than a trading, a chain built for trading. Or, you know, if we host any other game or elements, it might look different too. So I think we've moved past the era of having general purpose chains uh into purpose-built app application-specific chains. And we just need to invest more in building that stack and the tooling so that it's much easier for anyone, enterprise uh institutions or even individuals to be able to uh customize their own infrastructure.

SPEAKER_00

Wonderful. Women leading the way podcast. And maybe a little bit tricky question, but for people who are not deeply technical, how would you explain what Altus is building and why and why the infrastructure matters?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I think um the most difficult thing at the end of the day may be the fact that not every user needs to understand how the infrastructure works. They just need to understand what it enables. It's similar, you know, we're talking over Zoom that's hosted uh on a cloud with our TCP IP internet protocol. But if you ask me how it works exactly, I won't be able to tell you. And I think a big part of what LTS can be to be the abstraction layer that abstracts away the complexity of the online infrastructure, ultimately deliver what the user needs, which is just fast and cheap and performing infrastructure that lets them do what they want to do on-chain, off-chain. They don't need to care. They just want to be able to access assets or trading platforms anywhere, anywhere and anytime, and be able to trade 24-7. And we are the enabler layer that that allows it to happen. Uh, and for the more technical audience out there, uh specifically, yeah, we are building customized blockchain stacks that uh can be tailor-made for different uh applications. And our edge is really having that high performance stack that is built and designed by uh H5D veterans, how to optimize, how to optimize each layer of the stack uh when it comes to storage, when it comes to data output, input, uh, and also the execution.

SPEAKER_00

So I love that explanation. Yeah, perfect. And uh we touched upon the institutional interest in crypto, but what do institutions really need to see before they can like use blockchain technology with more confidence?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think a lot of it is not even just at the performance layer, right? It is how secure the infrastructure is, how compliant it is, uh, doesn't enable the privacy that the institutions need. And uh I think we've made some progress over the years in terms of building new fairs, um, privacy-enabled or more and more secure infrastructure, both on the hardware side and the software side. But I think there is still a gap in terms of what the institution would demand and what the regulators would demand.

SPEAKER_00

And from your perspective, what will define the next phase of Web3? Like infrastructure, yeah, institutional adoption, maybe regulation, mechanization, stable coins, or something else. What would you pick up?

SPEAKER_01

I do think um, especially I think this is very much uh regulation or regulation driven. And we can see how much a single policy can unlock, right? With Genius Act and look at the stablecoin adoption and with Clarity Act, maybe we'll see a lot of asset classes on chain. There are nuances, of course, but um I think a lot of the ideas um are the ones that we've had since 2017. Uh and there are people who tried to build it almost 10 years ago, but it was never really able to take off because of infrastructure issue and also the regulatory uh approval issue. So I think we're as an issue, we're so much better prepared to finally bring um the power of blockchain, of just being an open and um ledger that can be coordinated globally to put this technology to good use to just really reduce costs and improve efficiency when it comes to any kinds of actions.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, looking forward to what the future brings to us. Uh so far, we've been talking about the industry, like uh the infrastructure as well, what it needs to be built for Web3. But I want to concentrate on something else because behind that, there is also the founder side of the story. And in your case, there is another layer to it, because you're building in one of the most technical parts of Web3 as a female founder. So I'd love to talk about your own leadership journey and also what you've learned from mentoring other founders. I know that you've been a part of female entrepreneurs, worldwide incubator, and other programs. So, my question is what has your experience been like as a female founder building in crypto infrastructure?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I would say it's just it's challenging, not just, I think, you know, gender aside, being a founder in an industry is super challenging. It's especially so in crypto because everything moves fast. So you have to look at the growth trajectory very differently. You also have to manage risk very differently. And then I think on top of that, being uh a female founder, which uh even I think we've made some progress in terms of gender equality over the years, but I think the numbers are still speak for itself, right? Sometimes it's it's not that being female is hard, but I think really sometimes even just to uh the style of how you manage the team, how they respond to you, uh how you uh are presented externally, how external participants would would view you, these are uh, I guess, more or less unique to being a female founder. But I think at the same time, there are advantages that are unique to us that we should recognize and really try to leverage. Maybe, you know, just being more observant or more empathetic. I'm generalizing here, of course, but I think at least in my own journey, uh was able to learn more about myself, learn more about what my leadership style is, what works best for me, uh, and what kind of what kind of team that's really um that works well with me. Um I think a lot of the mistakes founders make, and I've made plenty, especially when you're in the beginning of your journey, is you try to opt for the best talent. But in reality, um, we're all people, right? And we have different personalities, different likes, different culture. And at the end of the day, you really should filter for the candidate or the talent that can work well with your style. There was a period of time when I think I just try to maybe overcorrect myself to uh fit the needs of the team that I had. And that was so exhausting and it was not sustainable and and it was this, it would not end well anyway. I think now I just want to stay true to myself, understand my strength and weakness, uh, so build a team around me that can help uh supplement maybe where I'm weaker at and really build a stronger team together. Women leading the way.

SPEAKER_00

You also have been in the tretfy space and in the crypto. Do you see the difference in female representation in both spheres? Uh is it in crypto a better, or maybe not, or maybe it doesn't matter at all?

SPEAKER_01

I mean, I say I would say on a trading desk, there there is um also obviously more men than women. I think I was one of the the few females on the desk. And I think in in crypto, that's similar, but I would say there is, especially I think these days, that we are seeing, even looking at some of the enrollment data from my university, comparing, you know, the the stats of my year versus the recent classes, we're seeing so many more female students taking on the STEM majors and are, and I think now with AI, you're able to pick up so much by yourself, uh, even without a degree sometimes. That I think is going to really help generate the next generation of talent that will probably look more evenly distributed. And I think we even Even at a startup uh perspective, I think remote is pretty common now, uh, or work from home is generally permitted. So I think maybe allows women more freedom to organize, you know, your work-life balance, uh, maybe remove a lot of limitation for women in general. And I think that's why I'm bullish on more equal representation um going forward.

SPEAKER_00

I love that, especially about AI because it really makes it making right now the whole new story. Uh yeah. And you also, like in different interviews, you've spoken about sustainability and the importance of not just reacting immediately, but to take time to assess priorities. And how has your leadership style changed through different market cycles?

SPEAKER_01

That's a great question. I think initially, I think it's also part of the trading at a trading desk, is we were really just trained to respond immediately to a request, right? Okay, client is asking for a price for this. You have you have to respond right away and price right away. These are really time sensitive. And the mistake I've made is applying that principle to everything. And the problem is not you can only have one priority, right? If everything becomes urgent and sense sensitive, then you lose the sense of priority. You're just responding to whatever is in front of you, and that's not sustainable. Like you you burn out and you oftentimes have missed the things that are actually important. And the important things a lot of times requires time to digest, to think, to strategize before you respond. So I think this is maybe more trader-specific habit um that I carry through and I had to correct. Um, again, learning through mistakes. Uh, but now I'd like to thank um my style and making sure that you're living a sustainable lifestyle. It's a marathon, not a sprint, and that you are prioritizing properly.

SPEAKER_00

Perfect. I like the idea that leadership is a marathon, not a sprint. And let's uh talk about your experience of mentoring founders. Uh, what do you think women founders especially need most at the early stages? Maybe more capital, more confidence, maybe stronger networks, more visibility, or something else.

SPEAKER_01

I definitely think it's confidence. Uh, I've seen, and I like to think, again, just through my uh observation, that we are more inclined to just tell it as is. Uh, when we're selling the vision in the dream, where we don't sound as ambitious sometimes. I don't think it's uh it's a bad thing, right? I'm not advocating for all the founders out there to just sell a bogus dream. Um, but I do think um confidence take time to build. And I would encourage more female founders to practice that more consciously and really believe in ourselves more. And I think when it comes to mentoring, uh, I wouldn't even say, you know, it's really just me giving advice. I think it's really creating that network and that platform for us to share and have a conversation with each other. A lot of times the struggles that we face, no matter, you know, you're you're men or women, uh especially at a founder level, it's a very lonely journey. Um, some of the things we cannot share even with your team or maybe your investors. So having this founder network uh is it can be quite therapeutic. And problems you thought are so dire and so unique to you, they're not unique at all. Everybody has a very similar challenge one way or another. So I think uh really is just I want to provide opportunity and the platform for any founders out there, again, men or women, uh, if they want to reach out and and just talk founder stress, founder challenges. Yeah, I'd love to uh be happy to chat.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. We will definitely put all your links in the show notes so everyone could contact you.

SPEAKER_01

Women leading the way podcast.

SPEAKER_00

I guess we'll uh touch on most topics I wanted to cover. And before we wrap up, let's do just a very quick fun segment called Traffic Light. Uh, we try to do with each guest in our podcast. Uh, the idea is quite simple, it's just like driving. We can associate our life with the road, and there is a traffic light. So green means start something new, yellow means keep going, and red means pause or do less. Not about crypto industry, just in general, maybe your life. What comes to your mind? It doesn't matter. So I'll ask you just three quick questions and you can answer them without overthinking.

SPEAKER_01

So am I just going to answer green light, red light. No, no, no, no, no. You'll understand.

SPEAKER_00

So uh right now we are coming to the green light. And what is the one thing you would like to start doing this year? I'd like to start.

SPEAKER_01

Wow, there's so so many things I like to start doing this year. I think I take uh fitness and help very very seriously, and I think that's part of the sustainability or longevity is part of that. So I would like to train more consistently and unlock more skills, more calisthenic skills to train for a goal.

SPEAKER_00

I like it. Absolutely. Support is really helps in this high speed and sometimes stressful environment as well. Uh so we are moving to the yellow light. What is the one thing you would like to keep going this year?

SPEAKER_01

I mean, building, building the company, right? Uh, I think that's probably in between a green and a yellow line. Keep going uh in a sense that um we are uh selectively uh expanding our team, keep building the product, have patience because sometimes, especially infrastructure products will take a long time uh to come to fruition, but at the same time assessing uh the product need uh in different sectors.

SPEAKER_00

Lovely. And I wish you really good luck with this uh yellow light. And moving to the red light, what's one thing you would like uh to do less of this year, maybe even leave behind?

SPEAKER_01

That's a great question. Um, I think you know, some of the bad habits, which is inevitably sleeping late or committing too much when it comes to um travel, uh sometimes that could be disruptive as well. So it's just more mindful of um of time and optimizing for health.

SPEAKER_00

And uh one final question. You said before that the best way to learn is to try. And what advice would you like to give to women who want to build on crypto, fintech, or infrastructure, uh, but still feel like they are not ready enough yet?

SPEAKER_01

Um I think really it's just pushing yourself to do that initially, take that initial step. And I think the rest will fall really where it should be. Uh, remember the stress I felt when I decided or I was considering leaving Chad Five for a what my colleagues called magic internet money. Um and I remember the stress when I uh left Amber, where I was building for six years to start uh LTIS in a field that's that was completely new to me. But the the stress and the a lot of the fear was in anticipation. Uh but once you make up your mind and you decide and it's just okay, you're you know what you're going to do next, everything just kind of falls into place. So uh I think especially for women uh or people who uh are more risk sensitive, a lot of times the trepidation is in the indecisiveness. Once you decide, you take that step, you have what it takes to make it.

SPEAKER_00

I like it. Thank you so much for this conversation. Uh I think that today we really covered uh the idea that the future of crypto is not only about like market cycles or different big ideas, but it's also about the technology underneath and especially the infrastructure performance and the trust uh that really makes uh the real adoption possible. And I really love that we also talked about uh women building in the space and your wonderful example and your story shows that uh that's very important to trust your own perspective and take up space and not wait until you feel like 100% ready. So I think it's a very good conversation. Thank you so much. Anything you would like to add at the end?

SPEAKER_01

No, I would just reiterate that if you're a founder and especially or you know you wanted to make a decision, I'm happy to be your sounding board and help where I can.

SPEAKER_00

Perfect. Thank you so much. If this episode resonates with you, share it with the person who needs to hear it. For more stories and updates, visit womenleaddelco.uk and follow us on our LinkedIn page. This was Women Leading the Way by Drofa Combs. Thanks for being with us and see you in the next episode. And don't forget, women don't just follow the way, they'll lead it.

SPEAKER_01

Women leading the way. Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.