In a ChainCatcher report published on November 11, 2026, at 08:37 (UTC+8), Spencer Applebaum, co-head of venture at Multicoin Capital, argued that AI is lowering the barrier to developing protocols and making software easier to replicate. In his view, the harder-to-copy parts of financial services sit outside the code.
Applebaum identified three potential defenses: distribution built on durable customer relationships and order flow; balance sheets and capital reserves that AI cannot create; and proprietary underwriting based on offline data and non-public risk controls. His examples included a cross-currency prime broker able to withstand risk, reserves retained by a protocol, OnRe reinsurance, and loans backed by GPU collateral.
He also argued that general-purpose L1s and L2s are losing exclusive advantages in native distribution and capital. His proposed opening for startups is to serve higher-risk-tolerance markets that established firms avoid for compliance or reputational reasons, then build those defenses over time.
This is Applebaum’s assessment, not evidence that any particular project has established such a moat. The question for a DeFi project making that claim is what demonstrates durable distribution, available capital or a genuine underwriting advantage beyond its software.