The State Of Risk In DeFi | ft. Charles Holmes & Greg Bock

In this episode, I sit down with Charles Holmes from Verdict.finance and Greg Bock from Fidesium to unpack the current state of risk in DeFi. We explore why 2026 has seen a surge in sophisticated attacks, how AI is reshaping both offensive and defensive security, and what protocols need to do to stay ahead of an evolving threat landscape.

In this episode, we cover:

The explosion of AI-generated smart contracts and why “vibe coding” is creating porous, vulnerable codebases

Why audit freshness matters more than ever — and how novel exploits are targeting old, “audited” contracts

The rise of state-sponsored actors, supply chain attacks, and OPSEC infiltration plays

Governance exploits: the BONK DAO hack and why multi-sig keys on a single laptop still happen

Verdict’s new audit marketplace: rating auditors by track record, specialisation, and dependency mapping

The asymmetrical nature of cybersecurity: attackers only need to win once, defenders must win every time

Bear market vs. bull market hack patterns: bigger targets in the bear, more frequency in the bull

Quantum readiness: why entanglement improvements make this the largest attack vector in the next 24 months

Guests:

Charles Holmes — Co-founder, Verdict.finance (DeFi risk ratings, dependency graphs, audit marketplace)

You can learn more about Verdict Finance here:
https://www.verdict.finance

Greg Bok — Co-Founder, Fidesium (EVM-focused cybersecurity, smart contract audits, pen testing, OPSEC)

You can learn more about Fidesium here:
https://fidesium.xyz

Chapters:

00:00 — Intro & guest introductions
02:27 — The state of risk in DeFi: extreme, but improving
07:33 — AI coding and attack surface area
10:10 — Why human engineers are coming back
15:34 — Verdict’s ratings agency and audit marketplace
19:27 — Fresh vs. stale audits, dependency mapping
23:23 — Why hacks are accelerating: tools, liquidity, and market cycles
29:34 — Governance exploits: the BONK DAO case study
34:13 — Audit marketplaces: Sherlock, RateDeFi, HackenProof
36:07 — Why Verdict’s marketplace exists
41:33 — Closing thoughts: due diligence on audit firms & celebrity shills

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