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At The Founder, we are always on the lookout for visionaries reshaping the financial and technological landscape. In this exclusive interview, we sit down with Matthias Wyss, CEO of Margarita Finance, to discuss how his company is bringing structured investment products natively on-chain. With an extensive background in traditional finance and Web3, Matthias shares insights into the evolution of decentralized finance and how Margarita Finance is bridging the gap between Wall Street and crypto investors.
Can you tell us a bit about your journey into the world of finance and how you transitioned into Web3?
My journey started on the commodity trading floor of a Tier 1 investment bank in London, where I worked as a derivatives structurer. It was a fast-paced, highly analytical environment—and it gave me a solid foundation in how traditional financial markets operate. But over time, I became increasingly drawn to the tech side of finance, especially the potential of innovation to reshape the system. That led me to join the executive board of a leading Swiss FinTech, where I helped scale a B2B SaaS solution for global wealth managers.
Eventually, I took the leap into Web3 and became CEO of an award-winning blockchain venture, growing the team from 8 to 60 people. That experience really cemented my belief that Web3 isn’t just a trend—it’s a transformational shift.
Now at Margarita Finance, I’m combining everything I’ve learned: deep financial expertise, scaling tech businesses, and a strong belief in the power of decentralized infrastructure to create more efficient, inclusive markets.
Having worked in both traditional finance and Web3, what excites you the most about blockchain-powered finance?
The potential to fundamentally reshape the way capital markets operate — making them more transparent, efficient, and inclusive.
Having worked in traditional finance, I’ve seen first-hand how fragmented and slow-moving the system can be. Transactions that should take minutes often take days, and access to capital is far from equal. Blockchain changes that.
What inspired you to launch Margarita Finance, and what problem are you aiming to solve?
The inspiration behind Margarita Finance came from a simple observation: the DeFi space has a gap. On one end, you have low-yield, relatively safe options like staking. On the other, you have high-risk, often unpredictable yield farming strategies. But what’s missing is that sweet spot in between—a place where users can access yield opportunities that are both attractive and secure.
With Margarita Finance, we’re building exactly that. It’s a platform for on-chain structured products—what we call 'Yield Boosters'—designed to offer higher returns than staking, while avoiding the speculative nature of higher risk strategies.
We’re here to make investments products accessible, transparent, and DeFi-native. Everything is built on Solana, so it’s fast and cost-efficient, and the products are customizable, so users can tailor risk and return to their needs.
Ultimately, our goal is to bring more maturity to DeFi—by bridging the gap between traditional finance concepts and on-chain innovation, without losing the fun and flexibility that brought people to crypto in the first place.
How does Margarita Finance differentiate itself from traditional DeFi platforms?
What really differentiates us is the level of control and clarity we provide. Users can customize key parameters—like yield and duration—directly from the UI, and the entire lifecycle of the product, from creation to settlement, is executed on-chain.
And because we’re built on Solana, everything is lightning-fast and cost-efficient, making the experience seamless for users. In short, Margarita brings the sophistication of TradFi yield strategies to DeFi—with none of the opacity, and all of the on-chain benefits.
Your platform introduces ‘Yield Boosters.’ Can you break down how they work for someone unfamiliar with structured products?
Of course! Yield Boosters are our signature product at Margarita Finance, and they’re designed to give users access to higher returns in a transparent, DeFi-native way.
At their core, Yield Boosters are inspired by a traditional finance product called a Barrier Reverse Convertible, but we’ve made them intuitive, on-chain, and fully customizable.
Here’s how they work: users choose an underlying asset—right now, that’s SOL, BTC or ETH — then select how long they want to lock in their investment (anywhere from one day to three months), and finally, they choose their target yield, up to 100%. Based on those inputs, the protocol defines the protection level .
At maturity, there are two outcomes. If the asset’s price stays above the protection level, the user gets their capital back plus the full yield they selected—say, 48% APY (or 4% for a one-month lock-up). But if the asset’s price falls below the protection level, the investor receives the yield, but their capital is converted into the underlying asset at the initial price. So they essentially ‘buy the dip’ with yield on top.
The beauty of Yield Boosters is that users can control the risk-reward dynamic themselves, directly through the UI—no complex derivatives knowledge required. It's about bringing the power and flexibility of structured products to everyday DeFi users, in a format that's fast, transparent, and fun to use.
Why did you choose to build Margarita Finance on Solana instead of other blockchain networks?
Solana’s high throughput and low transaction costs allow us to offer an incredibly smooth user experience, especially for customizable products like our Yield Boosters. With near-instant finality and minimal gas fees, users can create, settle, and monitor their positions without the friction that exists on other chains.
But beyond the tech, there’s also a strong community and ecosystem that we wanted to be part of. Our tech team actually won a Solana hackathon, which was a big milestone for us and confirmed that we were building something valuable for space. Off the back of that, we also received a grant from the Solana Foundation to continue building Margarita Finance—something we’re incredibly proud of.
So for us, Solana isn’t just a technical choice—it’s a community we believe in and actively contribute to. We’re excited to help push the Solana DeFi ecosystem forward by bringing more advanced, yet accessible, financial tools to users around the world.
What’s next for Margarita Finance? Any upcoming developments or partnerships we should watch out for?
We’re just getting started! Margarita Finance was built to bring investment products on-chain in a way that’s accessible, customizable, and actually fun to use—and we’re now entering the next phase of that journey.
One major focus for us is expanding the variety of payoff mechanisms available on the platform. Right now, users can access yield through barrier-style products, but we’re actively working on adding new structures—like capital-protected products—that offer different risk-return profiles. This will open the door to even more tailored strategies for users with varying levels of risk appetite.
We’re also looking beyond crypto-native assets. We’re exploring the inclusion of traditional equities, like Tesla, as underlying assets. That would enable users to build structured products tied to real-world stocks, all within the same on-chain infrastructure—something that hasn’t really existed in DeFi yet.
On the partnership side, we’re in exciting discussions with ecosystem players across both the Solana and TradFi worlds. Our aim is to continue bridging the gap between traditional structured finance and the next generation of DeFi users.
So yes—lots to come! If you liked what you’ve seen so far, the next wave of features will take things to an entirely new level.
As traditional finance and crypto continue to converge, platforms like Margarita Finance are leading the charge in making structured investment products accessible to a wider audience. Matthias Wyss and his team are at the forefront of this evolution, leveraging blockchain technology to bring efficiency, transparency, and security to on-chain investments. Stay tuned as The Founder continues to bring you exclusive insights from industry leaders shaping the future of finance and technology.
Margarita Finance
