As volatility struck markets this week, some of the largest brokerages suffered outage after outage.

Fidelity, Charles Schwab and others all reported outages after Japan's stock market notched its worst trading day since 1987.

It was a rare opportunity for crypto advocates to clap back against all the criticisms against decentralized finance, or DeFi. As volatility struck, the permissionless and decentralized markets that power a growing chunk of the crypto industry's trades hummed along.

Roundtable anchor Rob Nelson recently discussed these advancements with Adil Abdulali, Chief Investment Officer at Samara Asset Management, diving into the dynamic world of crypto asset management and the potential for DeFi to continue growing.

Abdulali explains that DeFi essentially removes intermediaries like brokers from financial transactions. Instead, computer programs handle lending and borrowing, which can potentially increase profits due to reduced intermediary fees. However, Abdulali cautioned that this also introduces new types of risks, such as potential bugs in the code.

Nelson highlighted Abdulali's transition from traditional assets to crypto. Abdulali explained that the dynamic strategies available in crypto piqued his interest. "Short equity and credit became really boring compared to the strategies in crypto," he remarked.

Abdulali outlined the primary strategies employed by Samara Asset Management, emphasizing their role in providing liquidity to the cryptocurrency market. These strategies include market making, options trading, and leveraging opportunities in decentralized finance. "DeFi offers a whole other stream of opportunities to provide liquidity to the space," Abdulali noted, adding that the returns in crypto can be significantly higher than in traditional markets. Given the volatility, they can also be significantly lower.

One particularly innovative aspect Abdulali discussed is Samara's bitcoin-denominated fund. This fund allows investors to subscribe, redeem, and pay fees exclusively in bitcoin. This structure is unique because it provides investors with market upside while ensuring the fund's performance fees are tied to the generation of additional bitcoin.