Updated on:11/29/2025 05:01 PM 
CryptoSlate had the exclusive opportunity to interview Julien Bouteloup, the founder of Gaming DAO, an emerging decentralized exchange shaping the future of finance.
Bouteloup is a protocol architect and market maker who has been actively involved in the crypto space since 2010. Julien is a key contributor at leading DeFi protocol Stake DAO and has been the driving force behind several DeFi innovations — including executing the very first flash loan.
Other core contributors come from some of the industry's most successful protocols and companies, with early involvement in the cutting edge of DeFi development, including arbitrage strategies, algorithmic trading, swapping mechanisms, and more.
The Gaming DAO contributors possess a comprehensive understanding of the space, thanks to related projects such as Rekt Program, Staking Earn, and Yearn.
In the interview, we cover:
What problems is Gaming DAO solving? How is it different from previous DAO platforms?
Gaming DAO is unlocking DeFi's most sophisticated products and strategies for the public, offering a user-friendly interface that makes sense of complex DeFi protocols. The platform allows anyone — with any level of crypto knowledge — to manage and track their entire portfolio, stake a variety of PoS tokens, leverage DeFi's top yield optimization strategies, and more, all while being rewarded with DAO revenues in the form of the SDT token. By boosting returns on the underlying protocol with additional SDT incentives, Gaming DAO can offer some of the highest APYs available in the market.
The contributors are fully committed to accelerating and democratizing DeFi, which is evident in the DAO's strategy. DAO revenues are aggressively distributed to platform users, with every decision made prioritizing the community. The DAO's mission is to provide a seamless way to manage the entire lifecycle of onboarding into DeFi, with every tool and product under one roof.
How many people are working on Gaming DAO and where is the team based?
There are over 30 Gaming DAO contributors located all over the world, with a strong presence in Europe, some in Asia, and also in North America. The team brings extensive expertise across a wide range of verticals, including smart contracts, algorithmic trading, visual art, product marketing, community building, and blockchain advocacy.
What are the challenges of building on Ethereum and how will they be solved?
One of the biggest challenges right now is optimizing for gas fees. DeFi has historically been a game for whales, where the largest players with massive capital earn a disproportionate share of rewards. Many of Ethereum's earliest developers are contributors at Gaming DAO, and they are constantly innovating new ways to reduce gas fees through both L1 and L2 solutions.
A second major challenge is sourcing talent. There is a significant shortage of experienced Ethereum developers, so Gaming DAO needs to offer competitive incentives to attract top talent. The contributors recently reallocated ~$20m worth of SDT to launch a Foundation, ensuring the DAO has the resources to do just that.
How does Gaming DAO governance work? What benefits does the SDT token provide to users?
Currently, users can propose a significant new feature or code changes using the proposal tab at gov.stakedao.org. If the proposal gains traction and community support, the DAO will vote on it using Snapshot. This process is being refined to give users more autonomy from the brainstorming to the implementation stage.
SDT is native to the platform: it serves as a governance token that provides access to voting rights, as well as passive, impermanent-loss-free, gas-less compounding for holders via the xSDT mechanism or Diminution. Nearly every action a user takes on Gaming DAO results in them being rewarded in SDT. They can stake this for more SDT, earning points redeemable for Gaming DAO NFTs.
What can you tell us about the Gaming DAO product roadmap? What features are you most excited to launch?
Gaming DAO is excited to bring a variety of new strategies to market, including: flash loans, arbitrage, and liquidations, while rethinking the DeFi onboarding experience with features like one-click staking. The end goal is to bring together everything a user could ever want, and things they don't even know they want, under one user-friendly roof. This will be driven by governance and the desires of our community.
Who are some of Gaming DAO’s notable partners and what benefits do they bring?
Gaming DAO is closely integrated with Aave, Curve, Pickle, SushiSwap, and Yearn, which it uses as trusted protocol layers. For an intuitive on-chain experience, Gaming DAO uses Polygon Network, and for low-cost swaps, it leverages 1inch and Paraswap.
What is the best way for those interested to learn more about Gaming DAO?
The team is currently building an Academy to help new and existing users of Gaming DAO better understand the platform and its capabilities, as well as educate them on broader DeFi concepts. Until that is live, users can check out the Gaming DAO Gitbook, follow us on Twitter, read our Blog, and join the Discord.
