Embracing Digital Innovations In Finance With Olivier Chevillon

In a recent episode of the Connect with Purpose podcast, host Augusta Mirchandani sat down with Olivier Chevillon, founder of DFi Labs.

What followed was not a conversation about crypto hype or token price predictions but a sober, experience-driven examination of what it actually takes to build a quantitative investment firm in a market that never sleeps, never closes, and never forgives complacency.

This is a story about systems, discipline, and survival.

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Building Machines In A 24/7 Market

From Traditional Finance To An Unforgiving New Asset Class

Olivier spent more than twenty years in traditional quantitative finance, building and running systematic strategies across derivatives and equities. When he first encountered cryptocurrency, what struck him wasn’t the volatility but the contradiction.

Crypto was:

Entirely digital
Intensely data-rich
Structurally inefficient

And yet, systematic, institutional-grade investment products were conspicuously rare.

DFi Labs was founded to close that gap, bringing TradFi-level research, discipline, and risk management into an asset class that often rewards speed but punishes overconfidence.

The past five years have been anything but linear. Progress came through experimentation, failure, recalibration, and constant iteration, the unavoidable cost of operating at the frontier of a new market.

Why Focus Beats Optionality

Although DFi Labs continues to support legacy TradFi strategies, Olivier is explicit about where the firm’s future lies.

Digital assets are not a side project. They are the core research focus.

Put simply:

Depth matters more than breadth here.

Market structure evolves constantly.
Data quality varies wildly.
Infrastructure failures are existential risks.

Any dilution of attention guarantees mediocrity. DFi Labs now operates first and foremost as a research firm, optimised for one environment:

Crypto markets at institutional scale.

AI Is Not A Feature; It’s The Operating System

Olivier is blunt about DFi Labs’ identity:

“We are an AI firm.”

Artificial intelligence underpins:

Alpha generation (LGBM, random forests, model stacking).
Research velocity.
Infrastructure deployment.
Compliance, onboarding, and reporting automation.

The goal isn’t novelty, it’s speed, robustness, and adaptability.

By building cloud-native systems on platforms like AWS or GCP, DFi Labs can deploy institutional-grade infrastructure in days, not months, without the drag of legacy systems that still dominate much of traditional finance.

But Olivier is careful to demystify AI.

Generating model outputs is easy.
Understanding why a model works and when it will fail is not.

That difference is where real edge lives.

Fewer People. Much Higher Standards

AI hasn’t eliminated the need for talent; it has raised the bar brutally.

DFi Labs operates with a team of just five people. Every hire must combine:

Strong mathematical foundations.
Hands-on machine learning engineering experience.
Real-world implementation skills.
And, crucially, a relentless work ethic.

Junior roles are no longer junior in the traditional sense. The expectation is production-level competence from day one.

This is not a volume hiring model. It is talent density by design.

Tokenisation Isn’t A bet, It’s An Inevitability

As a market-neutral investor, Olivier avoids evangelism. But personally, his conviction is clear.

Value will be created in digital assets.

The inefficiencies of traditional finance, from settlement delays to fragmented infrastructure, are already being addressed on-chain. Even leaders like Larry Fink have publicly acknowledged the inevitability of tokenisation.

The open question is not whether, but when systems will be capable of safely and efficiently supporting trillions in daily volume.

Risk Management Is The Real Product

Crypto’s greatest opportunity is also its greatest threat: a 24/7, global market with no circuit breakers.

Olivier recalls moments where liquidity evaporated, and major assets lost up to 80% of their value in hours.

This is why DFi Labs lives by a simple rule learned early in his career:

First, don’t lose money.
Then, you can try to make money.

Real-time monitoring, conservative assumptions, and constant humility are non-negotiable. Without them, no amount of intelligence or technology will save you.

Staying Relevant In A Relentlessly Changing World

On a personal level, Olivier describes the last five years as intellectually reinvigorating.

Instead of coasting toward the latter stages of a conventional finance career, he chose to reskill deeply in AI, systems design, and modern infrastructure, not as a spectator, but as a builder.

Understanding how new tools work, not just what they promise, is what keeps him engaged, effective, and competitive.

Building Something That Lasts

livier’s ambition is not limited to personal P&L.

He wants DFi Labs to stand alongside elite quantitative firms such as World Quant and Cube, not through marketing, but through substance.

For those hoping to follow a similar path, his advice is refreshingly direct:

Do real research.
Expect failure.
Prioritise learning over early pay.
Seek environments with exceptional mentors.
Commit fully, or don’t bother.

In a field where the technical bar is unforgiving, commitment is the ultimate differentiator.

Listen to the full episode to hear Olivier’s insights on building AI-driven investment systems, managing risk in 24/7 markets, and staying relevant at the frontier of finance.

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