Steakhouse's Cachinero: On-Chain Vaults Will Replace Traditional ETFs

Adrian Cachinero, co-founder of vault curator Steakhouse Financial, believes that the next wave of institutional crypto adoption won't come from high-yield experiments but from overcollateralized lending markets.

Speaking on Bankless, Cachinero outlined a three-layer vault architecture: infrastructure, curators, and distributors. He argues that this structure can deliver better investor protections than legacy finance by embedding regulatory compliance directly into smart contracts.

Cachinero plans to engage with the SEC directly, arguing that on-chain vaults can enforce regulations better and quicker than existing frameworks.

However, he acknowledged an unresolved principal-agent problem: curators earn performance fees while depositors bear all principal risk. Steakhouse has publicly committed to covering losses from its own treasury, but Cachinero admits this is a social promise, not a cryptographic guarantee.