Umami Labs CEO Alex O’Donnell grew up near Philadelphia and attended Temple University, where he studied literature and economics. Afterward, he spent seven years as a financial journalist at Reuters, specializing in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and initial public offerings (IPOs). However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, O’Donnell became disillusioned with the media industry and began exploring cryptocurrency. This led him to Umami DAO and eventually to the creation of Umami Labs.
O’Donnell is currently preparing for the arrival of his third child and is also gearing up for another crypto-related venture, which he plans to announce in the coming months.
In terms of transitioning from journalism to crypto, O’Donnell became more interested in issues like privacy and censorship during the pandemic. He started actively investing in different crypto protocols in 2021 and became involved in ZeroTwOhm, a predecessor to Umami Labs. The developers of ZeroTwOhm were looking for someone to take over the project, and O’Donnell stepped in.
Currently, O’Donnell is focused on addressing the need for a secure and reliable way to earn interest on stablecoins held in on-chain wallets. He is collaborating with others to develop a solution and plans to share more details in the near future.
Looking ahead to 2024, O’Donnell believes there will be a shift in the crypto market, with decentralized finance (DeFi) becoming more integrated with traditional finance (TradFi). Major players like Coinbase and Circle are obtaining licenses to engage in a wider array of financial activities, while companies like Fidelity and BlackRock are developing regulated crypto investment products.
As for investments, O’Donnell is primarily interested in Ether (ETH) and its staking derivatives. He believes ETH has a clear underlying value proposition and sees potential in staking protocols like Lido and Eigen Layer.
The main hurdle to mass adoption of blockchain technology, according to O’Donnell, is the need for established companies in the traditional financial sector to fully integrate blockchain protocols and take advantage of its potential. Once this fusion occurs, blockchain will become a part of everyday financial transactions and activities.
