Camila Russo is the founder of The Defiant, a content platform composed of a daily newsletter, crypto news, and weekly podcast focused on decentralized finance and the open economy. Russo is also a former Bloomberg News reporter, and author of the book, The Infinite Machine. ^[1][3][5]

Education

Camila Russo attended Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, earning a B.S. in Journalism from 2004 - 2008. In 2009, she went to Northwestern University to study for a Master of Science degree in Journalism, Business reporting, magazine writing, and editing. ^[1]

Career

Camila Russo began her career 2007 as an International News Reporter at El Mercurio. She wrote breaking and feature stories for the global news section of El Mercurio newspaper, Chile's biggest print news company. In September 2010, she served as an Intern at Bloomberg News in New York. In March 2011, she joined Bloomberg fully as an Emerging Markets Reporter, became a European Stocks Reporter in August 2015, and made her way into a Markets Blogger for the organization until January 2019. ^[1][5]

In January 2019, Camila Russo left Bloomberg to become an independent writer focusing on volatile market corners like Argentina and cryptocurrencies. She also wrote a book, "The Infinite Machine," based on the foundation of Ethereum and the crypto bubble it helped create. HarperCollins published it in July 2020. ^[1][5]

The Defiant

Camila Russo founded The Defiant in June 2019. The Defiant is a media company headquartered in New York, US, dedicated to curating, digesting, and analyzing significant developments in DeFi. Camila is responsible for leading the company, interviewing industry leaders for the podcast, and overseeing the company's affairs. When asked how she started the company, Camila responded: ^[2]

"The person who first encouraged me to do a newsletter was Anthony Pompliano. He interviewed me for his podcast and we began talking. I told him I had this idea of doing a DeFi newsletter. And he really encouraged me, he pointed me to Substack."

"So I started following his newsletter much more closely as I was getting ready to launch The Defiant. I took a lot of inspiration from him on how he provides analysis on the market and how he has the free version and the paid version and how he has established a closer relationship with his paid subscribers" - Camila Russo^[4]

Camila works alongside Cooper Turley, who is a writer at The Defiant. These four other writers write every couple of weeks, a podcast editor, and she partners with Robin Schmidt to make the YouTube content. ^[4][5]

Camila Russo is also a public speaker and has spoken at a couple of conferences:

• CoinDesk’s Consensus: Invest, November 2018, New York
• United Nations’ Women Entrepreneurship Day, November 2018, New York
• Bloomberg Ideas, October 2018, New York
• Compound: Thesis, October 2018, San Francisco
• Token Fest: The Business of Blockchain, September 2018, Boston
• CoinDesk’s Consensus, May 2018, New York
• Blockchain Economic Forum, February 2018, Singapore. ^[5]

Interviews

The Defiant

In an interview on Beyond The Beat, Russo reflected on her career journey and the challenges of crypto journalism. She began her career at Bloomberg after an internship, where she had to push to be hired despite initial rejection. She highlighted the strict journalistic standards at Bloomberg, particularly the separation of editorial content from paid influence, which shaped her view of journalism. Russo expressed concerns about the crypto media landscape, citing a lack of investigative journalism and the prevalence of undisclosed paid content. Despite improvements in coverage, she criticized the widespread conflict of interest in crypto journalism, as many outlets are owned by exchanges or funds, questioning their editorial independence. ^[6]

DeFi Media

In an interview with Dynamo DeFi, Russo discussed her life before founding The Defiant in 2019. She spent eight years as a reporter at Bloomberg, working in New York, Argentina, Spain, and again in New York. During her time in Argentina, she covered the country's economic challenges and the rise of Bitcoin as an alternative store of value, which sparked her interest in cryptocurrency. In 2017, she became the first Bloomberg journalist to cover crypto daily, which led her to write The Infinite Machine. After Bloomberg declined her proposal to start a dedicated crypto team, Russo left to pursue her venture, turning The Defiant into a multi-channel media company. Despite early challenges, including navigating bear markets, Russo focused on building a sustainable and independent company, establishing it as a notable DeFi-focused media brand. Throughout her journey, she balanced her work with being a new mother, emphasizing the need for community support and flexible work arrangements. ^[7]

Panels

DeFi & Staking

At the 2024 Blockchain Futurist Conference, Russo moderated the “DeFi & Staking: Shaping the New Era of Investments” panel with panelists Ben Thalman (Figment), Dina Mainville (Collisionless), Robert Balazs (ByteX), and Mike Silagadze (ether.fi). They explored key topics such as staking's role in proof-of-stake blockchains, risks, and emerging trends. Participants discussed the misconception of staking as a "risk-free rate," emphasizing that while it offers returns, it carries risks like lockup periods, smart contract vulnerabilities, and slashing. The discussion also touched on "restaking," a leveraging staked assets across multiple networks to earn additional rewards. While restaking is still in its early stages, panelists acknowledged that its long-term sustainability would depend on real-world utility, which could take years to develop. The conversation also highlighted the importance of understanding the underlying products generating yield and the potential future regulatory oversight in the DeFi space. ^[8]

Women in Crypto

The "ACJR Women in Crypto: Moving Up! Webinar" featured three women discussing their experiences in the crypto industry, focusing on gender-related challenges. Panelists included Laura Shin from Unchained, Camila Russo from The Defiant, and Katherine Ross and Molly Jane Zuckerman from Blockworks. They shared stories of facing online harassment, with Shin detailing a recent attack on social media for canceling an interview. The conversation touched on the objectification women in crypto often face, contrasting their experiences with male colleagues who rarely encounter similar scrutiny. Despite these challenges, the panel emphasized the importance of persistence and building credibility in a male-dominated field. ^[9]