Cove
Simplifying DeFi for Institutional Users
Overview
Cove is institutional DeFi for high net worth individuals, treasuries, and pro traders. I led product design with Storm Labs, founded by Sunil Srivatsa, with Tarun Chitra (Gauntlet) as an investor. The work: turn fragmented onchain finance into one interface with banking app clarity.
Results
- Strong feedback from power users and institutional testers
- $1.5M TVL during pre-launch
- Two capital raises (~$3.5M latest)
- Community growth on Twitter and Discord
Context & Problem
Institutional users understood DeFi. They did not have speed, visibility, or control across protocols. Liquidity was fragmented. Costs stacked up moving between venues. Execution carried MEV and reordering risk. Running positions across protocols added operational overhead.
The goal was to hide protocol mechanics without diluting institutional grade functionality: a safe place to allocate liquidity, quickly.
Design Process
Discovery with product and engineering, low fidelity flow mapping, prototype testing with early users, Figma handoff into a component library, beta monitoring with live data, then feature launch and iteration.
Early work centered on three surfaces: Insights for portfolio visualization, a strategies table for data heavy traders, and deposit, the flow where trust is won or lost.
Product Interface
Four principles shaped the UX: plain language over protocol jargon, minimal steps on the deposit happy path, three step flows with clear progress, and one consolidated portfolio view.
Numbers lead. Token labels stay short. Tooltips appear at decision points. Rows expand when users need detail without leaving the page.
Design System
Patterns were documented in Figma and handed to engineering: strategy cards, data tables, deposit steps, and status states. New flows reused existing UI rather than shipping one off screens.
Brand
Brand and product share one surface. Illustration and voice run through the app, not only marketing. I owned flows and visual language end to end.
Reflection
Cove reinforced something I carry to other work: translate abstract protocol logic into flows that earn trust in seconds. Technical users still need to see what matters.