Few startup journeys begin with a vampire attack, but for Connor Howe, CEO and co-founder of Enso, that chaos became a proving ground.

What had started as a social DeFi platform quickly evolved through hard-won lessons into something that’s currently far more ambitious – a unified intent engine for Web3, a DeFi super app, if you will.

In this interview, Howe reflects on the pivots, the pain points, and the revelations that led to Enso’s vision of radically simplifying on-chain development. He shares how intent-based design shifts developer thinking, what it means to build with abstraction in mind, and why Enso’s recent $3B milestone is just the beginning.

From vampire attacks to intent engines — Enso’s journey has evolved rapidly. Looking back, what was the pivotal moment when you realized shortcuts and intent-based development weren’t just features, but the foundation for a whole new kind of infrastructure?

We’ve been through two pivots to get to where we are and have experienced the hurdles of building in Web3 firsthand. We started with the vampire attack and a social trading product, where we integrated 15 DeFi protocols. That alone took months and over $500k in audits. Then we pivoted to a DeFi super app, which required even more protocol support. But in that process, we discovered a fast and secure way to integrate any protocol and standardized common onchain actions across smart contracts. When launching the DeFi super app, we supported 50+ protocols. Other builders noticed and started asking how we did it. So we spun up an API, and in the first week, it saw $11M in volume.

That was the moment it clicked. Shortcuts aren’t just a feature, but the foundation. We don’t have too many apps in Web3, we have too few. And it’s because building them is too hard. We lived through that pain, and built Enso to fix it. Not just for us, but for everyone.

One of the most persistent issues in Web3 is fragmentation across chains and protocols. Enso proposes a unification layer through intents, but what are the biggest architectural or governance challenges in maintaining that kind of composability across a decentralized landscape?

One of the biggest architectural challenges is that every blockchain speaks a different “language”, i.e. different speeds, block sizes, and quirks in how contracts are written, deployed and executed. Composability becomes a nightmare when you’re a developer trying to stitch together these fundamentally different systems. 

Enso acts as a unification layer that approaches this from the bottom up. Rather than forcing developers to think in terms of chain-specific implementations, Enso abstracts that complexity away. To make this scalable, the Enso network encompasses the full stack for reading data and executing onchain. It’s a decentralized, open network where developers and AI agents can contribute data feeds and smart contract information, enabling fast, reliable execution across an ever-growing number of blockchains.

The idea of intent-driven development sounds intuitive, even obvious, once you hear it — but it challenges decades of imperative software thinking. What do you think needs to shift in developer mindsets (especially from Web2) for shortcut engines to feel natural?

Developers need to shift from thinking in actions to thinking in outcomes. In Web2 and traditional Web3 development, the focus is on defining every step manually. But in an intent-driven model, you define what you want, not how to get there, and let the engine handle finding the best route. That requires trust in orchestration layers, but more importantly, a philosophical shift: abstraction is not a loss of control, it’s a gain in efficiency. Web2 devs already work with high-level APIs and compilers. Blockchain shortcuts are just the next evolution in Web3: reliable, proven paths of execution that fulfill intent requests.

Graphers and Action Providers form the core of how Enso generates and optimizes on-chain solutions. What have you learned from watching these roles in action? 

The Enso network is powered by three core participants:

• Action Providers contribute modular smart contract abstractions. 
• Graphers build algorithms that combine these actions into executable solutions. Only one solution is selected per request, so graphers are rewarded for finding the most optimal path.
• Validators secure the network by authenticating requests, verifying contributions, simulating transactions, and validating the final solution.

Each request to Enso incurs a query fee, paid in ENSO tokens and distributed across all three roles. This creates a flywheel: more usage leads to more rewards, driving further contribution, optimization, and decentralization.

At the time of writing, the Enso token sale is live on CoinList, giving everyone the chance to become part of and participate in the Enso network at favorable terms.

You’ve spoken before about how most Web3 teams are forced to “choose what frameworks they support” due to limited resources. Do you think we’re nearing a point where this kind of technical exclusivity will become obsolete?

Enso is working on making this obsolete by unifying all smart contracts, chains, and protocols into one network. Web3 teams will no longer be forced to choose from different frameworks, they will have a single point of access with read and write functionality to interact with any smart contract on any chain from a single integration. This will empower developers to build seamless, consumer-facing applications used by hundreds of thousands of users.

Enso recently hit a major milestone, achieving more than $3 billion in transaction volume. What’s next? 

Supporting Berachain’s launch and their pre-deposit campaign “Boyco” as the main infrastructure provider was a big accomplishment for the whole team. Enso’s infrastructure processed $3.1B in 3 days, one of the largest liquidity migrations in DeFi’s history. It proved not only the value of Enso, but also demonstrated the reliability and scalability of the infrastructure under real conditions.

As a next step, Enso is evolving from a powerful API into a fully decentralized network. First, we will open up the Enso DeFi library, allowing anyone to contribute contract abstractions, broadening the opportunities, and enabling even faster development.

Enso is currently available on many EVM chains, and another large innovation will be expanding to Solana and Move based blockchains. This expansion will further enhance our customers’ ability to build composable applications and interact with all of the blockchain ecosystem through one source. 

Disclaimer: The content shared in this interview is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice, investment recommendation, or endorsement of any project, protocol, or asset. The cryptocurrency space involves risk and volatility. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with qualified professionals before making any financial decisions. This interview was conducted in cooperation with Enso, who generously shared their time and insights. The content has been reviewed and approved for publication in mutual understanding. Minor edits have been made for clarity and readability, while preserving the substance and tone of the original conversation.

ADA failed to hold above 60 cents as it seeks support lower.

Key Support levels: $0.50, $0.45

Key Resistance levels: $0.64, $0.90, $1.3

1. Sellers Pushed ADA Under 60 Cents

With buyers remaining on the defensive, ADA’s price fell under 60 cents and appears unable to reclaim this key psychological level. At the time of this post, the price is under $0.58 and could fall to the support at $0.50 where buyers showed interests in the past.

2. Bearish Momentum Increases

The daily RSI fell into oversold territory on Sunday and bounced outside of this zone on Monday. However, at this time, this indicator is falling again. This shows weakness in the price action and inability of buyers to reverse this downtrend. Hopefully, the support at 50 cents will stop the selloff.

3. Sellers Dominate

The daily volume shows that sellers are making higher highs. They hold the initiative and can dictate price direction. Bounces are brief and are likely the result of shorts being closed which means sellers need to buy to close positions. Unfortunately, the price also made a lower low on Sunday which is a bearish signal.

The XRP Ledger (XRPL) has launched version 2.5.0 of its software, bringing several improvements to the network.

This marks a major step for XRPL, which is working to compete more directly with blockchain platforms like Ethereum and Solana.

Updates and Bug Fixes

One of the release’s most notable features is support for batch transactions. This allows multiple requests to be grouped and processed together as a single unit, improving efficiency and enabling complex multistep operations.

Another key update adds escrow support for RLUSD and other crypto assets on XRPL. Escrows can now interact with trustline-based tokens as well as multi-purpose ones. This enables automated and secure payouts, which can be useful for setting up vesting schedules and managing deposits within applications.

Version 2.5.0 also introduces permissioned decentralized exchange (DEX) controls and permission delegation. The former gives developers control over who can participate in exchanges, helping projects meet regulatory requirements. The latter allows users to provide specific access rights to another wallet, offering more account management and automation flexibility.

Furthermore, the update brings several bug fixes affecting RPC responses for tem codes and NFT interactions with trustlines. Vet, a popular XRPL validator, said these changes will make its software run faster, more efficiently, and more stably.

New Features and Improvements

The XRPL software update has also brought new features and enhancements to improve performance, reliability, and developer experience. The network can now handle more transactions simultaneously, and the relay logic has improved.

XRPL Commons has also been added as a trusted bootstrap cluster, which supports better network connectivity. In addition, the upgrade fixes an issue related to conflicting signing methods by improving how the system handles transactions from accounts using multiple signers.

Other changes include better memory usage, reduced duplicate network traffic, faster build times, clearer documentation, and updated developer tools. Build instructions have also been improved for systems using Ubuntu 22.04 and above.

Leading up to the update, daily XRPL addresses soared seven times, jumping from around 40,000 to nearly 295,000. Meanwhile, whale wallets also set a new record by hitting an all-time high of 2,708, the largest number in the network’s 12-year history.

This growth comes as other blockchains like Solana face declining metrics, including a $2.5 billion capital outflow and a 90% drop in DEX volume since its January peak of $36 billion. The platform is also facing reduced meme coin activity due to competitors like BNB Chain. Ethereum has also been affected by scalability issues, leading to congestion and high gas fees during peak periods. Following the upgrade, XRP has gained nearly 6% and is trading at $2.20.