been spending some time thinking about the state of crypto options and why the vertical has struggled to replicate the explosive growth we’ve seen in perps the appetite for leverage is clearly there. crypto traders have demonstrated that repeatedly. options introduce an entirely different dimension to expressing risk, particularly around volatility, convexity and asymmetric payoffs. yet onchain adoption remains relatively nascent liquidity is fragmented across strikes and expiries, market makers have to warehouse more complex risks, and attracting consistent taker flow remains an uphill battle RFQ infrastructure is maturing, capital efficiency is improving, and execution is becoming increasingly sophisticated. still, there’s a considerable gap between having the infrastructure to facilitate options trading and cultivating a market people actively want to trade which makes me wonder: are we still trying to solve an options liquidity problem, or have we reached the point where distribution and sustained organic demand are the real binding constraints?

is it time - again the Tendiemen pump cometh like a thief in the night this boils down to how much more dip can you stomach** conviction is king and yea my edge is that i dont care

made this prediction a year ago and i’m even more convinced now that streaming remains one of the most undervalued opportunities in crypto Ansem is already pushing the boundaries with Market Bubble, threadguy has been killing it, and we’re seeing Rasmr, Easy, TulipKing and others build around the format i genuinely think crypto streaming could 10x over the coming months. there’s a much bigger opportunity here than creators making money from views and sponsorships. streaming gives people a front-row seat to the culture, personalities, trading and conversations shaping this industry and that’s a pretty powerful way to bring normies into crypto. people who would never read a whitepaper or spend hours scrolling CT might discover the space through a creator they enjoy watching the economics are compelling too. sponsorships, platform revenue, partnerships and communities built around these personalities could become serious businesses i expect more traders, researchers and builders to start streaming as the opportunity becomes increasingly obvious. attention has always been one of crypto’s biggest distribution channels. streaming could become one of its most effective still think we’re early here

been increasingly convinced that onchain options represent one of the largest untapped opportunities in crypto Marlon’s research reinforces something i’ve been thinking about: the demand for convexity has already been validated across multiple markets. the harder question is how that demand gets translated into sustainable onchain activity there’s a fascinating market structure problem here. retail flow attracts market makers, deeper liquidity improves execution, better execution attracts more flow, and eventually you get a self-reinforcing liquidity cycle but distribution is what gets that flywheel moving i suspect the next major unlock comes from abstracting away much of the complexity around options while preserving the flexibility that makes them valuable. wallets, aggregators and existing trading interfaces could become increasingly important distribution channels the protocols that solve liquidity and capital efficiency while positioning themselves at the center of that distribution network could capture enormous value still think we’re very early in understanding how large this market can become

crypto options are further along than many people realize, but the onchain market still has a lot to prove the data offers a useful starting point Derive, Paradex and Dream are already recording options activity at different scales. yet the bigger question isn’t simply how much volume each venue processes today it’s what needs to happen for that activity to compound. options markets are harder to bootstrap than perps. liquidity is fragmented across strikes and expiries. market makers need to manage nonlinear exposure. traders need reliable pricing, efficient execution and a usable way to manage positions those challenges shape the opportunity Derive is building options infrastructure and risk systems. Dream is focused on making options more accessible through its trading experience. Paradex brings another approach to the derivatives market their approaches differ, but the broader question is shared: can better infrastructure, liquidity and distribution bring more traders into onchain options? volume is one signal. spreads, executable depth, open interest and repeat usage will tell us more about whether the market is becoming durable i think we’re still early to see how large this category can become onchain. the next phase will be decided by execution, not just product launches

been following the growing conversations around potential grid blackouts, cyberattacks and emergency preparedness across the US, UK and Europe there’s something worth paying attention to here. we’ve built an increasingly interconnected civilization where electricity, telecommunications, banking, water systems and digital infrastructure depend heavily on one another. a serious disruption in one can cascade across several others and with AI accelerating electricity demand while critical infrastructure becomes more digitally connected, the attack surface and consequences of systemic failure deserve considerably more attention i wouldn’t interpret government preparedness advisories as evidence of an imminent catastrophe. but dismissing the underlying vulnerabilities would be equally shortsighted the next decade will demand far more investment in energy resilience, cybersecurity, redundancy and infrastructure capable of functioning under stress we’ve optimized much of modern civilization for efficiency. how much of it has actually been engineered for resilience?

i still think crypto options are one of the most underappreciated verticals in this industry, and i won’t quit preaching it. ignore the current market conditions for a moment. ignore bitcoin’s recent price action and the broader deterioration in sentiment. there’s a much bigger structural opportunity developing beneath all that noise we’ve spent years watching perpetual futures evolve into one of crypto’s most competitive markets. liquidity has deepened, execution has improved, and onchain derivatives have demonstrated that sophisticated financial infrastructure can attract meaningful activity options are still considerably earlier in that evolution. the opportunity extends far beyond speculative leverage. we’re talking about volatility as a tradable asset, downside protection, structured yield, portfolio hedging, and entirely new ways for participants to express views without relying exclusively on directional exposure but there’s a reason adoption has been slower. options require better liquidity across strikes and expiries, more intuitive interfaces, efficient collateral management, and infrastructure capable of serving both sophisticated traders and ordinary users. solving those problems could unlock a substantially larger market i’m particularly constructive on what Derive is building, alongside other emerging protocols approaching this opportunity from different angles. there’s still a lot of room for experimentation, and i suspect some of the most consequential developments in this vertical are yet to happen. of course, adoption won’t materialize simply because the technology exists. market makers need sustainable economics, users need compelling reasons to participate, and protocols need to translate trading activity into durable value still, my conviction remains intact. the demand for sophisticated risk management isn’t disappearing, and crypto’s financial infrastructure is nowhere near its final form. make no mistake, i think onchain options will have a much bigger role to play in the next phase of this industry there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. Happy weekend

been watching the discourse around FaZe Banks, Kimchi, Bottega Veneta and the broader question of what actually moves crypto markets. think there’s a much bigger conversation here than people are acknowledging i’ve always believed vibes matter in crypto. culture has historically been one of this industry’s most effective distribution mechanisms. memes create attention, attention attracts liquidity, and liquidity can accelerate entire ecosystems. we’ve seen this play out repeatedly but somewhere along the way, we’ve started conflating cultural relevance with economic substance. the suggestion that markets appreciate primarily because of swag and aura, independent of monetary conditions, technological progress or risk appetite, feels like a fundamental misunderstanding of how capital gets allocated vibes can influence where speculative liquidity concentrates. they have considerably less control over how much liquidity exists in the first place a celebrity endorsement or luxury fashion collaboration might introduce a new audience to crypto. fair enough. but what happens after the initial attention dissipates? how much of that audience becomes economically active? how much capital stays? what meaningful utility or recurring demand emerges? these are the questions that determine whether cultural distribution translates into something durable and frankly, i think crypto has developed an unhealthy tendency to celebrate visibility before interrogating what that visibility actually produces. we’re operating in an industry where users still face considerable security risks, fragmented liquidity, poor interfaces, questionable incentive structures and infrastructure that remains inaccessible to most people meanwhile, some of the most consequential work is happening in areas that rarely command the same attention: derivatives infrastructure, capital efficiency, privacy, payments, better execution and the gradual abstraction of complexity none of these developments require crypto to abandon its culture. if anything, culture becomes infinitely more valuable when there’s something substantive behind it solana’s rise, for instance, was accompanied by an extraordinary cultural movement. but that movement also had infrastructure, applications, liquidity and sustained user activity to organize around. the cultural momentum and the underlying ecosystem reinforced each other i’m all for crypto becoming culturally relevant beyond our little corner of the internet. fashion, entertainment and mainstream collaborations can absolutely play a role in that expansion but we should be careful about mistaking attention for adoption, or a moment of virality for evidence of lasting product-market fit. the industry has spent years proving it can manufacture attention the next phase should be about proving how much of that attention it can convert into enduring economic activity. vibes matter. what survives after the vibes fade matters considerably more

crypto options are further along than many people realize, but the onchain market still has a lot to prove the data offers a useful starting point Derive, Paradex and Dream are already recording options activity at different scales. yet the bigger question isn’t simply how much volume each venue processes today it’s what needs to happen for that activity to compound. options markets are harder to bootstrap than perps. liquidity is fragmented across strikes and expiries. market makers need to manage nonlinear exposure. traders need reliable pricing, efficient execution and a usable way to manage positions those challenges shape the opportunity Derive is building options infrastructure and risk systems. Dream is focused on making options more accessible through its trading experience. Paradex brings another approach to the derivatives market their approaches differ, but the broader question is shared: can better infrastructure, liquidity and distribution bring more traders into onchain options? volume is one signal. spreads, executable depth, open interest and repeat usage will tell us more about whether the market is becoming durable i think we’re still early to see how large this category can become onchain. the next phase will be decided by execution, not just product launches

idk plus i dont think its slowing down from here i mean nothing is slowing down && tbh this will be my first proper bull market yet lets see how it goes i hope it favors me goodly (generational wealth) and yea i remain a delusional optimist