You guys aren't ready for the conversation of what @DeriveXYZ will enable for peer to peer trading for options. We're barely scratching the surface for $DRV. Some of the very first $LIT options traded on chain. No market makers required. Thanks for the trade @DeFi_Dad

Have 300x 100/125k $BTC call spreads for Dec25, but there's lots of different ways to express "$BTC to ATH by Christmas". This is just how I am. Thought being I'm not positive we can crack $100k by then, but if we do, a run at ATH is an interesting bet. If you were to do 80k/125k x300 $BTC you have $4m more upside (max $11.4m), but it also costs about 5.5x as much at $2.1m premium vs 377k for the 100/125.

Just put on this $ZEC put ladder on @DeriveXYZ. Dec25 expiry, buying 2500x1200P, selling 2500x1000P and 2500x800P. Paid $100k premium, max PNL $400k between 800-1000, breakevens at 640 and 1160. Could be a punt with how strong $ZEC has been, see this as both a hedge to some spot holdings and a bet that maybe Garrett just done goofed and pico topped the $ZEC market. Possible EOY weakness and just sheer gravity gives some good confluence for betting on at least some $ZEC pull back. Prefer expressing this view through puts so I don't get my face ripped being short on perps. Wouldn't pile into this one like you guys did with the 5000/7000 $ETH CS, but figured I'd share for fun.

"There is no second best", but if there was, it sure as hell wouldn't be ethereum:0x0f2d719407fdbeff09d87557abb7232601fd9f29. I mentioned months ago that if you really wanna diversify the on chain options thesis out, ethereum:0xb32e10022ffbedfe10bc818a1c7e67d9d87e0fa7 and $LIT are the only really viable liquid investments outside of ethereum:0xb1d1eae60eea9525032a6dcb4c1ce336a1de71be. I think the entire sector can 10x in 2027, and each team/token has their own unique value prop and bull case. My honest thoughts on the sector: ethereum:0xb1d1eae60eea9525032a6dcb4c1ce336a1de71be is the massive incumbent obviously. I expect them to be a huge player for all mainnet adjacent derivatives. People genuinely aren't thinking big enough here imo. Structured products like accumulators, principal protected vaults (think $ETH staking yield where the yield goes to buying calls), covered call on chain ETF's, yield products and vaults, etc etc. Options are pretty infinitely programmable DeFi lego blocks and the TAM here is in the trillions. Tons of teams are already building on top of @DeriveXYZ liquidity, and after the v3 update and this price move, I expect way more. $LIT likely has an inside track on RWAs due to the Robinhood connection. I find this to be a double edged sword though because I don't know how good of PMF on chain RWA options trading will have when you can just... use Robinhood itself. Their RWA perps haven't really gotten great traction relative to @HyperliquidX, but I expect there to be a decent amount of options trading from $LIT bulls happy to keep their money in the ecosystem. Make no mistake about it though, @Lighter_xyz has one of the most technically skilled teams in all of crypto, and they'll absolutely come in swinging. @paradex got clowned for their pretty bad ethereum:0xb32e10022ffbedfe10bc818a1c7e67d9d87e0fa7 TGE, but this is still Paradigm with all the rails and expertise that comes with routing half of Deribit volume all these years. Extremely talented team, very heavy focus on privacy. Could see an interesting angle where they do well with AIPAC users and more institutional traders who are used to Paradigm and value privacy more. @SynapseProtocol actually has a very smart founder, @trajan0x, despite their moronic mascot. They're making the bet that tying into Hyperliquid perp liquidity is a huge advantage. I disagree that traders and market makers value this as heavily as they do since all market makers are already running cross venue, and still most heavily on Binance since that's where all the altcoin spot/perp liquidity still is. However, I think they'll have an interesting angle for pre-IPO equities and pre-TGE tokens since Hyperliquid tends to dominate those markets and that's where the cross margining with HL perps actually does matter. I just think that niche doesn't justify the current valuation yet since the metrics are pretty much zero right now. There's no realistic world where @DeriveXYZ remains 95% market share in a sector with this much opportunity. I wouldn't be surprised to see them drop to 60-80% market share in 2027, but the market in question grows 10x. Smaller piece of a MUCH bigger pie. At the end of the day, they're all going to a lot of the same market makers, and liquidity/quotes should tend to coalesce around the same place. What really matters is distribution, interoperability, and moat. I think options do tend to be more winner take all and users/flows are more "sticky" than perps though, and ethereum:0xb1d1eae60eea9525032a6dcb4c1ce336a1de71be pumping also means they'll get more market makers interested in providing liquidity, better distribution through wallet/partner "builder codes", better talent acquisition etc. @DeriveXYZ will be extremely hard to displace, just like Deribit has been despite being asleep at the wheel since their acquisition. A lot of these teams have been building out options for YEARS, and ethereum:0xb1d1eae60eea9525032a6dcb4c1ce336a1de71be pumping rerates all of them upwards, and I'm happy that all these teams are likely to get rewarded for years of grinding. On chain options will be considerably less zero sum than perps are right now, and all of these can experience huge TAM expansion into their own unique verticals. It's just a huge mistake to think "I missed ethereum:0xb1d1eae60eea9525032a6dcb4c1ce336a1de71be, what's cheaper" imo. If anything, their bull case got much stronger from this pump.

As right as I was on $DRV, I was very wrong on being long base:0x940181a94a35a4569e4529a3cdfb74e38fd98631 vs a much smaller $UNI short these last 1-2 months. Just didn't adjust fast enough to how much RH Chain rerated $UNI. However, I think now is the time to double (or more) down on that trade. Chart courtesy of @pear_protocol, AERO/UNI looks extremely bottomed out here on a very long time horizon. $UNI bullish catalysts are fully priced in, maybe even exceedingly so. $UNI has been traded as pure RH Chain beta, memecoin launchpad exposure, and now as tokenized equity exposure. Any invalidation on any those themes and the floor falls out for $UNI. base:0x940181a94a35a4569e4529a3cdfb74e38fd98631 on the other hand has barely caught any bid with the same tokenized equity tailwind, and the very soon to be $ETH mainnet deployment (maybe more chains? 👀). base:0x940181a94a35a4569e4529a3cdfb74e38fd98631 doesn't need to beat $UNI on mainnet or other chains to rerate dramatically, even just 20-30% of ETH spot volume moving to @aeroxyz would justify a pretty huge surge on the pair considering base:0x940181a94a35a4569e4529a3cdfb74e38fd98631 is trading at 15% of the valuation. The reason I prefer this as a pair trade (or pear trade since I used @pear_protocol) is that there's a very good chance they both move in the same direction from here, I just think base:0x940181a94a35a4569e4529a3cdfb74e38fd98631 has way less bullishness to unwind if we local top, and WAY more upside if their @coinbase tokenized equities or ETH mainnet deployment surprise to the upside.

What's the last token that had decent CEX/CLOB spot liquidity but no perps listing and not much on chain liquidity? I'm genuinely curious, I'm not sure there is a good precedent for the current $DRV PA mechanics

Seriously, I'm not much of a podcast listener myself but I really liked their episode with @nickforster prior to mine. I talked with @DeFi_Dad and @Nomaticcap for probably 3.5-4hrs when I only really expected it to last about an hour. Was extremely fun. Long @edge_pod, would definitely do it again.

There's so much evidence to prove that the @HyperliquidX spot listing for ethereum:0xb1d1eae60eea9525032a6dcb4c1ce336a1de71be was one of the necessary catalysts for the token to take off. You guys have no idea the crime that takes place around listings on CEXs. Easily the shadiest part of the industry. $HYPE 🤝🏼 $DRV

“I don’t necessarily think kinetiq:native hitting $1 is more likely than it was before. I just think that if there is a bullish move, it’s now $5.” @koolkrypto223's Kinetiq bull case, explained. (Also, listen for some @Markets_xyz alpha at the end 👀)

Makes me really happy to see so many finding out about Derive for the first time this week. The team and I love the feedback, keep it coming. Here are some thoughts: 1. “The UI/UX is too complicated for beginners” - this is fair, the UI is deliberately geared towards experienced options traders and institutions. To date this has been the overwhelming majority of our users and volume. For now, you can find the ‘strategy builder’ feature in the RFQ tab which helps craft options strategies according to your market view, for a simpler experience. More importantly - we don't want to build every retail options experience ourselves. We want hundreds of teams building them on top of Derive. Because options are so tailorable (extremely precise, tailorable strategies for any asset over any duration), there are going to be a ton of different flavours of options based products that are created and successful, across retail trading, structured products, quantitative investment strategies, and vaults. I think that this is one of the biggest unexplored businesses you can build in crypto ATM. V3 is built to support seamless integrations for builders who want to do this. I know of 5+ great teams already working on it. Reach out to me directly if this is something you are doing, and check out the docs here: 2. “My RFQ order isn’t getting a quote/the quote isn’t great.” Orders over ~5m notional or on longer tail alts might need 5-10 minutes for market makers to respond manually. We have a few great MMs that are on autoquotes, but that isn’t (yet) 24/7. So if you don’t love the quote or it looks far from the mark, give it 5-10 minutes when using RFQ (you can also go to the orderbook for instant fills). We have onboarded some major new MMs just this week, so you can expect this to continuously improve. It is our top priority. Keep the feedback coming here. 3. ‘I have a position that has gone deep ITM and I want to get out and liquidity is bad on the orderbook/RFQ.’ Hear you on this - it is one of the tougher challenges in options to build true 24/7 liquidity on deep ITM/OTM strikes with very little time to expiry. We have some programs rolling out for MMers to incentivise liquidity and improve spreads on these. Feel free to reach out to the team directly if you can’t find the quote (you can also delta hedge with perps, which get cross-margined against your options position). Working on it. 4. Wen more RWAs? Very soon Please keep the feedback coming, we are working on a number of different fronts atm with all of the new demand, so if you see something not addressed just know that we hear it and it will be addressed.

🎙️ New @Edge_Pod 🐂 Kool Krypto: The Story Behind The Anon DeFi Investor & Trader | What He's Betting On This Cycle 0:00 - Intro 2:25 - From mining BTC at 13 to fund manager 5:25 - Early to ETHLend and DeFi 7:38 - The poker game that led to a fund 10:26 - Is TradFi “in the arena” with DeFi? 14:17 - Early to onchain perps like GMX, HL 20:13 - Liquid fund, yield gen, and a little VC 23:28 - Why Kool doesn’t trade memecoins 28:01 - The DRV bull thesis 41:14 - Kool’s winning BTC call spread 45:58 - Pros/cons of Derive’s RFQ trading 50:14 - AI agents, a tailwind for options 52:50 - His onchain options trading tools 56:29 - Pros/cons of options vs perps 1:02:37 - Managing risk and closing trades 1:05:35 - Why Opulent October makes sense 1:11:12 - His viral ETH call spread on Derive 1:17:38 - Bull thesis for KNTQ 1:25:07 - Derive V3’s ability to list new markets 1:28:31 - What if HL/Lighter launch options? 1:34:19 - Why Kool remains bullish on LIT 1:38:24 - Closing 🙏 Thanks to @koolkrypto223 for joining us!

Since my first ethereum:0xb1d1eae60eea9525032a6dcb4c1ce336a1de71be buys at $0.04, I increased my bag size (# of tokens not notional $) by about 7.5x. I genuinely felt that the investment got less risky as the price went up. Execution risk down, token warchest up, narrative strengthened. A lot of tokens have this relationship with price. Success begets success. $LIT was similar, buying at $0.80 felt risky, buying at $2 felt obvious. $HYPE too. Buying at TGE felt insane, buying at $20 felt like a steal. Investing size into tokens you think are over 50% likely to 3x is much comfier than 5% chance to 30x. Absolutely not saying you should or shouldn't top blast a +100% day, but I tend to detach myself from price in the moment and frequently size up on winners as they win.

Deribit's $ZEC options market is so privacy coded that you...can't actually see it. It doesn't exist. It might never exist realistically due to $ZEC being a privacy coin. The big break for @DeriveXYZ earlier this year was listing $HYPE options months before Deribit did, and they now dominate that market. If $ZEC continues to be the next PvE runner, it's just another mass onboarding event for Derive. And then it'll be $LIT ...and $VVV ...and $PUMP ...and $DRV itself 👀 The biggest mistake people made was thinking on chain options lost to perps because of how long it's taken to get to this point. There just weren't enough interesting, quality assets to list liquid options markets for, and building it all is HARD. On chain options are going to look like the 5'5 late bloomer who everyone bullied and then he hit 6'5 over a single summer.

Yeah not sure enough people have connected the dots on what happens if the combined PNL of all of our $ETH calls exceeds the market cap of ethereum:0xb1d1eae60eea9525032a6dcb4c1ce336a1de71be Enriching early users was a big reason $HYPE had such staying power and fanatic support. A lot of that PNL will find it's way back to the token. Probably the cheapest the first fee discount tier (200,000 ethereum:0xb1d1eae60eea9525032a6dcb4c1ce336a1de71be) will get. Derive Assistance Fund go brrrrr

Darn, our permissionless systems meant to obsolete the current rails didn't get permission from boomers owned by the current rails... There's no stopping the inexorable march towards trustless, permissionless finance. Nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.

As I watch millions of $ETH perps longs get liquidated here (might mostly be Machi at this point), all I can say is I'm feeling awfully path independent in my $ETH calls... Overall, this is the extra leg I wanted to really back up the truck. Still more bids further down but getting some good fills. Bring on the SEC and CFTC guidance and exemptions, better than being beholden to the literally and figuratively braindead ghouls and corpses in the Senate.