Ribbon

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Julian Ko is the co-founder of Ribbon, a company experimenting with structured products in DeFi. He says he and his roommate were trying to make money off yield farming last summer when they realized it was becoming absurd. They started seeing Asian brokers selling these types of structured products initially to large Bitcoin miners and institutions. The pair thought that this could be more sustainable because you can trade them forever as long as crypto options exists.

*Apologies for the audio quality this week! Usual quality will resume in the next episode

DeFi has been accused of being propped up by unsustainable ponzis - can Ribbon be the solution?

Ribbon is a DeFi protocol that allows users access to crypto structured products. Till date, they reported over $10 billion in notional volume and claims to offer 24% on their ETH - despite being in a bear market.

Today, Ribbon’s Co-Founder Julian Koh shares with us:

How Ribbon generates yield
Building new products vs integrating with others
What is takes to revive DeFi
Potential regulations on crypto space

Host: Jason Choi @mrjasonchoi . Not financial advice.

------------ Timestamps -------------

(00:00:00) – Introduction

(00:03:41) – Road to founding Ribbon

(00:07:34) – Primer on structured products

(00:11:31) – Risks of capital loss on Ribbon

(00:14:16) – Managing options with automated smart contracts

(00:16:00) – Preventing market makers from front-running

(00:19:42) – Types of Ribbon’s customers

(00:21:14) – Reasons for Ribbon’s success

(00:23:18) – New Ribbon products and plans

(00:31:55) – Is composability just a meme

(00:35:37) – Underwriting lending risks

(00:39:27) – Moving away from Opyn & building own exchange

(00:47:38) – Allowing DAOs to issue bonds

(00:51:50) – Primary drivers of future of DeFi

(00:58:26) – Potential regulations on crypto-space

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----------- More Resources ---------

Guest

Julian’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/juliankoh

Ribbon Finance’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribbonfinance

Blockcrunch

Blockcrunch VIP: https://blockcrunch.substack.com/

Blockcrunch Twitter: https://twitter.com/theBlockcrunch

Jason Choi’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrjasonchoi

------------ Disclosures -------------

Disclaimer: The Blockcrunch Podcast (“Blockcrunch”) is an educational resource intended for informational purposes only. Blockcrunch produces a weekly podcast and newsletter that routinely covers projects in Web 3 and may discuss assets that the host or its guests have financial exposure to. Views held by Blockcrunch’s guests are their own. None of Blockcrunch, its registered entity or any of its affiliated personnel are licensed to provide any type of financial advice, and nothing on Blockcrunch’s podcast, newsletter, website and social media should be construed as financial advice. Blockcrunch also receives compensation from its sponsor; sponsorship messages do not constitute financial advice or endorsement.