When Shift Happens Podcast

E147: Paradex CEO: Why Crypto Exchanges Are Replacing Wall Street (it's already happening)

Nov 13, 2025
Anand Gomes, Founder and CEO of Paradex, talks about the rise of decentralized exchanges as the new financial hubs, combining various banking functionalities into one zero-fee platform. He discusses the sustainability of their model, emphasizing how they charge makers instead of takers. Anand explains why Ethereum is central to this shift and predicts that traditional financial centers could face irrelevance unless they adapt. He reflects on the evolution of decentralized finance, its advantages, and the critical role of speculation in price discovery.
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INSIGHT

Building Settlement Control On-Chain

  • Paradigm began as an institutional options exchange and expanded into Paradex, a decentralized perpetual exchange to control settlement and scale faster.
  • Moving settlement on-chain removed dependency on centralized exchanges and unlocked permissionless settlement and faster product iteration.
ANECDOTE

Surviving Exchange Nightmares

  • Anand described long incident-response sessions during market carnage where the team stayed on calls for many hours to monitor systems.
  • He emphasized the human cost of running exchanges and the constant readiness required to protect users' funds.
ADVICE

Use Zero Fees To Win Retail Flow

  • Attract retail by eliminating fees for takers while monetizing makers with small maker-side fees and protected order types.
  • Use Retail Price Improvement (RPI) orders to let makers quote tightly without being picked off, preserving tight spreads.
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