AD Derivs: Insights from Crypto Option Traders

Hashflow is a DEX Aggregator that offers deep liquidity across the leading blockchains. Leveraging an intent-based Smart Order Routing (SOR) architecture, Hashflow offers traders the best prices, access to over $8B in liquidity, and the ability to trade every token both interchain and cross-chain. Since launching in April 2021, Hashflow has cleared over $18B in total trade volume. Today we meet with Varun Kumar, the Founder and CEO at Hashflow. We talk about Varun's background and how he developed Hashflow and came up with the idea for the concept. For more information about Hashflow: Website: https://www.hashflow.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/hashflowBlog: https://blog.hashflow.com/Docs: https://docs.hashflow.com/hashflow

Since 2014, CoinShares has been building the future of investing - creating Europe’s leading European digital assets investment firm and innovating the technology and infrastructure to enable access and power investment in the new digital economy.Today we interview Lewis Fellas, head of Hedge Fund Solutions at CoinShares. We explore Lewis's background, thoughts on the market and insights he's learned along the way. Website: https://coinshares.com/

John Palmer, President of Cboe Digital, shares insights on the company's innovative trading solutions in the cryptocurrency space. He discusses the crucial role of clearinghouses in enhancing trade efficiency and risk management. Palmer also reflects on his journey from corporate finance to crypto leadership, highlighting the blend of traditional finance with new market challenges. Additionally, he covers essential options trading strategies and the importance of education in this rapidly evolving field, revealing his passion for triathlons as a way to balance work and personal life.

Wintermute is a leading proprietary trading crypto market maker. They provide liquidity solutions across the digital asset eco-system.They create liquidity on the world's best crypto exchanges and trading platforms. They  use algorithmic and high-frequency trading methods to create markets; centralized crypto exchanges, DeFi, spot, derivatives, ETPsThey offer some of the most competitive prices via OTC (automated RFQ and with direct trader support) to funds, institutional OTC desks, trading platforms, miners and other institutionsThey support listings and ongoing liquidity for high-potential crypto projects

The Crypto Volatility Index (CVI) is a decentralized VIX for crypto that allows users to efficiently trade market volatility without the directional risk of spot trading.Today we talk about the background of CVI and the recent V3 launch. Moshe and Yoni also chat about the technical protocol details behind CVI. CVI Documentation: https://docs.cvi.finance/Twitter:  https://twitter.com/official_cviApp: https://cvi.finance/

Nick Forster is the co-founder of DeFi options protocol Lyra. Before founding Lyra, Nick was an equity options trader at SIG. Today we discuss Lyra's latest protocol launch, Lyra V2. V2 is a central limit order book style protocol. Lyra has it's own app-chain built on L2 stack Optimism. Part of our discussion involves exploring Lyra's portfolio margin, liquidation engine and mechanics around the Lyra app-chain. To learn more about Lyra you can visit: https://www.lyra.finance/Twitter: https://twitter.com/lyrafinanceBlog: https://mirror.xyz/lyra.eth

Artur Sepp is the head quant at family office, Clearstar Labs. Here Artur has a focus on delta neutral strategies in DeFi markets and CeFi crypto volatility venues, such as Deribit.Artur has an extensive background in volatility trading and modeling for various firms including Bank of America and Julius Baer. We talk about Artur's experience. His views on volatility trading and modeling. How he found his way into crypto trading and some of his strategies. Recently written paper from Artur: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4606748Book RecommendationsEuan Sinclair Books:https://www.amazon.com/s?k=euan+sinclair&crid=32WQ8TRFF9P45&sprefix=euan+sin%2Caps%2C184&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_8Expected Returns: https://www.amazon.com/Expected-Returns-Investors-Harvesting-Rewards/dp/1119990726/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1B484LK3JJN5C&keywords=expected+returns&qid=1701806342&sprefix=expected+%2Caps%2C168&sr=8-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.17d9e15d-4e43-4581-b373-0e5c1a776d5d

SwapGlobal provides derivatives – swaps and options – to US digital asset investors and hedgers, such as hedge funds, family offices, private equity funds, and bitcoin miners. SwapGlobal plans to register as a standalone swap-dealer with the CFTC and SEC.Website: https://swapglobal.com/Blog: https://swapglobal.com/insightsBooks: "Zurich Axioms" by Max Gunther"Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" by Edwin Lefèvre and Edwin KLefevre

Today we talk with DK and Tolga from DeFi Options protocol Premia. Premia is now on their version 3 protocol release. Their platform provides a broad tradable offering including orderbook, RFQ, AMM/Pool and vaults. Users also have the rare flexibility to "spin-up" new option pools. We also explore DK and Tolga's backgrounds before jumping into crypto and building Premia. Lastly, we close out with their favorite books. 

Born in Queens, New York, Terence An graduated from Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science and spent the next six years as a trader at Hudson River Trading. After working on their more traditional US Equities HFT desk, he spent two years developing ultra-low latency strategies, situating him closer to the infrastructure, and ultimately sparking his interest in designing financial markets. The transition to DeFi protocol design was swift and now he runs Itos Finance, the first protocol to empower anyone with access to structured products entirely on chain. Itos is launching their testnet and raising a seed round in September 2023. In his spare time Terence likes to climb, cycle, reattempt his topology textbook, and when possible he spends time living abroad. However, his favorite pastime is of course displacing traditional finance.For more information about Itos visit: https://www.itos.fi/Twitter: https://twitter.com/itos_fi