Every year since 2021, DeFi investors speculated onchain options would be huge. Every year, nothing happened. Protocols died from lack of runway. Others pivoted to perps when the market wasn't ready.
But Derive didn't pivot. They captured 90-95% of onchain options volume instead.
Nick Forster admits he was wrong on the timing. He thought programmable capital plus options would take off in 1-2 years. It took longer. But the thesis was right: onchain gives you 24/7 programmable blocks of capital that are global by default. Options let you create any payoff structure for speculation, yield generation, or hedging from combinations of calls and puts. The perfect match.
The market is littered with graveyards of protocols that took the easy path, pivoting away from options. According to Nick, their edge is doing the difficult thing that takes years and becomes incredibly difficult to replicate after the fact. Just look at their growth in trading volume and fees below.
The inflection point has finally arrived. HYPE options are driving new growth, a unique market you can't trade elsewhere. Better execution than OTC desks while maintaining self-custody. RFQ bringing market makers into competition instead of single counterparty lock-in. Institutional users finding Derive through word-of-mouth.
Since November, Derive grew from 0.15% of Deribit's volume to pure dominance now onchain, owning 90-95% of options trade volume in DeFi. Even as Bitcoin crashed from $110K to $70K, fees kept climbing. And this is all just the start with more coming soon: vaults built on Derive, RWA options, structured products, and much more.
Listen to the latest Edge Podcast to hear what Derive is cooking next!
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🔗 Guest Links 🔗
► Derive website: derive.xyz/
► Derive on X: x.com/derivexyz
► Nick on X: x.com/itseneff
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