SynFutures Crosses $3B in Total Trade Volume as the Market for Decentralized Derivatives Expands

Just four months since its public beta launch, the derivatives DEX is driving unprecedented growth by giving traders the freedom to list any trading pair. 

As both retail and institutional traders get more involved in DeFi, crypto derivatives trading is also seeing increased interest. According to The Block Research, the combined trading volume of bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) options increased 443% from 2020 to 2021. Other notable events, including Coinbase’s recent purchase of crypto futures exchange FairX, have further cemented the future of derivatives in crypto trading and investing. 

In the TradFi world, the derivatives market is estimated to be in the trillions, though some analysts estimate as high as $1 quadrillion, a figure that far surpasses spot markets. There are similar market dynamics across the largest centralized crypto exchanges, with derivatives trading volume outpacing spot volume. When it comes to decentralized exchanges, however, spot markets still dominant the trading charts—but that’s now beginning to change.  

With the rise of decentralized derivatives exchanges over the past two years, derivatives trading volume is starting to catch up to its centralized counterparts. But while the market opportunities for decentralized derivatives are huge, there are still some barriers to entry in a market largely catering to a small subset of advanced traders. SynFutures is aiming to change that by making decentralized derivatives products more accessible to both novice and veteran traders. 

“For us, the real benefit of decentralization is democratization,” said Rachel Lin, CEO and co-founder of SynFutures. “We’re bringing a seamless, Uniswap-like experience to decentralized derivatives, enabling anyone to list any asset with a price feed at any time.” 

Offering Token Pair Variety  

For SynFutures, “anything” can be large-cap cryptocurrencies, altcoins, equities, gold, indices, or any other asset they desire, a unique offering among decentralized derivatives platforms which typically only offer set trading pairs and products. Users can take leveraged long or short positions pairing assets like BTC, gold, hash rate, and other real-world assets. By allowing anyone to list any pairs with a single asset in just two clicks, SynFutures aims to democratize how derivatives are listed and traded. SynFutures already offers more than 150 underlying pairs, which is currently the largest offering in the decentralized derivatives space. 

SynFutures also employs a rigid risk management system that introduces the best practices of TradFi to the DeFi space, an important feature for Lin, who previously worked on derivatives products at Deutsche Bank before helping to found “neobank” Matrixport. 

Hitting $3 Billion in Total Trading Volume

Despite having launched its public beta less than four months ago, SynFutures is already seeing significant user growth and engagement. The exchange recently passed $3 billion in cumulative trading volume and 55,000 users. In comparison, the current market incumbent dYdX has about 62,000, as of January 2022.  

“Our internal data reveals that our trading volume is spread across tens of thousands of users and not concentrated among a few addresses, which is often the case with other exchanges,” added Lin. “This is a good sign of organic retail growth, which puts us in an ideal position as we prepare for our V2 launch in the coming months.” 

The Road Ahead for SynFutures  

In the coming months, SynFutures will officially launch out of public beta with V2, an upgraded version of its platform with an enhanced UI/UX experience and one-click trading. In addition to other features and product launches, the exchange—which is currently deployed on Ethereum, Polygon, Abritrum and BSC—will expand support for Avalanche, Near, and Fantom in the coming months, as well as non-EVM compatible chains later in the year.  

For more information, visit synfutures.com and follow SynFutures on Twitter (@SynFuturesDeFi). 

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.