Opyn – a rising options protocol – has just closed a $2.16M seed round lead by Dragonfly Capital.
Today, we at @dragonfly_cap are excited to announce our investment in @opyn_'s seed round! So thrilled to be able to work with @AlexisGauba @aparnalocked and @snarkyzk ?? https://t.co/pwlUWSVC2L
— Tom Schmidt (@tomhschmidt) June 22, 2020
For those unfamiliar, Opyn has been making strong headway with their ETH options, giving users the ability to buy or sell puts and calls on different ETH prices using a native token wrapper called oTokens.
If you’re looking to brush up on Opyn, check out our tutorial on how to get started.
Today, their vision expands tenfold with the closing of a $2.16M seed round from leading DeFi investors like Dragonfly Captial, 1kx, DTC Capital (Spencer Noon), Version One Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures, and A.Capital. Opyn’s seed round also brings top angel investors like Balaji Srinivasan, Robert Leshner, and Linda Xie – a strong testament to the appetite for the rising options protocol.
What’s to Know?
A few months ago, we sat down with Opyn’s cofounder – Aparna Krishnan – to discuss the status of the protocol and all the novel ways it was being used. Beyond understanding how puts and calls work, we dove into the ability to arbitrage covers on centralized counterparts like Deribit using Uniswap and the possibility for new asset types in the near future.
While the announcement of the seed round only foreshadows the upcoming launch of Opyn V2, it’s been stated that the new version of the protocol will feature margining for capital efficiency, options spreads and combo positions. Plus, as anyone in DeFi might have guessed, it’s been hinted that V2 will lay the foundation to add governance (and potentially a native Opyn token) over the course of the next year.
Underpinning this round is the exciting premise of being able to purchase options on a vast majority of ERC20 tokens, so long as there are backers on each side of the position. What this creates is a way to short DeFi tokens in an entirely permissionless fashion, all while being able to earn a return from providing liquidity in the form of stablecoins.
As if the rising narrative of yield farming wasn’t enough, Opyn is quickly starting to turn heads with all the different ways savvy investors can capture upside from trading in line with changing market trends.
Options as a financial primitive of DeFi are beyond exciting. Happy to back this fantastic team with such great co-investors. https://t.co/jfXia72ufh
— Lasse Clausen (@lalleclausen) June 22, 2020
DeFi Insurance Heats Up
While many are quick to compare Opyn to Nexus Mutual, it’s important to note that both platforms are inherently different. You can think of Opyn as a means of hedging against price volatility while Nexus is more a way to protect against smart contract risk.
The key takeaway here is that regardless of whether you fancy Opyn or Nexus Mutual (both of which have specialized advantages) we’re starting to see more ways for DeFi traders to protect themselves from unforeseen risk using sophisticated new financial primitives.
Back by one of the most cunning teams in DeFi, there’s no doubt in our mind that Opyn is in for a very bright road ahead.
To stay up with Opyn, follow them on Twitter or join the conversation on Discord.
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Cooper is the Editor of DeFi Rate. He is an ambassador of Set Protocol and an active contributor to MetaCartel where he seeks to find emerging consumer-facing applications that propel the Ethereum ecosystem. He often works with projects as the Director of Fitzner Blockchain Consulting where he coauthors the weekly publication Token Tuesdays.
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