Bienvenidos mis ositos, tu siempre eres mis queridos! (Welcome back little bears you are always my dears!)
It’s taken a long time to search for a decent DeFi options trading platform that I would enjoy using.
Most of the DeFi option “vaults” look like crap or slower than a dead slug.
One of my gripes with the DeFi option vaults is that there aren’t enough strike selections.
Now I don’t expect a full featured options trading platform yet as the current smart contract platforms don’t have the security and speed yet. I’ve looked at some of the Solana options platforms but they’re not quite ready yet even though they are fast.
In theory they could support a platform comparable to a TradFi options trading platform like Tastyworks.
Solana is fast enough to host an options trading platform but has experienced downtimes before.
Ethereum is secure but too expensive and slow to host a full featured TradFi style options trading platform.
Options trading on Arbitrum (via Dopex) could be a good compromise.
Arbitrum inherits security from Ethereum L1 but has experienced downtime also. They need to decentralize their sequencers. Now if that seems too risky for you then by all means stay away.
Let’s take a look at the BITO exchange traded fund (ETF) on Tastyworks.
Notice how even a lousy pseudo Bitcoin ETF has so many strikes and expiration cycles available to trade.
In case you didn’t know BITO is based on Bitcoin futures and not real Bitcoin.
Currently Dopex has limited assets available for options trading but the assets they do have are higher quality.
They include Bitcoin, Ethereum, LUNA, Avalanche, BNB, Curve, OHM. and
GMX (which I just happened to write about).
Dopex could provide a convergence of my two favorite topics; options trading and DeFi.
Dopex offers more strikes than competing option vaults but isn’t at the level where I think it could be.
The Dopex platform is still evolving so I’m hesitant to commit a full size position just yet.
Dopex has interesting tokenomics but requires multiple readings. If you want to challenge your brain in a good way:
https://blog.dopex.io/articles/dopex-papers/dopex-papers-rdpx-v2
As of now these are the three tokens in the Dopex ecosystem:
DPX – used governance, staking and fee collection
rDPX – currently a rebate token that will have deflationary problems in the future
dpxUSD – stablecoin that will come when the rDPX tokenomics are redone
An exciting upcoming event (if you like leveraged speculation) would be bets on Curve interest rates.
I’ve initiated a small position in rDPX. My guess would be that as the bear market grinds on there will be plenty of opportunities to dollar cost average in. I’m not in a rush.
The risk would be the Dopex development failing to execute their promises on a timely manner or even at all.
They do have Tetranode (Ethereum whale) backing so that does give me some comfort. I’m looking forward to see how the Dopex ecosystem develops and looking forward to sharing more about them.
Obviously none of this is formal financial or tax advice. You need to find qualified professionals in your jurisdiction.
Be sharp, stay hungry let’s get that money!
