Derive is similar to Hyperliquid in that people can build whatever front end they want on top of it for different UI/UX. The liquidity and backend are what are important and extremely difficult to replicate. I'm very bullish teams building options on top of Derive infra.

Deribit's $ZEC options market is so privacy coded that you...can't actually see it. It doesn't exist. It might never exist realistically due to $ZEC being a privacy coin. The big break for @DeriveXYZ earlier this year was listing $HYPE options months before Deribit did, and they now dominate that market. If $ZEC continues to be the next PvE runner, it's just another mass onboarding event for Derive. And then it'll be $LIT ...and $VVV ...and $PUMP ...and $DRV itself 👀 The biggest mistake people made was thinking on chain options lost to perps because of how long it's taken to get to this point. There just weren't enough interesting, quality assets to list liquid options markets for, and building it all is HARD. On chain options are going to look like the 5'5 late bloomer who everyone bullied and then he hit 6'5 over a single summer.

This $ETH trade on @DeriveXYZ really got the people going so I'll explain my thought process. I'm not really interested in betting on an $ETH move to $3000, especially with tokens like $HYPE and $LIT pushing all time highs. $ETH trading like 1.1x $BTC beta isn't bad, but it's also not extremely interesting to me as a bet to make here in the near term considering there's plenty of beta outperforming $BTC here. Holding spot $ETH feels capital inefficient and as a perp would be expensive and path dependent. I'm betting on a meaningful ATH break within 6 months, and I think there are a few meaningful tailwinds that are unique to $ETH, and more importantly, unique to the level at which people are underestimating them: 1. Inclusion with $BTC as a "reserve" asset in anything resembling a strategic reserve. I think the strategic reserve overall might be an underpriced edge case, and $ETH being included, even nominally, more so. There's actually a good reason for the US to want to have some stake in the largest decentralized settlement layer. 2. Tokenized equities are cool and all, but tokenized bonds might actually be the massive TAM unlock that overwhelmingly favors $ETH over $SOL. The current rates environment globally makes this an extremely interesting edge case with tons of potential positive headline shock. 3. Trump and family have been extremely outspoken $ETH bulls. Their bullposting didn't work in a bear market, let's see what happens if they throw fuel on the fire in a more bullish environment. 4. Everyone hates $ETH. Extremely popular short leg for pair trades vs apps. With two rejections from 5k and years of underperformance, the level of hated rally and sidelined, jaded, despondent chasing from 🏳️‍🌈🐻 will be biblical. I also see $ETH as being on the precipice of a phase change between being some not for profit, public good, growth mode asset (think early stage 2010-2014 Uber in SF just cornering market share at no profit) to being able to more confidently monetize on it's high Lindy, credibly neutral status as the on chain, global settlement layer. Robinhood chain using $ETH over $SOL was quite a bit more signal than people give it credit for too, though $ETH is still making peanuts relative to what $ARB and $HOOD are making from sequencer fees. If the massively positive trends in tokenization and institutional adoption don't take $ETH to new ATHs within 6 months, it's kinda cursed as an asset, and I'd rather just keep holding the application layer tokens with massive cash flows. In fact, I thought this trade was so nice, I did it twice. Risking ~$780,000 for a max PNL of $40m now.