Open Interest

Open Interest

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Open Interest is a show of conversations with founders and funds in AI and crypto, the people taking the risk and the people pricing it. Recorded live at conferences around the world, before the story settles.

16h ago

Building an Exchange That Wins With Its Traders: Justin Ma and John Lee on Vest

Vest co-founder and CEO Justin Ma joins Vest’s John Lee for a conversation about building a trading venue around its users. They discuss market microstructure research, perpetual futures, prop trading, equity markets and how an exchange can align its incentives with traders. Recorded in Singapore during TOKEN2049. Products, figures and plans reflect the time of recording. Chapters 00:00 Meet John Lee and Justin Ma 00:45 Justin’s path into market microstructure 02:59 Open research and the origins of Vest 05:53 What is Vest? 07:46 Building the exchange and funded-account model 10:23 Why Justin says trader incentives matter 12:28 zkRisk research and exchange solvency 15:30 Bringing perpetual futures to equities 18:38 Research, investors and early validation 22:18 Co-founders and the college years 23:53 Where Vest goes next 25:34 The case for 24/7 markets Open Interest: https://openinteresthq.com/ Vest: https://www.vestmarkets.com/ Open Interest Season 1 · Singapore — co-sponsored by Kraken and Codex. Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/ Codex: https://www.codex.io/
20h ago

Turning Trading Fees Into a Treasury: DeFi Dave on United Founders Group

DeFi Dave joins Josh Han to explain United Founders Group and its immutable treasury: how trading fees enter the treasury, how token holders redeem a share, and why he wants communities to build revenue together. They also discuss token incentives, online communities and what makes a crypto ecosystem worth building in. Recorded in Singapore during TOKEN2049. Products, figures and plans reflect the time of recording. Chapters00:00 Meet DeFi Dave00:43 How United Founders Group began01:31 DAO governance and incentives02:10 Trading fees and the immutable treasury03:38 Treasury backing and the community premium04:38 Sovereign treasuries and token burns05:42 Who the model is for07:55 Contributors and the UFG collective09:12 Privacy and what interests Dave in the market11:19 Network states and shared treasuries12:13 Robinhood Chain and stock tokens13:53 Where to find UFG Open Interest: https://openinteresthq.com/United Founders Group: https://ufg.finance/ Open Interest Season 1 · Singapore — co-sponsored by Kraken and Codex.Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/Codex: https://www.codex.io/
1d ago

Bringing Ethereum Apps to Canton: Heslin Kim on Building Zenith

Heslin Kim, co-founder and CBO of Zenith, joins Kinsa Durst to discuss bringing Ethereum applications to the Canton Network. We talk about the gap between institutional networks and DeFi, what tokenized bonds could unlock as collateral, and why privacy means different things to institutions and individuals. Recorded in Singapore during TOKEN2049. Products, figures and plans reflect the time of recording. Open Interest: https://openinteresthq.com/ Zenith: https://zenith.network/ Open Interest Season 1 · Singapore — co-sponsored by Kraken and Codex. Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/ Codex: https://www.codex.io/ Chapters 00:00 Intro: Heslin Kim, Zenith 00:32 Eleven years between enterprise blockchain and Web3 02:31 Too early for institutional Ethereum 03:41 The Polyglot paper: opening Canton to more VMs 05:11 Digital Asset, Daml and the DLT era 07:26 Corpo punk: more Ethereum in Canton, more Canton in Ethereum 08:07 Institutions on Ethereum and on Canton 09:03 What Zenith builds: an EVM environment on Canton 10:53 Why clearing houses look at Canton 14:01 Isolated ledgers and the clients Zenith serves 17:01 One hop between Canton assets and DeFi 17:51 A long-haul journey 18:34 What institutions want to unlock on chain 19:02 Tokenized government bonds and idle collateral 22:18 When consumers stop caring which chain 23:36 Regulation as the key blocker 24:21 Institutional privacy, and the limits of privacy 28:18 Testnet, and where to find Zenith
1d ago

Bringing Preferred Shares On-Chain: Parker White on Building Apyx

Parker White, founding contributor at Apyx, joins Kinsa Durst for Open Interest. Parker left fixed-income trading for Kraken in 2018, helped launch DFDV, a Solana treasury company, and now builds Apyx: a structured credit platform that brings fixed-price preferreds such as Strategy's STRC on chain through apxUSD and apyUSD. We get into who can't open a US brokerage account to hold these assets directly, what on-chain composability adds (borrowing, fixed versus variable yield, trading around the clock), diversifying beyond a single issuer, why Apyx wants to be a platform rather than one product, laying risk on the table as an issuer, and why AI agents won't leave capital idle. Recorded in Singapore during TOKEN2049, October 2026. Figures and product details are as stated at the time of recording. Nothing in this episode is financial advice; Apyx is not an Open Interest sponsor. Open Interest: conversations with the people taking the risk and the people pricing it. https://openinteresthq.com/episodes/parker-white-apyx/ Open Interest Season 1 · Singapore — co-sponsored by Kraken and Codex. Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/ Codex: https://www.codex.io/ Apyx: https://apyx.fi/ Full conversation: 00:00 Intro: Parker White, Apyx 00:33 From fixed-income trading to Kraken in 2018 02:05 DFDV: launching a treasury company 03:38 Why Strategy's STRC (Stretch) 05:55 One of the largest STRC holders, on chain and off 07:06 apxUSD and apyUSD: the two-token model 10:09 Where the yield comes from 10:49 Who can't buy Stretch directly 13:52 Ethereum first, then more chains 14:39 Trading around the clock vs US market hours 15:33 Beyond STRC: diversifying the eligible universe 19:04 The McDonald's of credit: a platform, not a single issuer 20:42 What's next: Monad, new assets, governance 22:05 Putting risk on the table: transparency as an issuer 26:09 Agents and idle capital 28:19 Wrap
2d ago

An Agent of Record: Chris Zhu on Building Donut's Personal Trading Agent

Chris Zhu, founder of Donut, joins Josh Han for Open Interest. Chris mined crypto from a college dorm, built products at ByteDance and co-founded Sonic SVM before starting Donut, which began as an AI browser and became a personal trading agent. We get into why a general agent is not enough when a single failed trade is unaffordable, the idea of an agent of record that shows every step, separating the model from execution and authorisation so the model never holds the keys, connecting to every exchange instead of building a house perp DEX, which models are good and cheap enough for a consumer trading agent, and the business model when the agent itself is free. Recorded in Singapore during TOKEN2049, October 2026. Figures and product details are as stated at the time of recording. Nothing in this episode is financial advice. Disclosures: Josh and Chris have previously worked together (Sonic SVM), as noted in the conversation; Chris discloses at 20:23 that he was an early investor in FOMO. Open Interest: conversations with the people taking the risk and the people pricing it. https://openinteresthq.com/episodes/chris-zhu-donut/ Open Interest Season 1 · Singapore — co-sponsored by Kraken and Codex. Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/ Codex: https://www.codex.io/ Full conversation: 00:00 Intro: Chris Zhu, Donut 00:17 Dorm mining, ByteDance and co-founding Sonic SVM 01:19 From AI browser to personal trading agent 03:23 Why a general agent can't be your trading agent 04:49 An agent of record: every step visible 05:48 Context first: connectors, and Switzerland for every exchange 08:09 Who holds the keys: model, execution and authorisation 09:57 Which models are good and cheap enough for trading 12:35 Next for Donut: a free mobile trading agent 15:08 The business model when inference is free 16:33 Trust, delegation and worst-case scenarios 18:01 Beyond agents: the perp opportunity and regulated markets 19:46 FOMO, consumer exchanges and what it takes to win 22:48 Where to find Donut
3d ago

Charles Lin on What Monad Foundation Looks for in Founders

Charles Lin of Monad Foundation's ecosystem team joins Kinsa Durst for Open Interest. Charles covers consumer and trading for the foundation after Berkeley, two years in investment banking and an AI startup sold to Salesforce. We get into how a foundation decides which teams get its time, why collectibles have product-market fit and why the next wave is verticalisation rather than more Pokémon packs (the Craigslist-to-Airbnb moment), what a founder should expect from a chain — performance, neutrality and a team that stays with you — where the different founder scenes sit (San Francisco, New York, Singapore), how founders are using AI, Monad's institutional and payments push, and the founders he backs: scrappy, high energy, delusionally optimistic with good judgment. Recorded in Singapore during TOKEN2049, October 2026. Figures and product details are as stated at the time of recording. Nothing in this episode is financial advice. Open Interest: conversations with the people taking the risk and the people pricing it. https://openinteresthq.com/episodes/charles-lin-monad-foundation/ Open Interest Season 1 · Singapore — co-sponsored by Kraken and Codex. Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/ Codex: https://www.codex.io/ Monad Foundation: https://www.monad.xyz/ Full conversation: 00:00 Intro: Charles Lin, Monad Foundation 00:29 Berkeley, banking, an AI startup sold to Salesforce, then Monad 01:22 What an ecosystem role does: deciding which teams get the foundation's time 02:25 An L1 for founders: Category Labs, privacy, Cadence 03:24 Collectibles have product-market fit: the market today 04:03 Verticalisation: entertainment commerce and the Craigslist-to-Airbnb moment 05:06 Social pack opening and which flywheel works for collectibles 07:23 What a founder should expect from a chain: performance, neutrality, people who stay 09:23 Delusionally optimistic, with good judgment: the founders he backs 10:49 Global founders: San Francisco, New York, Singapore 11:44 AI: everyone is building with it; where the edge is 13:48 Institutions, payments and Monad's B2B push 15:33 How to reach Charles and the Monad team
3d ago

The Law of One Price Is Broken: Chris Kim on Axis, USDx and Arbitrage Yield On-Chain

Chris Kim, CEO and co-founder of Axis, joins Josh Han for Open Interest. Chris spent about ten years as an arbitrageur and market maker in stablecoins and FX, and ran an arbitrage-focused hedge fund out of Singapore. Axis turns that stack into a protocol: a liquidity-provisioning business that raises its working capital on-chain and runs low-latency, delta-neutral strategies across crypto, FX, equities and tokenized markets. We get into USDx and how staking it earns market-structure yield, why returns move with volume and volatility (about 20% at recording, 12–13% a few months earlier), why tokenization has broken the law of one price, BTCx and gold next, remittance and fintech integrations, the 25 million price permutations Axis monitors, and the bull case for holding USDx. Recorded in Singapore during TOKEN2049, October 2026. Yields and product details are as stated at the time of recording and are not guaranteed. Nothing in this episode is financial advice. Open Interest: conversations with the people taking the risk and the people pricing it. https://openinteresthq.com/episodes/chris-kim-axis/ Open Interest Season 1 · Singapore — co-sponsored by Kraken and Codex. Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/ Codex: https://www.codex.io/ Axis: https://axis.to/ Full conversation: 00:00 Intro: Chris Kim, Axis 00:16 Ten years in trading; what Axis builds 00:52 From arbitrage hedge fund to protocol 01:36 Liquidity providers are arbitrageurs; capital formation on-chain 02:26 USDx: how to get exposure 03:16 Yields move with volume and volatility 04:14 Compression vs. a growing opportunity set: the law of one price 04:49 Next: BTCx, gold, currencies, commodities 05:13 Integrations: DeFi composability, remittance, fintech 06:06 A multi-currency on/off-ramp and a new Swift 06:58 Who holds USDx 07:43 The goal: a prominent secondary-market maker 08:35 25 million permutations; why TVL matters 10:07 The bull case for USDx 11:24 Where yields can go 12:08 Close
4d ago

Gacha Is the Entry Point, Not the Product: Kiet on Chance, Co-op Rips and the Pokémon TCG

Kiet, founder of Chance, joins Kinsa Durst for Open Interest. After seven years in crypto, including Frax Finance and the Arbitrum team at Offchain Labs, Kiet went back into founder mode to build Chance: a platform at the intersection of entertainment and interactive collecting, starting with the Pokémon TCG. We get into why Chance treats gacha as the entry point and community as the real product, a user base that is about 95% web2, co-op rips where a creator opens your pack live on stream while you keep custody of the slab, the party-game version of pack opening, and the next product: curation and discovery instead of the game of chance. Recorded in Singapore during TOKEN2049, October 2026. Figures and product details are as stated at the time of recording. Nothing in this episode is financial advice. Open Interest: conversations with the people taking the risk and the people pricing it. https://openinteresthq.com/episodes/kiet-chance/ Open Interest Season 1 · Singapore — co-sponsored by Kraken and Codex. Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/ Codex: https://www.codex.io/ Chance: https://chance.live/ Full conversation: 00:00 Intro: Kiet, Chance 00:19 Seven years in crypto, back to founder mode 00:53 Chance: entertainment meets interactive collecting 01:59 Where Chance fits: gacha is the entry point, community is the product 03:24 A 95% web2 user base; co-op rips with creators 04:54 Security: the creator opens, the buyer keeps custody 05:48 Pack parties and a $13,000 pull from a $250 pack 06:23 What's next: curation and discovery, not chance 07:50 Where to find Chance

Trailer

Open Interest — The First Telling | Season 1 Trailer

Every story in this industry gets told twice. Open Interest is the first telling. Our first season was recorded in Singapore during TOKEN2049: conversations with founders, builders and allocators, before the outcome was known. Full conversations and short clips over the coming weeks. Follow the show and get the next conversation by email at https://openinteresthq.com/ Recorded in the Panoramic Content Suite, Singapore. Co-sponsored by Kraken and Codex. Trailer narration generated with AI.

Open Interest is a show of conversations with founders and funds in AI and crypto, the people taking the risk and the people pricing it. Recorded live at conferences around the world, before the story settles.

Creator

Open Interest
Years Active

2026
Episodes

24
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© Open Interest
Show Website

Open Interest