Opyn

What Opyn does

Opyn (Opyn Inc.) is a venture-backed Ethereum DeFi protocol operating a permissionless perpetual trading ecosystem called Opyn Markets, branded 'Uniswap, but for perps.' The platform is built on top of Uniswap Pools and allows any user to deploy a perpetual trading market on any ERC-20 pair without permission, with on-chain portfolio margin and automated market-making vaults (Flo) for passive liquidity provision. Opyn's flagship product is Power Perpetuals, a novel derivatives family indexed to a power of an underlying asset price (p-perps): Squeeth (p=2) provides options-like exposure without strikes or expiries and is used by options market makers as a gamma hedge; Sqrth (p=0.5) is being developed as a perfect hedge for Uniswap LP positions; Variance Perpetuals extend the framework to realized volatility exposure.

The protocol has processed over $16 billion in total notional volume and supports a wide range of pairs (BTC, ETH, LINK, UNI, DAI, ARB, MKR, GRT, GNO, LDO, CRV, COMP, GMX) with collateral integrations into MakerDAO (DAI/MKR) and Lido (stETH). Revenue is generated through trading fees captured on Flo vault liquidity provision and vault collateral management operations, with no explicit pricing tiers disclosed. Go-to-market is fully product-led and community-led: a self-serve wallet-connected web interface, a Discord channel, @opyn_ Twitter presence, an Opyn Research publication portal, and a $1,000,000 bug bounty program via Sherlock.

The company is backed by tier-1 crypto-native investors including Paradigm (lead of the $6.7M Series 2 in February 2021), Dragonfly (lead of the $2.16M Series 1 in June 2020), Coinbase Ventures, VersionOne, Uncorrelated, Robot Ventures, 1kx, Coinfund, and A Capital Partners, with cumulative disclosed funding of approximately $9.11M across three rounds. Opyn was founded in 2019, is headquartered in San Francisco, and operates with an 11–50 person team that includes researchers Joe Clark, Andrew Leone, Dan Robinson, Dave White, Zubin Koticha, Alexis Gauba, and co-founder Aparna Krishnan.

Name

Opyn

Legal name

Opyn Inc.

Website

https://opyn.co

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Opyn is an Ethereum-based DeFi protocol offering Opyn Markets, a permissionless perpetual trading ecosystem built on Uniswap Pools, and Power Perpetuals (Squeeth, Sqrth, Variance Perps) for crypto traders, Uniswap LPs, and options market makers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Decentralized Derivatives Trading

NAICS

Securities and Commodity Exchanges (52321)

SIC

Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200), Commodity Contracts Brokers & Dealers (6221)

akta.pro primary industry

Perpetuals & Derivatives DEXs (FSADABAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Derivatives Trading Venues (perps, futures, options) (FSAPADAE), Decentralized Derivatives (perps, options, futures, synthetics) (FSAPAEAC)

Keywords

• Decentralized derivatives protocol
• Perpetual futures trading
• Power perpetual derivatives
• Defi options exposure
• Ethereum smart contracts

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Trading Fees: Liquidity providers in Flo vaults earn fees from every perp trade executed on the platform. Fee revenue from permissionless market making across all deployed perp markets.
2. Vault Collateral Management: Revenue generated from vault operations where users lock collateral to mint power perpetuals or provide liquidity.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Opyn operates a permissionless perpetual trading ecosystem on Ethereum (Opyn Markets), built on top of Uniswap Pools, allowing anyone to deploy perp trading markets on any pair of ERC-20 tokens. The platform supports linear, stable, and option-like perpetuals including the proprietary Squeeth (quadratic power perpetual / ETH²) and offers on-chain portfolio margin with automated market making vaults (Flo).

Product overview

Opyn is a DeFi protocol building a suite of perpetual derivatives products. Its flagship product, Opyn Markets, is a permissionless perpetual trading ecosystem — 'Uniswap, but for perps' — that enables anyone to deploy perp markets on any ERC-20 pair. The core innovation is Power Perpetuals, a family of perpetual derivatives indexed to a power of an underlying asset price (p-perps): p=0 is a stablecoin, p=1 is a linear future, p=2 is Squeeth (the quadratic power perpetual providing options-like exposure), and p=0.5 is Sqrth (designed as a hedge for Uniswap LP positions). Opyn also offers Variance Perpetuals (built from quadratic power perps for volatility exposure), and an automated market-making vault called Flo. Opyn Research publishes the underlying financial and mathematical research underpinning all products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Squeeth: Squeeth (squared ETH) is the first quadratic power perpetual (2-perp) tokenized on Ethereum. It provides pure exposure to the quadratic component of price risk and can be used as a hedge for options and Uniswap LP positions.
• Flo
• Variance Perpetuals

Products and services

• Opyn Markets Permissionless perpetual trading ecosystem on Ethereum, built on top of Uniswap Pools. Enables anyone to deploy perp markets on any ERC-20 pair and supports linear, stable, and option-like perpetuals with on-chain portfolio margin.
• Squeeth (ETH² Power Perpetual) First quadratic power perpetual (2-perp) tokenized on Ethereum, providing exposure to ETH² (the square of ETH price). Offers options-like positive gamma exposure without strikes or expiries and serves as a hedge for options market makers and Uniswap/AMM LP positions.
• Flo Automated market making vault within Opyn Markets that lets anyone passively provide liquidity and earn fees on every perp trade executed across the platform's perp markets.
• Variance Perpetuals Derivative constructed using a quadratic power perpetual (Squeeth) combined with a short delta hedge, providing exposure to realized volatility comparable to a fixed-expiry variance swap but without a fixed period and with lower sensitivity to skew.
• Power Perpetuals Family of perpetual derivatives indexed to a power (p) of an underlying asset price. p=0 corresponds to a stablecoin, p=1 to a linear future, p=2 to Squeeth (quadratic perpetual), and p=0.5 to Sqrth (square-root perpetual). Provides global options-like exposure without strikes or expiries.

Quantifiable outcome

• $16b+ total notional volume

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• UniswapcoreTechnology or IntegrationOpyn Markets built on top of Uniswap Pools. Platform tagline 'Uniswap, but for perps' reflects deep integration with Uniswap's AMM infrastructure.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• dYdX: Decentralized perpetual futures exchange with an order-book model on its own appchain. Directly comparable to Opyn Markets as a permissionless perp DEX serving crypto traders with leverage, though dYdX focuses on linear perps rather than power/variance perpetuals.
• GMX: Decentralized perpetual exchange on Arbitrum/Avalanche using a multi-asset liquidity pool model. Closest architectural analog to Opyn's Uniswap-pool-based design, and one of the highest-volume perp DEXs; competes directly for the same trader and LP segments.
• Hyperliquid: High-performance decentralized perp exchange running on its own L1 with on-chain order book. Competes head-on with Opyn for trader liquidity and mindshare, with materially higher capital and recent volume.
• Perpetual Protocol: Decentralized perpetual contract protocol (originally vAMM, now v2 on order-book-style design) on Ethereum/Cosmos. Direct perp DEX peer from the same DeFi generation as Opyn, targeting the same leveraged-trader segment.
• Drift Protocol: Decentralized perpetual futures exchange on Solana with cross-margining and dynamic AMM. Competes for the same multi-chain DeFi perp trader base, with comparable emphasis on capital efficiency and a permissionless market structure.
• Gains Network (gTrade): Decentralized leveraged trading protocol (gTrade) offering perps on crypto, forex, and stocks using a synthetic architecture backed by DAI. Directly comparable as a DeFi-native perp venue, though with a different collateral design.
• Vertex Protocol: Cross-margin DeFi protocol offering spot, perpetuals, and money market on a central limit order book on Arbitrum. Competes directly with Opyn on cross-margined perp trading for sophisticated DeFi users.
• Aevo: Decentralized options and perpetuals exchange built on an off-chain order book with on-chain settlement. Comparable as a derivatives DEX serving sophisticated traders, and a particularly close peer given its focus on options-like structures alongside perps.
• MUX Protocol: Multi-chain leveraged trading protocol aggregating liquidity from multiple perp DEXs into a unified order book. Direct competitor in the DeFi perp space, with comparable emphasis on capital efficiency and cross-chain coverage.

Emerging players

• Ribbon Finance: DeFi structured products protocol offering options vaults and yield strategies. Comparable to Opyn in the on-chain options/derivatives space — both target sophisticated DeFi users seeking structured exposure — though Ribbon is vault-product-led rather than a generalized perp DEX.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/opyn_

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors9 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Opyn