Original link: https://twitter.com/Chinchillah_/status/1604074950738034688
Author: Chinchilla
As a trading tool, many people are gradually realizing its importance. Here are 7 decentralized options projects that are driving the utility of options towards ease of use and widespread adoption.
Open
https://www.opyn.co/
Opyn is currently the largest options protocol with a TVL of $54 million, is deployed on Ethereum, and has yet to issue a governance token. It offers two unique features.
The first is Squeeth. When a user goes long, they will buy an ERC-20 token "oSQTH", which represents ETH squared (Eth^2). Therefore, when it goes up, the profit from holding sSQTH is higher, and when it goes down, the loss is also more.
When a user goes short, they receive an option fee, which is equivalent to selling Squeeth with ETH as collateral.
The second feature is the Crab Strategy, which is the only strategy currently open. The Crab Strategy automatically rebalances every day, and gains when ETH stays within a 5% range in a day. Since July, the Crab Strategy has a return rate of about 9%.
Related reading: "Understanding Squeeth in one article: Opyn, the options protocol, launched a new strategy after two failed versions"
Premia Finance
Link: https://premia.finance/
Premia has been deployed on multiple chains including Arbitrum, and its TVL is $7 million. Premia's user experience is fascinating, everything is easy to find and visualized, and its options can be exercised at any time before or after expiration.
Similar to Dopex, users can provide liquidity in Premia's liquidity pool and receive token rewards. For example, if you are bearish on ETH, you can put ETH into the ETH/DAI call option pool. Vice versa, if you are bullish on ETH, you can put ETH into the ETH/DAI put option pool.
Dopex
Link: https://www.dopex.io/
Dopex is a very interesting protocol on Arbitrum, and they recently announced that they will be deploying on Polygon. So far, there are two types of Vaults available on Dopex: Single-Stake Option Vaults (SSOV) and Straddles.
In SSOV, users can buy call or put options, or provide liquidity for option vaults and collect option fees from those who buy options, thereby earning income.
Straddles, on the other hand, allow users to profit from volatility. Users can buy a Straddle directly, betting on volatility, or provide liquidity to Straddles, earning option premiums from buyers (in the hope that prices remain stable).
Lyra Finance
Link: https://www.lyra.finance/
Lyra is built on Optimism and has a TVL of $13 million. Its "simple" section is intuitive and easy to use, with the option to buy or sell call or put options based on the strike price and expiration date.
You can also choose to use the Advanced features if you want.
Buffer Finance
Link: https://buffer.finance/
Buffer is built on Arbitrum and is a fork of GMX that provides binary options trading. Its operation is very simple and intuitive, just select the strike price, expiration time and "up" or "down", and you can start betting.
If the direction is correct, an additional 70% reward will be obtained. For example, if you choose to buy at $100, you will get a net profit of $70 when you are correct. Part of the fee will be paid directly to the holders of the token.
Hegic Options
Link: https://www.hegic.co/
Hegic is built on Arbitrum, with a TVL of $6 million, which has grown by 150% in the past month. Interestingly, Hegic intuitively provides multiple strategies in each direction. For example, if you are bullish, you can choose the four strategies of Call, Strap, Bull Call Spread, and Bull Put Spread in the figure below. Similarly, for bearish, you can also choose four strategies.
In addition, on Hegic, you can also choose high volatility and low volatility, each providing two strategies. For example, if you choose high volatility, there are two strategies: Straddle and Strangle.
Polynomial Protocol
Link: https://www.polynomial.fi/
Polynomial is built on Optimism's Lyra Finance, uses Synthetix's synthetic assets, and its main product is Earn Vaults. These Vaults are automated strategies based on options that provide passive income. If the right pool is chosen, the APY can be high (~30%), because when the strategy is profitable, the yield earned by depositors through option fees can be compounded, and a 10% performance fee can also be earned.
So far, there are only 3 strategies with a TVL of about $800,000. Please note that APY is not guaranteed. Whether it is a short/medium/long term call or put option, it is necessary to choose the right pool (call/put).
UX is also an attractive point, and the large-scale application of encryption technology also requires good UX. On Polynomial, you can easily find information about strategies, performance, applicability, on-chain transactions and other content.
Additionally, the project recently launched “Portal,” which allows deposits from Polygon, Arbitrum, and the Ethereum mainnet. Although Polynomial runs on Optimism, it also allows users to add liquidity from other chains.
Polynomial has not yet issued a governance token.