Opynaut Options Investor Profile | CoffeeTimes
The Opynaut Options Investor Profile is an interview series that spotlights Opyn’s Opynauts, a group of passionate community members dedicated to spreading knowledge about Opyn, options, and everything DeFi.
Hello! What’s your background?
Hi, I’m CoffeeTimes, a founder of Webshake which is an application on Handshake protocol.
I majored in computer science back in university and got into crypto in 2013. Since then, I’ve invested in various crypto-assets and projects. Also I run a newsletter in Japanese every week with which the subscribers jumped to 8200 recently.
One of the reasons why Crypto / DeFi is interesting is that DeFi is “decentralized-Wall Street,” meaning it is open to anybody and enables borrowing/lending/leveraging/hedging, etc, around the world. Even if I’m in Japan, the United States or wherever, I am able to participate in the global market 24/7/365 as long as I have internet access.
Since it’s such an open market, however, there’re a lot of types of participants around the world and no one can predict what will happen tomorrow, which also makes Crypto / DeFi interesting.
What’s your approach to investing in DeFi / crypto?
I invest in early stage projects/protocols, especially infrastructure projects. My approach is that I am trying to use new products in the space, otherwise today’s trend would be outdated tomorrow. So in order to catch up with the cutting edge product/mechanism, I try to use products as a user even if I take a financial risk. To evaluate an opportunity, I tend to check out various points such as:
- Social graph and reference (Twitter is very helpful)
- Code audit / Github repo
- Project integrity (Not rent seeking?)
- Token model (does it capture value?)
- Tokenomics (distribution, allocation, and lockups are well considered?)
How did you first hear about Opyn?
When I first came across Opyn was 2020 April, a bit earlier than the DeFi boom(DeFi summer). At that time, there wasn’t an Options market in DeFi, thus no ways to hedge in a non-custodial manner.
I remember that the Opyn frontend clearly showed which position pays premium or protects an underlying asset (e.g ETH) from a plunging price, so I could learn how it works quickly. I even wrote about my experience in my newsletter when I first used it.
Can you give a few scenarios when it makes sense to trade DeFi options?
Options are like spice for your portfolio as the book “Jim Cramer’s Real Money” says, which I read when I was a university student. But I like the aspect of protecting/hedging more than that.
Here is an example how I could use options:
Let’s say I’m a degan. Two weeks ago, Reflexer’s RAI launched. As always, I’d like to use it as an early user, also they announced a retroactive reward for minters/LPs. In order to participate in it, I needed to have ETH exposure as a collateral. Over that week, ETH price dropped sharply, seeing -30% as a result. In this situation, I would be hesitant to hold ETH exposure so I bought a PUT option that could protect ETH collateral.
Fortunately, ETH’s price went back up, and I didn’t need to exercise the option. Thanks to the put option, I slept better at night during this volatile week. — Well, this is a bit exaggerated and you shouldn’t have a big risk of interrupting your sleep, but the point is that you can balance out your portfolio with options. Now you can use limit order on Opyn, adding more spices on your strategy!
What are your goals for the future?
I will support and back more early crypto projects this year. As part of it, I’d continue to be an early and heavy user in space. To take the risks, I’ll balance it out with a hedging mechanism such as Opyn as needed. Eventually my goal is to be a bridge between Asia and Western countries, especially Japan <> west, by running nodes, participating in networks, investing, voting, and sharing insights through my newsletter. In addition to that, I plan to launch a web3 product this year!
What are your future thoughts for the DeFi market?
It’s inevitable that more and more people will become aware of DeFi and will use it because it is open to anybody, because it is efficient for participants, and because it doesn’t stop 24/7/365. Traditional finance will look antique once people fall into the rabbit hole.
And I believe Crypto/DeFi is going to open more investment opportunities for individuals. As the r/WallStreetBets demonstrates, decentralized retails have such a big impact on the financial markets.
Where can we go to learn more about you?
Twitter: @CoffeeTimesTW
Substack: https://bspeak.substack.com/
If you’re an early project and want any support or collaboration, please DM me, I’m happy to chat.
Opyn Community
At Opyn we value our community and we strongly encourage anyone to contribute in improving Opyn. There are several ways you can contribute:
- 🛠️ BUIDL on top of Opyn. There are many applications and interfaces that can be built using Opyn. More info on: https://medium.com/opyn/buidling-with-options-otokens-in-defi-pt-2-f561eb67f4af or Join #dev channel on Opyn Discord
- 🐞 Participate in the Bug Bounty. Security is one of our highest priorities, so you can participate to v2 Bounty Program with rewards up to $100k. Learn more on https://opyn.gitbook.io/opyn-v2/get-started/security#bug-bounty-program
- 👩🚀 Become an Opynaut: members of the Opyn Community who share our values and are eager to take the responsibility to Spread the Knowledge! More info on https://medium.com/opyn/calling-for-opynauts-eaf8703fa8e5
- 🍄 Join Opyn. We’re hiring! You can find the available positions here: https://angel.co/company/opyn-4
- ✍️ Give us a feedback. We wouldn’t be here without inputs of the community. Join #feedback channel on Opyn Discord
Resources
Opyn v2| FAQ | Github | Security
