A Unified DeFi Ecosystem: Paradex Exchange Paradex Chain, XUSD (Native Synthetic Dollar), powered by $DIME.
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Wall Street rarely broadcasts its biggest upgrades — they’re built quietly in the background. After the FTX collapse, the conversation around transparent and self-custodied trading accelerated. In this video, I sit down with Rob Shearer (ex-Goldman Sachs) to explore Paradex, a new trading layer incubated by Paradigm that aims to combine high-performance execution with user-controlled custody.
🚀 The post-FTX shift and why many traders are exploring self-custody models
🔒 How privacy and scaling research is shaping next-generation financial infrastructure
📈 On-chain asset management frameworks and how teams think about vault design
⚔️ The evolving landscape of decentralized trading platforms, including Hyperliquid, Lighter, and Aster
0:00 Intro
02:42 Welcome to Paradex
04:24 The Paradigm Connection
08:30 Building a Full-Stack Exchange
13:43 Challenges and Innovations in Crypto Exchanges
17:30 PEX's Unique Features and Future Plans
25:33 Retail Price Improvement and Liquidity
29:10 The Future of Decentralized Trading
38:32 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Host (Kyle): Wall Street doesn't make loud announcements when they move. They shift quietly and only reveal upgrades when they're too big to ignore. After FTX collapsed, most traders moved on. Rob Shearer didn't.
Rob Shearer (ROB): After FTX, it wasn't "should we build this?" It was "we have no choice." We couldn't let what happened to us happen to anyone else.
Host: Rob spent 8 years at Goldman Sachs, then built Paradigm (largest institutional crypto options network, $2B+ daily volume). Today he leads Paradex—a next-gen decentralized exchange for institutional-grade execution with self-custody.
Rob: We're not just a "perps DEX." From day one, we've built a full-stack exchange: perps, spot, options—with privacy at the protocol level. Finance can't scale without privacy.
Rob: Paradigm does 30-35% of global crypto options volume using RFQ protocol for large institutional trades. This gave us 3,000+ institutional relationships and no need to fundraise—Paradex was incubated directly from Paradigm.
Host: You're also building on-chain asset management and vaults?
Rob: Vaults are our bet on on-chain asset management. Deposit capital, get tokenized shares, delegate to managers. Everything runs natively: spot, perps, options, portfolio margin—all from one account. Gigavault already has $50M AUM.
Host: During the recent market crash, centralized exchanges broke. How did Paradex hold up?
Rob: We processed massive liquidations with no downtime. Small trade busts were refunded immediately. The exchange stayed up 100% of the time—valuable stress test for scaling to 100x volume.
Rob: Our value prop: 1) Zero-fee perps for retail, 2) Better-than-CEX liquidity (we publish stats), 3) Privacy by encrypting positions on-chain.
We're building spot + options too—all from unified accounts. Not "just perps."
Host: Explain your zero-fee model?
Rob: Retail Price Improvement (RPI) lets market makers quote tight spreads against non-toxic retail flow. They pay 0.3 bps to access this flow. Retail gets zero fees + better execution. Net cost beats most CEXs.
Rob: On transparent chains, everyone sees your positions. Institutions won't play poker with cards face-up. Paradex encrypts data availability layer—you alone know your liquidation price.
Host: Thanks Rob—this clarifies why Paradex stands out.
Rob: Thanks Kyle.