Ethereum's Layer 1 Lacks a Perp DEX. Synthetix Intends to Change That - Ep. 926

Unchained

Laura Shin

Business News, News, Tech News

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kain Warwick, founder of Synthetix and Infinex, is returning to Ethereum Layer 1 with a bold new experiment: a perpetuals DEX built directly on mainnet. In this episode, he joins Laura to explain why Synthetix is taking this contrarian step, how its hybrid “optimistic order book” can run efficiently on Ethereum’s slower block times, and why he believes the future of trading will move fully on-chain. Warwick also discusses the tradeoffs behind using USDT, what it will take to match centralized exchange performance, and his “super app” vision for how DeFi platforms could finally outcompete CEXs. Thank you to our sponsor, ⁠Binance⁠! Guest: Kain Warwick, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix Links: The Superapp Thesis by Kain Warwick Blockwork’s Dan Smith on Spreads for ETH-USD Timestamps: 🔥 0:00 Introduction and ads: Binance ⚙️ 0:56 Why Synthetix is launching a perps DEX directly on Ethereum mainnet ⏳ 5:18 How a perpetuals exchange can even work on slow Ethereum block times 🔍 10:34 How transparency will differ from other onchain trading venues 🏗️ 13:53 Why Kain believes being on Ethereum mainnet still matters 🧱 17:00 The challenges of operating on L1—margin posting, gas costs, and more ⚔️ 21:43 How Synthetix plans to compete in an overcrowded perps DEX landscape 💣 24:33 How liquidations on an Ethereum perp DEX would play out during a Black Friday-like crash 🕵️‍♂️ 29:32 How traders could maintain privacy while staying fully decentralized 🌐 31:57 Why a perps DEX on mainnet could reshape Ethereum DeFi 💵 34:25 Why Synthetix is using USDT—despite its centralization risks 🏦 37:28 Which premium assets will serve as collateral 📱 39:36 Inside Kain’s “super app” vision for DeFi’s next evolution 🏁 50:31 Why Kain is fired up about Synthetix’s upcoming trading competition Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Today, Ethereum still has the most assets, the most stable coins.
0:04.4	It's got more margin assets on it than any other chain.
0:09.1	And so by removing the need to bridge off Ethereum and allowing people to just deposit margin into a contract that is running on the L1,
0:16.9	we think that it will be far easier to attract liquidity and far easier to attract traders.
0:25.6	Hi, everyone. Welcome to Unchained, your no-hype resource for all things crypto. I'm your host,
0:30.7	Laura Shin. Finance is the world's number one crypto exchange, trusted by over 290 million users.
0:38.5	With industry leading liquidity, security, and a wide range of digital asset products,
0:43.1	finance is the place to buy, sell, trade, and earn crypto.
0:47.3	Download Binance today to get started.
0:50.1	Today's guest is Kane Warwick, founder of Infinex and Synthetics. Welcome, Kane.
0:55.1	Hey, Laura. Good to be back. So you are joining the Perp Dex party. You're about to launch
1:01.5	a perp-stex on Ethereum, as if we don't have enough of them already. Not that I'm saying we
1:06.3	have too many. I'm just kidding. So explain why you've decided to launch a perp tax on Ethereum.
1:12.6	The goal of synthetics from maybe 2019 was to build derivatives.
1:19.5	And perps at the time that synthetics originally launched were dominated by Bitmex.
1:26.2	All the exchanges started supporting
1:28.3	perps over the course of that cycle. And we launched alongside DYDX, one of the first Perp Dexes. And,
1:38.2	you know, the challenge of building a Perp Dex was huge, I would say, right?
1:47.0	And one of the things that we had to do was to move to an L2.
1:52.0	So we moved to optimism to be able to support the perp-dex.
1:57.0	But now we're coming back to Ethereum, and there's a long story there. So, you know, we've been building perp-dexs for six years.
2:04.4	This is our fourth version.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Laura Shin, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Laura Shin and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.