TL;DR

🚀 February Highlights:

• Paradex: $4.8B traded and new DAU ATHs
• Paradigm: $20.8B traded amid market volatility

Market Jitters

Paradigm activity remained strong with $20.8B traded as a sharp market downturn fueled volumes. Our market share remained steady at 29%. Paradex momentum continues to pick up with $4.8B traded. From DAUs to total XP holders, several metrics confirm our increasing mindshare. We will recap market catalysts and key options flows thoroughly in the Markets section.

Paradex Key Performance Metrics

February was another monster month for Paradex! 📊🔥 We closed the month with 7,840 active users, pushing trading volume to a massive $4.77B, with an ADV of $170M. TVL climbed to $40.9M, while total open interest hit $28M. Traders also stacked up 16M XP throughout the month. Bigger numbers, stronger momentum—March, you're up next! 🚀

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New Market Listings

February was another big month—we added 8 new perp markets, bringing the total to 89! More markets, more opportunities to trade. 🚀

• BERA-USD-PERP
• TST-USD-PERP
• LAYER-USD-PERP
• IP-USD-PERP
• OM-USD-PERP
• KAITO-USD-PERP
• S-USD-PERP
• RAY-USD-PERP

Make Volatility Great Again

February started with an unprecedented liquidation event, estimated to be in the $8-10 billion range. Implieds spiked (Chart 1) and frontend skew reacted accordingly, while backend skew was unchanged. ETH realizeds soared from 50 to 120 (Chart 3). Flows were mixed with OTM call spreads and puts lifted.

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The following weeks saw volatility cool off as spot remained rangebound in the high 90's. Frontend ATMs traded under 40v and frontend skew briefly flipped calls (Chart 2). Volumes were muted featuring outright calls bought.

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Sentiment soured from February 21 onwards as the $1.46b hack of crypto exchange Bybit took place, the largest in history (in dollar terms). Macro concerns and tariffs looming also weighed on markets. Implieds spiked again, with term structures in backwardation into month-end. Flows flipped with downside protection bought in BTC, ETH and SOL. SOL block volumes continue to increase (Chart 4).

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Top 5 BTC Structures on Paradigm:

1900x 28-Mar-25 110000 Call bought
1500x 27-Jun-25 130000/180000 Call Spread bought
1150x 28-Feb-25 88000 Put bought
1093x 28-Mar-25 110000 27-Jun-25 120000 Call Calendar bought
1000x 28-Feb-25 90000 Put bought

Top 5 ETH Structures on Paradigm:

13302x 28-Mar-25 3300 Call bought
11750x 28-Feb-25 2500 Put bought
11250x 21-Feb-25 2900 Call bought
9750x 28-Mar-25 2500 Put sold
8750x 28-Mar-25 2200 Call bought

Top 5 SOL Structures on Paradigm:

95000x 28-Mar-25 140 Put bought
35000x 7-Mar-25 120 Put bought
25000x 7-Mar-25 130 Put bought
20000x 28-Mar-25 140 Put sold
20000x 28-Feb-25 200 Call bought

Top 5 XRP Structures on Paradigm:

800000x 28-Mar-25 2.6/3 Strangle sold
400000x 28-Feb-25 2.3 Put sold
400000x 28-Mar-25 2 Put sold
400000x 28-Feb-25 2.4 Put sold
100000x 28-Feb-25 2.8 Call sold

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Stay informed and engaged with us through "Paradigm Edge" and "Paradex" Telegram channels — your go-to resources for navigating this ever-changing crypto derivatives landscape.

Thanks for reading our Monthly Brief!

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Sincerely,
The Paradigm Team 💜