From BitMEX to RAVE: How will Arthur Hayes' new bet redefine PerpDEX?

Do you remember who taught you the word 'Leverage'? That's right, it was Arthur Hayes.

This founder of BitMEX, who introduced us to the thrill of 100x leverage, is now supporting a new project - RAVE, through his Maelstrom Fund.

And this time, he aims to bring one of the sexiest innovations from CEX - Quanto perpetual contracts to on-chain.

This will allow players to use trending assets like LRT, PT, MeMe coins, etc., as collateral and settlement assets for perpetual contract trading.

We know that since GMX, innovation in the PerpDEX space has basically stagnated, while growth in asset scale, active trading users, trading volume, etc., has also encountered bottlenecks.

The emergence of RAVE, built using the Initia APP Chain paradigm and supporting various emerging popular assets as collateral and settlement assets, may signal the start of a new innovation cycle in the PerpDEX space.

1⃣ What is Quanto?

Let me tell a small story:

Imagine you are a SOL Maxi, and you just don't want to sell your SOL. But you are bearish on ETH and want to short...

In traditional perpetual contracts:

- You need to convert SOL to USDT first

- Short ETH with USDT

- Missing out on possible SOL upside

That’s painful, right?

And in Quanto perpetual contracts:

- Directly using SOL as margin

- Short ETH/USD

- SOL price changes do not affect positions

- Profit and loss settled in SOL

Killing two birds with one stone! You can short ETH while still holding SOL.

2⃣ Why now?

Isn't there already GMX, DYDX, and other PerpDEX in DeFi?

But they all have three common pain points:

1. Margin asset price drop = liquidation risk.

2. Staking assets cannot be used for trading at the same time

3. Market makers are trapped in specific asset trading pairs

And RAVE elegantly solves these problems:

- Margin price changes do not affect positions

- Use yield-bearing stablecoins as collateral to continue earning interest

- Use types of Staking assets like LST, LRT, PT, etc. as margin to continue earning staking rewards

- Even Meme coins as margin, retaining upside potential

Simply put: your assets do not have to choose between 'yield' and 'trading'.

3⃣ Why choose the Initia stack?

"Because it's fast!"... that's just the surface reason.

RAVE chose Initia because they saw a bigger vision: true on-chain trading infrastructure.

Imagine a perfect on-chain perpetual contract trading experience:

- Quanto complex calculations completed in milliseconds

- Seamless access to all-chain assets

- One login, access all Rollups

- Native USDC directly supported

- On-chain oracle providing real-time prices

What does it require? A technology stack truly optimized for financial applications.

And Initia just happens to provide all of this:

-VM Independent Optimistic Rollup Framework (OPinit Stack)

- Built-in liquidity mechanism (Enshrined Liquidity)

- Celestia data availability guarantee

- Native cross-chain routing

- Dual support for EVM + CosmosSDK

In the words of the Initia team: "We are not building L2, we are redefining how multi-chain systems should operate."

It's like... imagine you're building a nightclub. You can rent a regular shop and renovate it yourself, or you can directly choose a venue tailored for parties, complete with lighting, sound, and ventilation systems.

RAVE chose the latter.

Because they know: to host a 24/7 perpetual contract party, you need more than just a trading platform; you need a complete financial infrastructure ecosystem.

"Trading by day, raving by night" is not just a slogan, but a commitment that requires a strong technology stack to support.

In fact, the Initia stack is currently one of the most popular App Chain solutions among new PerpDEX. Besides RAVE, there are BlackWing, Tucana, etc.

4⃣ Why RAVE?

Have you ever wondered why Arthur Hayes suddenly became so fascinated with a new project during a bear market?

The answer is simple: because he saw the shadow of BitMEX in RAVE.

Remember back in 2015 when BitMEX launched Quanto perpetual contracts, the entire crypto market was questioning 'who would use this thing?'. But in the end, it changed the way the entire industry traded.

Now history is repeating itself, just with the stage changing from CEX to DEX.

RAVE's advantage lies in its timing - while competitors are busy increasing Gas and TPS, it is addressing a more fundamental issue: how to increase the utilization of users' assets by 10 times.

Imagine: your stETH is still earning staking rewards, your stablecoins are still earning 16% interest, and even your meme coins are waiting for a surge, and now all these assets can be traded simultaneously.

Of course, don’t expect to get rich quick. The real opportunity lies in: RAVE may become new infrastructure in DeFi, just like Uniswap did back in the day, quietly transforming the entire industry during a bear market.

After all, projects that pique the interest of Arthur Hayes and his Maelstrom Fund are never fleeting fads.

What they are betting on is the next paradigm shift in DeFi.

Above.