Dialogue with SynFutures founder Rachel: The most important thing for East Asian women entrepreneurs is to reject "fear of weakness."

Author: Wu Says Blockchain

There seem to be few truly core female founders in both the internet industry and the cryptocurrency field. Traditional views on family responsibilities and lower participation in STEM education may be contributing factors. Rachel is the founder of the on-chain derivatives project SynFutures. She introduced us to the current progress of the project, her thoughts on the cryptocurrency industry, and her advice for female entrepreneurs in East Asia. She believes the most important thing is to abandon the mindset of "fearing that you are weak."

Q: Self-introduction, how did you enter the blockchain industry?

I have a background in financial engineering. After graduation, I joined the traditional international investment bank Deutsche Bank as a derivatives sales trader. Later, I learned about blockchain systems at Ant Financial. I was amazed after reading the Bitcoin white paper and ran with the team to do blockchain remittances in the slums of Southeast Asia, helping to build the first version of a blockchain platform.

In 2018, I joined Bitmain and co-founded Matrixport. Due to my interest in DeFi, I founded SynFutures in early 2021, which is the first decentralized derivatives platform with open trading pairs and the first to integrate an on-chain order book. Currently, we are consistently in the top three for trading volume on Perp DEX and have received support from investors including Pantera, Polychain, Dragonfly, and SIG.

Q: What is your view on tokens and cryptocurrencies?

Yes, while we will promote further decentralization at the right time, tokens are not the goal.

Airdrops and liquidity mining are not free; they are a form of marketing cost, similar to ride-hailing subsidies. However, products cannot solely rely on subsidies to attract users. We still need to see if the product can meet the real needs of a large-scale user base after excluding these incentives. Previously, we have been refining the product and focusing on user growth.

Q: Where are the real user needs in Web3 and DeFi?

Indeed, many active users in Web3 are "arbitrageurs," but the real needs that need to be addressed are those that will continue beyond incentives.

The problem is that decentralized products currently cannot match the user experience of centralized ones. Why do people still come? We have observed that the ongoing effective demand in Web3, especially in DeFi, comes from:

(1) Arbitrage. Just like there are price differences between domestic and foreign markets in foreign exchange, on-chain finance currently resembles the offshore market of centralized exchanges. Therefore, on one hand, we improve the capital efficiency of the AMM model to ensure deep liquidity, and on the other hand, we insist on independent pricing power for the platform without using external oracles for trading prices, which has led to many spontaneous arbitrage trades.

(2) Unique assets. In the early days, Amazon and Taobao also required registration, card binding, and waiting for delivery, which resulted in a poor experience. Why could people endure it? It was precisely because they could buy things that were not available in their local supermarkets on the platform. Assets are key to platform development. Therefore, our model also provides single-asset contracts on perp, such as popular memes and LSTs, which bring us a lot of traffic.

(3) Open interaction in the digital ecosystem. With the development of AI, the rise of the digital economy will further drive demand. We can now see that as long as one holds the private key, a single transaction can span across different DeFi, social, gaming, and other areas of the blockchain ecosystem.

In fact, it is not that DeFi lacks large-scale applications, but that the digital economy still needs to develop on a large scale, and AI will accelerate this process. The digital world is the "real economy" of decentralized finance. If the economy does not develop well, finance will struggle to take effect. However, the development of AI will speed up the growth of the digital economy. First, the creation of the digital world does not require full manual effort, as AI will significantly enhance the speed of development. Second, with the emergence of AI agents, machines will represent us in fulfilling demands across different fields, requiring open, transparent, and programmable finance.

Q: Since 2020, having gone through several market cycles, what insights have you gained from consistently building?

Our style can be described as "realistic idealism." The ideal part comes from our understanding of traditional finance; we fundamentally believe that blockchain can reshape the entire financial system. For the first time in my life, I feel I have the opportunity to leave my mark in the tide of history and become a leader in the field, which is incredibly exciting.

The realistic part is that in a rapidly developing industry, survival always presents opportunities. The simple formula is cash flow income + capital market financing - operating expenses.

Cash income: Do tech companies really rely solely on "burning money"? Not at all; most successful companies have found sustainable business models early on. For example, Facebook's advertising business propelled its growth, and the recently popular game "Black Monkey" developer first created profitable mobile games before diving into AAA titles without revenue. The derivatives trading we are involved in may be one of the most realistic business models in the entire Web3.

Capital market financing: My deep insight is that financing in our industry needs to closely follow macro market trends; it is a proactive measure rather than a reactive one.

Operating expenses: One easily overlooked aspect that can lead to unexpected expenses is the safety of financial funds. We strictly manage funds through diversified strategies, including multiple cold wallets, banks, and centralized service providers, based on liquidity needs. Therefore, we have never incurred losses during turbulent times over the years.

Q: Have you faced any difficult choices during the product development process?

Yes, we created a fully on-chain derivatives DEX, which differs from the centralized matching model that most existing perp DEXs adopt.

We had a heated internal debate about whether to first create a standalone chain or a centralized matching model to provide a better trading experience, given the high performance requirements of derivatives. Now, I am particularly grateful that we did not choose to completely copy the centralized route.

First, creating a standalone DEX on a single chain is essentially not much different from a centralized exchange, where competitors like Binance and Bybit are strong. If we merely mimic CeFi, the user experience would be hard to match, and acquiring users for our "chain" and exchange would primarily rely on unsustainable subsidies and airdrop expectations.

Second, we have carved out a differentiated path from competitors and centralized exchanges. While providing capital efficiency models comparable to centralized ones, we can operate on any public chain with any asset for single-asset contracts, integrating project dividends from various public chains and ecosystem partners. As long as the industry is developing, the SynFutures model can continue to thrive.

Q: You are one of the few Chinese projects that have received investment from top investors in both the East and West. What is your view on the differences in the Web3 financing environment between the East and West? There are criticisms that many Eastern investors are relatively short-sighted.

Firstly, there are many excellent institutions in the East. The long-term or short-term perspective of investors is not related to East or West; it is fundamentally determined by the underlying capital structure and the maturity of the capital market.

Many Western funds tend to look at the long term because (1) there is a large amount of long-term capital, such as university endowment funds, pension funds, and mutual funds, and (2) there are stable long-term exit mechanisms, including IPOs and active mergers and acquisitions by large companies. People are accustomed to making money in the long term.

Regardless of the long or short term, venture capital is one of the most meaningful sectors in finance and society as a whole. If we look at the periods of high and low-speed development in world history, the correlation with political forms is not as significant as many believe. The main reasons for social stagnation are wealth disparity and class solidification, and venture capital is one of the few pathways that can break this solidification, allowing talented individuals lacking resources to gain opportunities for upward mobility.

Q: As a female CEO, what insights have you gained in building your team? What advice do you have for female professionals?

SynFutures has one of the best teams in Asian Web3 that I know of, including top mathematicians, cryptographers, senior engineers, investment banking financial experts, and market operation talents from major public chains. However, regardless of who I interview, I pay special attention to one question: whether they genuinely believe in the blockchain industry and have the desire to make a significant impact. Over 30% of the SynFutures team are women, including core engineers, product managers, and business personnel. One notable advantage of a female CEO is the ability to better coordinate teams from different backgrounds and maintain a shared direction.

I believe it is particularly important for East Asian women not to "fear weakness." This is a description by Japanese socialist scholar Chizuko Ueno. Women, especially elite women in East Asia, are particularly prone to "fear weakness": I am an elite; I am not weak; I "decide" my own path. Therefore, when problems arise, women tend to be sensitive and feel it is their fault, believing that if they work hard, they can take control. If others do not like me, it is my problem, and I must please them. However, "nothing distances oneself from feminism more than 'self-determination.'"

If there are reasonable points, of course, they can be referenced. However, we must recognize that many issues may be macro-level problems or others' issues. Only then can we understand that "I" am good enough, "I" deserve to strive for better, and I need to "take a step forward."