Coinbase Hires Opyn's Leadership Team

Coinbase has strengthened its derivatives business by hiring the core leadership team from Opyn, a decentralized options trading protocol. The new hires include CEO Andrew Leone and research head Joe Clark, although Opyn's protocol offerings will not be integrated into Coinbase's services. Harsha Bhat, VP of Engineering at Coinbase Markets, highlighted the Opyn team's achievements, noting their pioneering role in DeFi options and their experience in building decentralized products. This acquisition is expected to accelerate Coinbase's goal of enhancing its onchain operations, which is exemplified by features like Coinbase’s Verified Pools, an onchain liquidity system on the Base Layer 2 network for compliant trading. Opyn's main product, launched in 2019, is a decentralized derivatives market facilitating call and put options trading via oToken option tokens and innovative high-leverage contracts called ‘power perpetuals,’ including their well-known product, Squeeth (Squared ETH), which offers exposure to ETH². In 2023, Opyn faced legal challenges from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, resulting in a $250,000 fine and leadership transitions for co-founders Zubin Koticha and Alexis Gauba. Andrew Leone previously led Opyn's research team after a tenure at Nomura, where he focused on VIX and structured volatility trading. Opyn has successfully raised over $10.9 million across two funding rounds, demonstrating strong support from investors in the crypto space.