Introduction
What We're Building
Stratium is the institutional derivatives platform for onchain markets. We're deploying sophisticated derivative products across four verticals: volatility markets, FX/macro derivatives, data-backed assets, and real-world asset products.
Built on Hyperliquid's HIP-3 infrastructure, we're building the institutional derivatives layer that crypto rails has been missing.
Why These Markets?
The Gap TradFi has mature derivatives markets across volatility ($200B+), FX ($7.5T daily turnover), macro indicators, and structured products. Crypto infrastructure has spot and directional perps. The sophistication gap is massive.
The Opportunity Crypto's structural characteristics — higher volatility, 24/7 markets, permissionless access, transparent settlement — make it ideal for institutional derivative products. But the infrastructure doesn't exist yet.
Our Approach Systematic vertical expansion. Launch volatility markets first (clearest institutional need), prove the model works, then deploy FX/macro derivatives, data-backed assets, and RWA products. Each vertical builds on HIP-3's permissionless deployment capabilities.
Core Products
Variance Perpetuals (Launch Products)
Direct exposure to realized volatility without the capital inefficiency of options strategies.
Initial markets:
VAR-BTC — 30-day realized variance on Bitcoin
VAR-ETH — 30-day realized variance on Ethereum
What makes them different:
No delta exposure — trade pure volatility
No expiration — perpetual contracts, no position rolling
No Greeks to manage — simpler than options strategies
Capital efficient — leverage without multi-leg complexity
The use case: Institutions and sophisticated traders use variance swaps in TradFi to hedge portfolio risk, capture volatility risk premium, and trade vol regimes. Variance perpetuals bring this to crypto with better composability and 24/7 markets.
Expansion Roadmap
We're building four distinct verticals with systematic deployment. Each vertical serves institutional use cases that don't exist onchain yet.
Vertical 1: Volatility Markets
Complete suite of volatility instruments — variance perpetuals, implied vol markets, VIX-style indices, correlation products, skew markets, and vol spreads. Starting with crypto assets (BTC, ETH), expanding to traditional markets (equities, commodities, forex).
Vertical 2: FX & Macro Markets
Currency pair derivatives, commodity volatility products, and carry-spread markets. Enables onchain FX hedging and macro rate trading for institutions. Global FX derivatives turnover exceeds $7.5T daily — zero deep onchain markets exist.
Vertical 3: Data-Backed Assets (DATs)
Perpetuals on quantifiable datasets: network activity, stablecoin velocity, protocol metrics, CPI feeds. Trade data trends directly instead of building synthetic exposure through correlated assets.
Vertical 4: Real-World Assets (RWAs)
T-bill perpetuals, repo market integration, credit products, and structured notes. Converts stable TradFi yields into tradable perpetuals with transparent onchain settlement.
Why Now?
HIP-3 Enables Systematic Deployment
Before HIP-3, launching specialized derivatives platforms onchain meant building matching engines, orderbooks, and settlement infrastructure from scratch. HIP-3 provides institutional-grade infrastructure instantly.
We can focus on derivative product design, market making, and institutional partnerships rather than core infrastructure development. Permissionless deployment means we can systematically expand across volatility, FX, data assets, and RWAs without waiting for validator approval.
Market Maturation
DeFi derivatives are maturing from experimental to institutional-grade. Sophisticated traders need sophisticated instruments beyond spot and directional perps.
Variance swaps, FX derivatives, data-backed indices, and structured products are established in TradFi. The question isn't whether they'll come onchain — it's who builds them first and executes well.
Structural Opportunity
Volatility: Crypto volatility is structurally higher than TradFi. The addressable market for vol trading is larger onchain than off.
FX/Macro: Cross-border crypto activity creates natural FX hedging demand. No deep onchain markets exist despite massive institutional need.
Data Assets: Onchain data is verifiable and composable in ways TradFi data isn't. Creating tradable indices around network metrics, protocol revenue, and stablecoin flows enables entirely new strategies.
RWAs: Bridging TradFi yields onchain with transparent settlement and permissionless access unlocks institutional capital that won't touch pure crypto exposure.
First-mover advantage in comprehensive institutional derivatives creates defensible category positioning across all four verticals.
Stratium is currently in testnet with mainnet launch expected November-December 2025. All specifications subject to change based on testing, market feedback, and mainnet release of HIP-3.
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