Optimex

Optimex was founded by Loi Luu, founder of Kyber Network, as a native DeFi layer for Bitcoin, aiming to break BTC's limitation of being "hold-only." The project employs non-custodial multisig vaults, an MPC settlement committee, and an RFQ quoting mechanism to enable on-chain trading without bridges or wrapped assets.

In 2025, Optimex launched BTC Swap and wrapping/unwrapping features, allowing users to trade and convert assets directly on the Bitcoin network, while lending and margin trading modules were under development. Subsequently, Optimex introduced its core product, Borrow, which enables users to borrow stablecoins against native BTC, safeguarding assets through cross-chain coordination and pre-signed transactions, and integrated with lending markets such as Morpho to offer floating and fixed-rate credit.

Additionally, Optimex completed smart contract audits by Offside Labs and Omniscia, covering vault and lending modules, laying the foundation for protocol security and long-term credibility. These milestones mark key steps in Bitcoin's evolution from a static store of value to a productive financial asset.

Optimex is a Bitcoin-native DeFi platform founded by Loi Luu, creator of Kyber Network. Luu graduated from the National University of Singapore and, before Kyber, built Oyente, the first open-source smart contract security analysis tool on Ethereum; Kyber was also one of the key contributors to Wrapped BTC. The contradiction he targets is direct: Bitcoin has a market cap near $2 trillion and about 60 percent of the crypto market, yet accounts for only 0.4 percent of DeFi versus 18 percent for Ethereum, a roughly 60x gap he frames as a $500 billion untapped market. Existing solutions almost all depend on wrapping BTC into ERC-20s such as WBTC and cbBTC, which introduce centralised custody and censorship risk, taxable disposition risk in jurisdictions including the US, UK and Australia, opaque reserves with verification latency, and regulatory fragility at the issuer level.

The architecture is built around not wrapping, not bridging and not surrendering custody. Collateral is locked in vaults constructed from Bitcoin script using 2-of-2 multisig with relative timelocks, so if a trade does not complete the user can unilaterally reclaim funds after an agreed period, preserving co-custodial authority. A settlement committee of MPC nodes uses tECDSA threshold signatures for confirmation and settlement, with nodes posting bonds that are slashed for misbehaviour. A purpose-built EVM Layer2 acts as a coordination layer recording trade intents, maker quotes, security deposits and penalty execution, invisible to ordinary users. Matching uses a request-for-quote model, effectively automated OTC, where a solver queries multiple market makers and routes optimally, so makers need not lock liquidity on-chain. The product line currently spans Optimex Swap, for cross-chain execution between native BTC and disparate Layer 1 assets, and Optimex Borrow, an overcollateralised module lending stablecoins against native BTC, with borrowed liquidity optionally deployed into curated DeFi protocols to create a dual engine of Bitcoin price upside plus yield strategy. Margin trading has been listed as still in development.

Future strategy and roadmap: the direction is to assemble swap, borrow and margin into a complete native BTCFi suite, offering institutional and high-net-worth holders RFQ execution plus compliance and risk tooling, framed also as an answer to Bitcoin's declining long-term security budget, since more on-chain activity means more fee income supporting miners. The risk is that this architecture is far more complex than an ordinary lending protocol, with the multisig vaults, MPC settlement committee and coordination layer each a distinct failure and governance surface. BTCFi already has staking-led incumbents such as Babylon holding billions in TVL, and competition on the lending side is equally intense. The core wrapping-is-taxable argument also depends on tax treatment in each jurisdiction, so a change in interpretation would erode the relative advantage.

Ash Zamani — Co-founder & CEO; formerly head of the crypto solutions team at Visa.

Loi Luu — Co-founder; Vietnamese blockchain entrepreneur and researcher, founder of the Kyber Network liquidity protocol in 2017 and a key contributor to Wrapped BTC (WBTC).

Optimex Swap charges a 0.02% protocol fee on BTC-WBTC and other wrapped-BTC pairs and a 0.1% protocol fee on all other pairs, with these fees serving as the protocol's main revenue source.

Optimex's referral program distributes 20% of protocol fees to standard referrers and 30% to partners and KOLs, with fees from referred trades settled in USDC, USDT, ETH or WETH.