Paradigm
Connecting institutional traders with derivative liquidity
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About Paradigm
Paradigm is a non-custodial institutional liquidity network for crypto derivatives, positioning itself as the largest network of its kind in the crypto space. It is not an exchange and does not settle trades, hold user funds, or engage in market-making or proprietary trading.
Its core business revolves around two products: Unified Markets, which provides on-demand auctions via Request-for-Quote (RFQ) and complex order books, and Delta-1 Spreads, which offers streaming order books for trading spreads between delta-1 instruments like spot, perpetuals, and futures. The platform supports over 120 products across options, perpetuals, and futures, connecting more than 1,000 counterparties and 50+ market makers.
The main market pain points Paradigm addresses include fragmented liquidity across venues, high execution risk in multi-leg strategies (leg risk), and the lack of deep institutional-grade liquidity for large trades. By aggregating liquidity and enabling atomic execution of multi-leg strategies, it reduces slippage and operational complexity for institutional traders.
In the past six months (Feb-Aug 2026), Paradigm expanded its partnership with Bybit to support USDT-margined delta-1 spread trading across 25 cryptocurrencies, with zero fees on the spot leg for trades initiated via Paradigm and settled on Bybit. Its affiliated platform Paradex launched Funding V2, which recalculates perpetual funding rates every second instead of every 8 hours, using an exponentially weighted moving average with a 30-minute half-life and a weighted median of price feeds from six venues to reduce manipulation risk. Paradigm also passed a SOC2 Type 2 audit in October 2023, covering a monitoring period from June to August 2023.
Paradigm, founded in 2018 by Anand Gomes and Michal Koonin, is an institutional-grade crypto derivatives liquidity network. Its key milestones include: 2019 December, raising $35 million in Series A led by Jump Capital and Alameda Ventures; 2020, launching Multi-Dealer RFQ (MDRFQ) for anonymous trading, which became a core industry standard; 2021, expanding funding to $125 million. The platform now supports 120+ products across CeFi and DeFi venues, with cumulative trading volume exceeding $15 billion. Paradigm's long-term significance lies in pioneering anonymous RFQ execution and non-custodial settlement, bridging centralized and decentralized liquidity. Its open architecture and institutional focus have made it a critical infrastructure for crypto options and futures markets, influencing how professional traders access deep liquidity globally.
Anand Gomes (Co-founder & CEO) - Formerly at KeyBanc Capital Markets in OTC energy, rates, and credit trading. Holds an MBA/MS in Finance from Case Western Reserve University and a BS in Computer Science from the University of Pune. Also co-founded Paradigm, the largest institutional crypto derivatives liquidity network.
Micki Koonin (Co-founder & Chief of Staff) - Previously a volatility trader at Wolverine Trading for 10 years, trading US index and commodity derivatives. Holds a Master's in Software Engineering from DePaul University and a Bachelor's in Mathematical Decision Sciences from UNC Chapel Hill.