The Merge has widened several avenues and increased awareness of the Ethereum [ETH] network. The network received a lot of flak for switching to a more environmentally conscious approach. Despite this, the developers were able to complete ETH’s transition to proof-of-stake [PoS]. This reduced the network’s energy use by almost 99 percent yet kept a number of projects interested. This DeFi protocol decided to roll out an options exchange, particularly for Ethereum.
Ribbon Finance, during the Token2049 event happening in Singapore, revealed Aevo, an options exchange. The founder of the DeFi platform Julian Koh announced that the platform would provide ETH-related options services in the beginning. However, in time, it hopes to add Bitcoin [BTC] and other crypto assets.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency has been a popular choice among several communities and industries. However, when it comes to DeFi, most firms opt for Ethereum. While Bitcoin has certainly some presence in the DeFi market, ETH has dominated the space for the longest time. Speaking about the same, Koh said,
“With the majority of TVL in our platform coming from the Ethereum ecosystem, we have always regarded it as our home ground, and have strategically launched Aevo while the Ethereum network continues to build momentum after the Merge.”
As mentioned earlier, the Merge has certainly spruced up the network. Therefore, Koh expects to witness over $100 million in daily trading volume from the options exchange.
Ethereum’s supremacy over DeFi
As previously announced, Ribbon Finance decided to launch its options exchange utilizing Ethereum in order to keep true to its roots. While the Merge is unquestionably a factor, Ethereum’s control over the DeFi would have easily encouraged the company to start with ETH and later add BTC.
As seen in the below image, the total value of USD locked for Ethereum was $30.9 billion. Even though the network experienced a downtrend, it was way ahead of Bitcoin.
It should be noted that Bitcoin has a dainty $104.46 million locked in. This disparity further points out why Ribbon Finance was choosing Ethereum over Bitcoin to kick start its operations.