You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more
At the same time, a draft of the product gets sent to various regulators for approval. If the product sets any new precedent or links to an easily manipulated market, it can get rejected or delayed. (Think crypto futures approval). Regulators can take weeks+ to bless a launch.
After all the green lights are given & developers have built the product into the larger exchange platform, you can finally open it for trading. If you're lucky, the product will actually match what the customer wanted & they'll still have an interest in trading it.
More often than not, either the customer's strategy will have changed while you were building the product, or the product wasn't built correctly. Either way, it becomes a low/zero volume market with no revenue almost immediately. (sad face)
As you can likely tell from the above, launching a good futures product that works is really hard. The design challenge mixed with competitive pressures forces exchanges to resort to largely copying what their rivals are making.
That's generally how a TradFi exchange launches products. How does FTX do it?
Someone tweets at @SBF_FTX, SBF tells the product guy to build it, they build it, they launch it.
No politics. No regulatory approval. No lost message in middle management.
It's beautiful.
Here's an example - earlier this year FTX launched a cash settled lumber futures market within ~14 hours of customers asking for it. For an exchange their size, this speed is unprecedented in the modern futures market.https://www.bloombergquint.com/onweb/crypto-exchange-ftx-launches-lumber-futures-after-just-two-hours-of-work …
How can this be anywhere near possible?
1. No middle management - only a few dozen people are needed to launch a product vs. hundreds or more in TradFi.
2. Regulation - For the most part FTX doesn't need approval to launch stuff outside the US.
(cont.
)
3. FTX is focused on one market - crypto. It's not like there's a cash equities or fixed income business swallowing up all the internal time & resources. Focus matters. 4. FTX is private. They can choose fast growth > profits without dealing with angry investors.
I also find SBF's proximity to the product launch process very valuable for FTX. SBF can connect a CEO's vision to the micro details of a product launch. I'm almost positive CME's CEO doesn't himself approve or work on most of the exchange's product launches, if any.
FTX also has Alameda to help influence product design. FTX itself was launched to be the exchange Alameda wished existed in crypto. If anyone knows what crypto products will work, it's Alameda. This is another game-changing advantage.
There's also the large retail presence in crypto to consider, making Twitter a MASSIVE differentiator for SBF & FTX to get product ideas. They can listen to their customers & respond in real time. TradFi exchanges are BARELY active on Twitter, if at all. That's wild to me.
FTX's speed is inspiring but I don't think it will last. Regulation will slow down new products. Clients will skew more institutional. SBF will get older & likely not be as close to his customer base as he is today. This is what makes RIGHT NOW such a unique time for crypto.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.
