SynFutures CEO Rachel Lin on the future of trading

As on-chain liquidity deepens and decentralized exchanges quietly absorb market share once dominated by centralized platforms, the question is no longer whether DeFi can compete—but how far it can go.

Rachel Lin, co-founder and CEO of SynFutures, sits at the center of that shift. A former Deutsche Bank global markets executive and founding partner of Matrixport, Lin brings a rare blend of TradFi rigor and DeFi-native execution to decentralized derivatives.

In this Q&A, she breaks down why order-book DEXs are closing the gap with CEXs, what recent exchange failures have permanently changed about user trust, and how on-chain markets could evolve from financial replicas into entirely new systems.

You might also like: Interview | How Theoriq turns AI agents into accountable yield machines

With on-chain liquidity becoming deeper, how do you see the balance shifting between centralized exchanges (CEXs) and decentralized exchanges (DEXs)?

Lin: We’re already seeing a measurable shift in market balance. From a number standpoint, in Q2 alone, DEXs facilitated nearly $900 billion in spot volume, while CEX volumes declined sharply, pushing the volume ratio to a record low. What’s changed is that DEXs can now offer speed, depth, and execution quality that historically belonged to centralized platforms.

What advantages does a platform like SynFutures have over traditional CEXs?

Lin: SynFutures is the market’s only truly decentralized order-book perp DEX, which combines orderbook and AMM models for enhanced liquidity and trading efficiency, with matching and settlement all on-chain. Efficient execution and capital efficiency are especially important for derivatives, where fragmented liquidity and expiring contracts introduce unnecessary complexity. Combined with faster block times and adaptive risk controls, this allows markets to operate predictably even during volatility. The structural advantages with transparent execution, permissionless access and self-custody are becoming increasingly difficult for traditional CEXs to replicate.

What do you think is the most significant factor driving users from CEXs to DEXs, especially when it comes to the growing interest in self-custody and transparent liquidity?

Lin: Self-custody is part of it, but the deeper driver is predictability. The debacles with Celsius and FTX fundamentally changed how users evaluate risk. With more than $11 billion lost by CEXs to hacks and mismanagement (a figure far exceeding losses from DeFi protocols), users want to see liquidity, verify executions and retain custody of their assets, all of which are offered by DEXs by default.

Lin: Apart from transparency, DEXs like ours also apply more security restrictions for when liquidity worsen during stressed market conditions. For example, we isolate margins for pairs with insufficient liquidity and automatically reduce leverage when Open Interest is too large. These user protection measures as part of the experience help build users confidence over time.

As we’ve seen more liquidity move onto DEXs, do you think that CEXs will eventually become obsolete, or do they still have a long-term role in the ecosystem?

Lin: I don’t think CEXs will disappear overnight, but their role is changing. They’ll likely remain important as fiat ramps, distribution, and access points in many regions. We’re already seeing centralized exchanges integrate on-chain infrastructure, whether through routing liquidity through DEXs or partnering with DeFi protocols. This is a response to where traders are moving and the core activity is shifting on-chain.

But layering decentralized features onto centralized infrastructure cannot remove their underlying limitations around trust, flexibility and network effects. Unless centralized exchanges radically reinvent themselves in the long run, they risk becoming access points and interfaces sitting on top of decentralized systems.

What are the key technological and regulatory hurdles that need to be overcome to make onchain borrowing, lending, and trading a reality?

Lin: Technological barriers are falling quickly with enhanced blockchain performance and more robust infrastructure. Improvements in latency, execution speed, and capital efficiency have already made complex products including derivatives viable entirely on-chain, scalable lending markets also made possible. The next phase is about refinement such as better risk management and deeper cross-chain liquidity, as well as more user-friendly UX/UI for mass adoption.

Lin: On the regulatory front, development is still nascent and the regulatory framework is fragmented. But it’s encouraging that the inherent auditability of on-chain systems actually aligns well with regulatory objectives. The challenge is ensuring that regulation recognizes this transparency and automation as strengths. Regulatory clarity is important, and many leading DeFi protocols are actively engaged in policy discussions to drive that change.

How do you see traditional financial institutions adapting to a fully on-chain financial ecosystem, and do you think there will be any resistance from major players in TradFi?

Lin: On-chain systems offer many advantages that TradFi will find difficult to ignore. Ultimately, blockchain is a transformative infrastructure technology, capable of continuous settlement, reduced counterparty risk, lowered operational overhead and global reach. It’s a race they can’t afford to lose.

That said, there will be resistance from legacy banking systems, regulatory concerns that would slow adoption. But as they experiment with tokenized instruments, stablecoins, and blockchain-based credit markets, benefits are evident and market forces tend to be persuasive for resistance to give way.

In your view, what’s the next big innovation or breakthrough that will make on-chain financial services more scalable and accessible to the masses?

Lin: Many technologies are being built with usability in mind. For example, abstraction with wallets and interfaces now support email sign ups, enabling decentralized finance to be simpler and more accessible to laymen. Essentially, users won’t need to understand the underlying complexity to benefit from it.

Next up is the convergence of these modular infrastructures. By improving interoperability of different chains, protocols, and liquidity pools, assets and users can move more seamlessly for reduced fragmentation and a more intuitive experience.

There’s a growing narrative that tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs) is the main focus for blockchain adoption in finance. Do you agree?

Lin: RWAs are important, but they are not the whole story. While tokenization can improve access and efficiency to existing markets, the real breakthrough of DeFi will be enabling entirely new forms of market structure and instruments that have yet existed in the TradFi markets.

That said, replicating TradFi instruments at this stage is crucial, it showcases the permissionless and programmable features of blockchain, as well as the potential to design, launch, and trade new financial products that operate globally.

What is your perspective on the idea that the future of finance is not just about bringing traditional financial instruments onto blockchains, but creating entirely new markets and assets that were previously unimaginable in TradFi?

Lin: I strongly agree. Decentralized finance would be the most meaningful when it fulfills its innovative potential and departs from traditional finance. The ultimate goal isn’t bringing Wall Street to DeFi, but creating entirely new markets and assets. Blockchain offers inherent programmability and permissionlessness that TradFi can’t match, with this, virtually markets around any asset, index or even identity can be created.

What surprised you in 2025? And is there anything that concerns you about the sector heading into 2026?

Lin: Fundamentally, Web3 and DeFi have never been in a better place. Scalability and speed are improving dramatically, high-performance chains like Monad are achieving record transaction speeds, and fees are merely a fraction of a cent.

With global regulators warming up to crypto, we can already see how users are turning to DeFi and how disproportionately decentralized platforms have captured new liquidity. And different from the previous cycles, this shift wasn’t driven by incentives alone, but by trust in platforms that combine transparency, risk controls and reliable execution. Heading into 2026, as more chains and ecosystems emerge, interoperability and usability will determine how smoothly DeFi scales into its next phase.

Overall, I’m very positive about the outlook. There are clear signs that DeFi is becoming genuinely accessible to a broader audience: email onboarding, seamless bridging, crypto cards becoming mainstream, and rapid adoption of stablecoins, etcetera.

SynFutures has been at the forefront of decentralized derivatives. As the CEO, how do you envision SynFutures evolving in the next five years?

Lin: Over the next five years, I see SynFutures evolving from a single derivatives venue into core infrastructure provider for onchain markets.

On the product side, we see globally traded, highly liquid RWAs as a natural extension of onchain derivatives. Our early support for RWA markets such as gold and crude oil is only the beginning. As settlement rails mature, we expect a broader range of RWAs to move onchain and perps will be the most efficient ways to trade them.

Equally important is how these markets are built. Rather than trying to own every interface ourselves, we have launched a Builder Program to empower independent teams to build on our battle-tested infrastructure while leveraging existing liquidity and risk controls.

In 2026, we’re focused on launching the new SynFutures protocol mainnet with faster execution, lower fees, and a smoother, more CEX-like UX on a perp-optimized chain, with upgrades designed to support deeper liquidity and more stable trading.

We’ll also expand supported assets (including planned stocks & index products), ship mobile, and continue governance upgrades — with details subject to change as development progresses.

Read more: XRP trades below key technical level, analysts point to historical rally patterns