What is Synthetix

Synthetix is the first decentralized perpetual futures protocol built on Ethereum Mainnet. The upcoming Synthetix Mainnet exchange, expected in 2025, will offer offchain order matching on a high-performance central limit order book (CLOB) with onchain settlement on Ethereum—the world's most secure smart contract platform.

Synthetix is powered by stakers of the SNX token, our liquidity providers, and our community. By staking SNX, users secure the protocol and participate in protocol governance. Liquidity providers enable deep, efficient markets, while the Synthetix community drives innovation and growth.

Synthetix is designed for:

• Traders seeking deep liquidity, low slippage, and advanced trading features on a decentralized platform.

• Stakers who want to earn rewards and participate in protocol governance by staking SNX.

• Liquidity Providers who supply capital to earn a share of trading fees and protocol incentives.

A Brief History

Synthetix began in 2018 as Havven, a protocol for decentralized stablecoins. In 2019, Synthetix v2 launched, pioneering the minting of synthetic assets—including crypto assets, indices, and traditional finance (TradFi) assets—on Ethereum. This innovation established Synthetix as a leader in on-chain derivatives and composable DeFi infrastructure.

• Synthetix v2: Enabled users to stake SNX and mint sUSD, with a wide range of synthetic assets and the first on-chain decentralized exchange for synthetics.

• Perps v2 (Optimism): Introduced decentralized perpetual futures trading, bringing deep liquidity and new trading opportunities to Layer 2. This system is now considered legacy.

• Perps v3 and Synthetix v3: Marked a major architectural shift, enabling cross-margin trading, multi-collateral support, and a modular, upgradable protocol. V3 deployments expanded to Base and Arbitrum, but the focus has returned to Ethereum Mainnet for the next generation of Synthetix products.

Throughout its history, Synthetix has been at the forefront of DeFi innovation, from synthetic assets to on-chain derivatives and advanced staking models. The protocol’s community-driven governance and continuous upgrades have kept it relevant and resilient through multiple market cycles.