Loi Luu is a Vietnamese blockchain entrepreneur and researcher, best known as the founder of Kyber Network, a decentralized liquidity protocol that enables token swaps and DeFi applications. It launched in 2017 through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), raising around $52 million.

Kyber Network was also one of the key contributors to Wrapped BTC (WBTC), an ERC-20 token backed 1:1 by Bitcoin that allows BTC to be used within the Ethereum ecosystem for trading and DeFi applications.

This week Luu posted about his new initiative, Optimex:

"I build @optimex_xyz because we need native DeFi on Bitcoin. Most BTC activity happens on centralized platforms—we need to fix that."

Optimex aims to enable DeFi on Bitcoin. This includes swap, lending and borrowing, and margin trading, all native to the Bitcoin network. Unlike existing solutions that usually rely on bridging and wrapped versions of BTC, Optimex plans to engage users in DeFi activities directly on Bitcoin.

Luu also sees Bitcoin native DeFi as a solution to the decreasing security budget of the number one blockchain.

"It’s also about Bitcoin’s long-term security: fewer BTC transactions mean lower security budget for miners to secure the network," explains Luu.

The project’s first product will be Optimex Swap, a decentralized Bitcoin exchange designed for high liquidity and fast settlement. While users won’t have to interact with other chains directly, the exchange will use its own L2 network, as a communication layer.

The exchange is currently in the Alpha testing stage, and its release is planned in the next few months. We added this project to our Observation list.

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