February 12, 2025
The following post contains a recap of news, projects, and important updates from the Spartan Council and Core Contributors from last week.
👉TLDR
- Spartan Council CC Technical Seat has been filled: Brent Maxwell. See below to learn about the new Councilor.
- $BERA is now live on Synthetix Exchange.
- PnL Share Cards now live on V3.
- $BERABULL now live: 3X Long $BERA Synthetix Leveraged Token.
- Synthetix Leveraged Token Rally rewards program: Week 3 rewards now claimable. Week 4 has more opportunities with 3x Short Tokens now live on Base.
- Rewards for sUSD depositors on Infinex still ongoing: Reminder that rewards were DOUBLED to 10,000 SNX and 10,000 OP weekly. See results from last week’s Patron NFT drawing below.
- Overtime Markets free $OP bet campaign: This has ended, and hundreds of additional Synthetix Leverage traders and V3 LPs on Base also got free Overtime bets. See below to check if you qualified.
- Delta neutral trading guide: Burt wrote a thread on X to help traders learn about this popular strategy. See below for summary.
Spartan Council and SIP updates
First up, in exciting news, Synthetix has filled the Core Contributor (CC) Technical Seat on the Spartan Council! The team has been working to fill this seat since SR-2 passed, and has finally found someone to lead the development team during this pivotal reboot as Synthetix builds and ships its most advanced derivatives products yet. So, everyone please welcome Brent Maxwell to the Synthetix family!
Brent’s specializations are in improving engineering functions, data, and DevOps. Since 2017 when he first got into crypto, Brent has participated in setting up and running an NFT-investing DAO, co-building a web3 company after raising $5 million and generating $3 million revenue in the first year, launching a token on a CEX & DEX, and running numerous large scale NFT mints. Beyond crypto, he brings a wealth of experience from Web2 startups, small, medium, and enterprise businesses including AWS, Accenture, and The Iconic. Welcome, Brent!
Next, ICYMI, $BERA is now live on Synthetix Exchange. This is the native gas and staking token of Berachain, an EVM-identical L1 powered by Proof-of-Liquidity that plays a key role in securing the network and fueling transactions. And PnL Share Cards are now live on V3. Once you’ve made it (or not) on BERA, post your PnL graphic on X and tag Synthetix!
But why stop at just $BERA? Bears?🐻 Bulls? 🐂 Why not both? Meet $BERABULL: a 3X Long $BERA Synthetix Leveraged Token, part of the upgraded BULL series — where all leveraged tokens are now 3X. Try it now on http://leverage.synthetix.io.
Next up, Week 3 of the Synthetix Leveraged Token Rally rewards are now claimable! And week 4 has more opportunities than the last with 3x Short Tokens now live on Base. Now you can go long or short on any available market, including $BTC, $ETH, $SOL, $BERA, and more. Leverage your exposure with no liquidations — whether you’re bullish or bearish. The top trader on the Synthetix Leverage Leaderboard has surpassed $64,000 in profits and rewards after incentives, so be sure to get in on that action.
Also don’t forget — Infinex sUSD depositor rewards are still happening! And like we mentioned last week, the weekly rewards were doubled to 10,000 SNX and 10,000 OP. Last week there were 415 users who deposited $1,000 or more sUSD and qualified for the week 3 random Patron NFT drawing — and the third winner was bauer24! You still have 2 weeks to earn sUSD deposit incentives on Infinex, check it out!
And speaking of reward programs, the free $OP bet campaign has ended, and hundreds of additional Synthetix Leverage traders and V3 LPs on Base also got free Overtime bets. Traders who interacted with TLX/Synthetix Leverage tokens between Dec 30, 2024, 21:00 UTC — Feb 4, 2025, 00:00 UTC, as well as V3 LPs on Base are all eligible. To see if you met either of these criteria, you can check out the list of addresses in the claim check google doc.
To use your free bet, just connect your eligible wallet to Overtime Markets and browse sports markets to make your predictions. Select “Free Bet”, choose OP as collateral, and you’re all set!
Burt also wrote a guide to delta neutral trading and posted it as a thread on X — he emphasized that is it NOT financial advice, but that you can learn about an essential mechanism that drives SIP-420, perps markets, and the upcoming Synthetix Vaults. In case you don’t have time to read the whole thing, let’s briefly recap this thread:
First, delta neutral trading is a popular strategy where a trader’s position is balanced to prevent any price exposure from market movements, typically through a combination of long and short positions.
“Delta”: Refers to how much a position’s value changes for every $1 move in the asset.
- For example: Buying 1 $ETH perp means a $1 change in ETH will result in a $1 gain (Delta = 1).
- A delta neutral position means price movements (up or down) don’t affect the position’s overall value, as long and short positions offset each other.
Profit through funding: Delta neutral traders often profit from the funding fees paid by perpetual contract traders:
- 📈When funding is positive, longs pay shorts.
- 📉When funding is negative, shorts pay longs.
The 2 main strategies that traders can take to profit from funding fees are called Funding Rate Arbitrage and Basis Trading.
1. Funding Rate Arbitrage: Exploits funding rate differences across platforms.
- Traders take long positions on one platform (like Synthetix Exchange) and short positions on another (like Binance).
2. Basis Trading: Long spot and short perps, profiting from funding and price discrepancies.
- Traders go long on spot and short on perpetual contracts for the same asset.
- Ideal conditions: Perp funding is positive, and perps trade at a higher price than spot.
Lastly, basis trading vaults are quickly gaining popularity, as these products allow traders to automate and tokenize basis trading strategies, simplifying execution with deposits on platforms like Toros Finance. Synthetix is expanding these opportunities by building basis trading vaults on popular Synthetix V3 markets on Base. Coming soon!
