Introduction

DeFi’s biggest gap is obvious: high, sustainable yield on ETH, BTC, and volatile assets. These assets are the foundation of crypto, held by everyone, yet their returns remain low, inefficient, and unsustainable. Despite DeFi’s growth, no product has successfully scaled customizable, high-yield strategies for them.

In TradFi, covered calls are one of the most proven ways to generate sustainable yield on volatile assets. Yet every attempt to bring them on-chain has failed.

Until now.

We built covered calls that work for DeFi.

Rysk introduces a new financial primitive: liquid, tradable covered calls. By making them scalable and accessible, we unlock upfront yield on any asset.

Yes, upfront yield on your crypto.

Try Rysk now on app.rysk.finance

Covered Calls Should Have Won DeFi. Bad Design Killed Them

In TradFi, covered calls are a proven way to generate consistent returns on stocks with far lower volatility than BTC or ETH.

On paper, crypto should be the perfect environment for covered calls: higher volatility means higher premiums and higher yield opportunities.

Yet, every attempt to bring them on-chain has failed. Not because the strategy is flawed,but because it was designed wrong, packaged incorrectly for DeFi.

• Ribbon and other DOVs generated losses. Predictable execution, rigid vaults, and easy front-running turned a potential winning strategy into a losing game for users. Instead of unlocking sustainable yield, they trapped users in illiquid vaults with poor execution, proving pooled models can’t scale. Even today, there’s a negative bias around covered calls because poor design led to losses.

• Options platforms are built for traders, not yield seekers. They cater to Deribit-style traders who care about spreads and liquidity, not DeFi users looking for simple, high-yield strategies. Their complex UX has blocked mass adoption.

Basis trading didn’t work until Ethena made it work.

Fixed income didn’t work until Pendle made it work.

Covered calls and options didn’t work. Now Rysk will make it work.

Rysk: The First Scalable Covered Call Primitive

Making covered calls work in DeFi required more than small improvements. It needed a complete rethink.

Past attempts relied on pooled vaults and passive execution, a rigid model that led to front-running, poor execution, and losses for users. We built something completely different.

Rysk is not a vault, not an options exchange. It’s a new financial primitive designed from the ground up to make covered calls liquid, flexible, and scalable.

• Yield without complexity: No need to be an options expert, in fact, no need to even know what options are at all. Rysk abstracts everything, making covered calls as easy as picking a target price and receiving yield upfront.

• Customizable risk and reward: Users choose their own target price, customizing risk based on their preferences. No more one-size-fits-all structures.

• Upfront USDC yield: Receive yield immediately in USDC, fully liquid from day one. No waiting for expiry.

• Trade anytime, full control: No pooled vaults, no passive execution. Positions are fully flexible.

• No front-running, no liquidity issues: Rysk’s RFQ system ensures optimal execution, deep liquidity, and large trade sizes.

• Beyond ETH & BTC: Rysk integrates LSTs, LRTs, lending yield assets, and any yield-bearing asset.

For the first time, covered calls are built to scale in DeFi.

Not another DOV. Not another options exchange.

A new financial primitive.

Why Now?

No one has built a scalable and sustainable covered call model in DeFi.

The space is wide open, and market conditions couldn’t be better: volatility is high, demand for sustainable yield is surging, and structured products have already proven they can scale.

Covered calls should have been a dominant strategy, yet no major project owns the narrative. Previous attempts failed, leaving a massive opportunity for Rysk to lead.

Landscape

Rysk expands the structured product offer by enabling higher potential returns on any asset.

Why Rysk?

Rysk V12 is built on deep expertise in options and structured products. Before this, we developed one of the top options AMMs on Arbitrum, trading over $250M in volume, and a high-performance orderbook exchange that processed over $1B in trades. This is the next evolution refined through real conversations with DeFi-native users and years of experience in structured yield.

Like the V12 engine, covered calls were abandoned by most because they were too complex and difficult to scale. But Ferrari saw the potential, refined it, and made it one of the most successful engines in history.

Rysk is doing the same for covered calls. This powerful yet overlooked strategy is finally made scalable, accessible, and built for DeFi.

We’re backed by DeFi-native investors who understand structured products and yield at a deep level: Archetype, Lemniscap, Coinbase Ventures, Encode, Ascensive Assets, HASHCib, Yunt Capital, and Manifold. Alongside them are angels from projects like Gearbox, Yearn, and Ethena, as well as early believers like Evan Van Ness.

The Future of Yield: Scaling DeFi

DeFi was built as an alternative financial system, but without scalable yield, its impact might be restricted to just speculation.

Today, ETH, BTC, and other volatile assets can earn low or inefficient returns beyond staking or unstable, low-efficiency strategies. This isn’t just an inefficiency. It’s a fundamental blocker to DeFi’s evolution.

• Real yield on ETH, BTC, and native assets attracts more capital on-chain.

• Sustainable returns create long-term retention instead of mercenary liquidity.

• Yield-seeking institutions and treasuries enter the space, scaling structured products to billions.

For too long, DeFi has been stuck, recycling the same capital through short-term farming incentives and inefficient yield models. These instruments have proved to be both unsustainable and short-sighted.

This goes beyond covered calls.

Sustainable, scalable yield is what DeFi needs to evolve into a real financial system. Without it, capital won’t stay on-chain, and adoption will remain limited.

Rysk is solving this by making structured yield accessible, efficient, and built to scale.

Special Thanks

Rysk is the product of deep research, iteration, and the invaluable input of DeFi-native users, traders, and builders. Rysk V12 wouldn’t be possible with the support and help of Darius, Anton , 0xWenMoon, Fitz, turbanether, Ash, Veer, proofofjake, Leo, Mihai, Alcibiades, KVK, Michael, ThatBoiii, Jacob, Abdul, Keone, JustAFate, Voxam, Rakki, Liscivia, Alessio, Casio, Edward, Kenton, Nico, Johnny_TVL, Tyler, Raybeezy, Jordan, Jojo, Atomist Francesco Chilla and the whole Castle Labs cabal. Last the DeFi Mafia friends, always ready to to support and help Rysk.

Try Rysk V12 Today

Covered calls should have been DeFi’s best yield strategy, but bad design killed them. We are building them for DeFi, to scale. Together.

Now, it’s your turn.

Rysk V12 is live on testnet. Be among the first to trade, test, and refine the next major structured yield primitive in DeFi.

Push the limits. Give feedback. Help shape Rysk into the product that finally unlocks scalable, upfront yield on any asset.

DeFi is evolving. Build it with us.

Try Rysk now.