It’s been 6 weeks since Synthetix Referendum 2 (SR-2) was approved and I joined Synthetix. Needless to say it has been a crazy, wild and exhilarating journey thus far.

Whilst there is a ton of work still to be done and a lot of legacy issues to still push through, the hunger and drive I’ve seen thus far convinces me we have the pieces required to achieve our goals. I can’t help but feel we’re at the precipice of delivering a highly performant decentralised (like actually decentralised…) liquidity layer and a suite of products for traders to access it in varying ways.

In the short time I’ve had at Synthetix, I’ve received ample amounts of feedback, positive messages, and have also been the recipient of much anger, fud and shit posting. But what all of this has demonstrated to me, even the negativity, is just how passionate of a community Synthetix is. The Synthetix Spartans have historically generated some of the best ideas, been our strongest advocates across the crypto community, inspired innovation, provided the most effective marketing, and brought the best vibes. I’m convinced this is one of our strengths that has been missing since the bear market that we need to reignite - I’m certain that with the changes we have in store, this community will once again light up and become our biggest asset.

This last 6 weeks has been a period of rapid onboarding, intense learning, listening to the community and CCs, and iterating on the Synthetix roadmap. Most important to my learning has been the time spent listening to feedback from the community, from integrators, partners and Core Contributors. This has allowed me to most quickly understand the lay of the land and identify quick wins that are available, why Synthetix is where it is today, and what the biggest strategic opportunities are for the future of Synthetix.

After this rapid 6-week ramp-up period, I cannot help but be giga-excited by what this newly motivated team has in store for the coming months and through 2025.

There is a renewed energy within the community and focus on innovation. The vision for the end state of Synthetix is becoming clearer day by day, and trust me when I say it isn’t simply just improving our existing perp market. We’ve gone back to the drawing board, challenged historical decisions and mapped how we can pioneer the most capital efficient, flexible and reliable decentralised derivatives markets.

Some key early observations and actions take

A lot has taken place in a pretty short timeframe. In the below note I’ll share some behind the curtains insights into the ongoings at Synthetix this last 6 weeks and how things are looking post SR-2!

Coming in after SR-2 it was immediately evident that the Synthetix community and CCs wanted change. I was humbled that SR-2 passed with 99.9% approval, but I don’t attribute as much of the success to the proposal itself as I do to the underlying desire and hunger for someone to come and do something.

Since SR-2, the CCs and I have been working to create this change. Whilst many of the early changes may not be immediately noticeable (e.g. internal restructuring, hiring, culture change), we’ve got some early big changes over the line (i.e. acquiring Kwenta) and put some serious leg work into several other partnerships, tech stack upgrades, token redesign ideas and maybe another acquisition or two 🤫.

And I think the community is starting to sense this - I’m unsure about you, but I’ve sensed an early vibe shift, CCs are shipping like mad, the community is more active in discord and on X than I’ve seen for a while, ex-community members are returning, etc. It’s on us to harness and maintain this momentum.

From the shadows the Synthetix brand will grow

Have you ever heard of SHI International? They are an online marketplace for enterprises, and also one of the largest software companies in North America with over $12.3B in revenue. A great business. But in crypto it’s token would probably be down only, as a huge part of crypto is the attention game.

I mention SHI International as I don’t see Synthetix as too different in recent times (not in revenue sadly… yet…). It’s a B2B protocol with limited awareness in the current market as it doesn’t interface with the end user of its primary products at all. This changed for the better in November when Synthetix acquired Kwenta.

Synthetix now owns a front end. Perps traders will land on a Synthetix branded website and share pictures of their PnLs on X with Synthetix branding in the background (not Kwenta). Synthetix’s brand will once again be front and centre of the trader and user experience. This will generate attention and awareness that has been missing for the last 4 years.

My promise here is I will continue to drive attention to Synthetix. I will continue to push for more products that allow users to interface with our brand. There will also be a much larger focus on bringing more attention to Synthetix through partnerships and integrations.

Introducing a culture of accountability

As discussed in detail during SR-2, accountability in the previous structure of operation was a core issue. Through consolidation of all councils into a single 7-seat Spartan Council we’ve been able to clearly operate and make strategic decisions with the entire context of the protocol in mind. Additionally we are now where the buck stops. There is now one council, and one leadership group within the CCs where all responsibility and accountability rolls up to. This has empowered decision makers to act strategically and decisively, and we hope you see this change in the rate of updates and product releases coming in the near future!

The future of Synthetix is becoming clearer and clearer

The 2025 roadmap is well underway already with a few iterations.

The first large update to the roadmap outlined in SR-2 is that we now own our own front end again after the Kwenta acquisition. This opens a whole new realm of opportunities for us to design, manage and build a highly performant front end dedicated to Synthetix. This will not be the only new product launch for Synthetix this year 👀

A quick review of the original 2025 vision with updates:

1. Put the SNX token back at the centre of Synthetix - this is still very much a focus and a token redesign proposal should appear in the coming weeks. Progress is being made here, mark my word you will see a proposal for a token redesign in 2024.

2. Operationalise snaxchain - snaxchain is live and enables several new and exciting design decisions for the future of perp markets in Synthetix. Unexpectedly we’re working on a pretty fundamental change to the Synthetix perp markets that has resulted in a little more time being taken to ensure we nail the up front scoping/design. We’ll continue to update you all as these new ideas continue to firm up.

3. Restart work on Synth Teleporters - still in consideration and is likely to still play an important role in how we operationalise snaxchain. Still very much on the cards for 2025.

4. BD and an always be selling mentality - we’ve decided in the absence of chasing integrations and work, we will be integrators. We’re moving to own more of the product stack as evidenced through the Kwenta acquisition.

5. Juice up product marketing - Not an overnight success but this will continue deep into 2025. This will be significantly easier with our own front end. Despite this, we’ve increased our engagement on social channels and are seeing more community developed content being generated which is great.

6. Launch v3 perps on Ethereum mainnet - this will come in 2025. Whilst it is ready from a technical stance now, the pieces to have a successful launch are not (e.g. traders, vaults, market makers, etc).

7. Deploy Synthetix on Solana - in progress and hopefully an exciting update in the coming weeks regarding this one. In addition a SUI integration is just around the corner.

8. V3 perps proliferation - more to come on this but we’re cooking ways to drive adoption of v3 on Base and Arbitrum before this year is out.

9. Perp v3 feature expansion and v2x deprecation - we’re currently doing a review of v3 and identifying what additional features traders might want. Come Q1 2025 traders should expect some changes that will continue to close the gap between the decentralised and centralised trading experience.

Our Treasury will be one of our biggest assets

Synthetix has a sizeable Treasury over $25m in non-SNX assets. But this value hasn’t been managed in years. It’s mostly been passively held. Synthetix’s Treasury will be a lot more active from here on out, performing strategic treasury management that will primarily span three functions:

1. Strategic asset allocation. For example, buying VELO/AERO because we think they are great projects and because holding them helps us point incentives towards Synthetix related pools.

2. Making the most of what we have. For example - Synthetix’s Treasury had a sizeable ETH holding, none of which was staked. Staking the ETH stands to add $400k to the Treasury annually at the current ETH price.

3. Empowering our products. For example - juicing up incentives for traders to experience our perp marketplace.

This is Sparta!!

As discussed above, I’m of the firm belief that our best asset is ourselves. The best content, the best ideas, the loudest noises have always come from within this community of passionate Spartans.

Whilst it has not been easy to be a Spartan these last 2 years, I see it as a hugely positive sign to see community members starting to re-engage once again after months away. To me this is the first step towards shifting broader community perception of Synthetix positively again.

But we as a CC group need to ensure these early vibes are followed through with action so that they can continue to grow. Accountability for shipping cool shit, providing innovative market solutions and delivering an engaging and seamless experience for users of Synthetix products continues to rest with the CC group. I believe we have the talent, the vision and the roadmap to achieve this.

Back to shipping 🫡