GW
Guest profile
Gareth Ward
Co-Founder and COO, Bumper
Gareth Ward is a co-founder of Bumper, a DeFi price protection protocol, where he served as Chief Operating Officer.
He describes his earlier career as mainly in creative industries, followed by involvement in technology and crypto startups. Before Bumper he was a co-founder of INDX Capital, the firm behind the Bumper protocol, which CoinDesk named when it reported Bumper's $10 million raise in April 2021. He co-founded Bumper with Jonathan DeCarteret, who served as CEO. He spoke publicly for the project in interviews, AMAs and press statements on the BUMP token, the protocol launch and its move to Arbitrum.
Bumper let users set a floor price for crypto assets while keeping upside exposure, and let stablecoin depositors earn yield from the premiums.
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Latest interview · Sep 7, 2023How Bumper is protecting crypto assets from price dropsWatch the episode →
Key points
- Bumper is a non-custodial protocol that allows users to protect cryptocurrency assets from price drops by setting a floor value and paying a premium.
- The protocol was inspired by DeFi Summer challenges with over-collateralization and whipsaw losses from frequent trading, leading to a focus on solving slippage inefficiencies.
- Bumper uses pooling mechanisms to create a more efficient marketplace for risk, allowing both asset protectors and yield providers to participate on different sides.
- The development took three years due to the complexity of building a novel hedging approach that differs from traditional finance options strategies adapted to decentralized systems.
- Hedging strategies become most relevant during uncertain market periods when assets are volatile, rather than during clear bull or bear market trends.
In their own words
“You've protected from the downside but you've gained from the upside, and that's the key.”
“A stop-loss doesn't have an upside.”
“Then there's the stop loss, which is a one-way ticket.”
“It's not some funny DeFi farming of an obscure token. You're getting yield directly from the takers.”
Every appearance on Crypto Coin Show
Latest episode shown above.
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