Not engaging in derivatives trading also requires understanding derivatives. "A flute and a sword balance one's life, burdening oneself with a wild reputation for fifteen years." I have worked in investment banking for a full fifteen years, with the first ten years focused on spot algorithmic trading. If we count from 2006, I can also say I was one of the early pioneers of algorithmic trading in the Asia-Pacific region. In the last five years, I began to expand into swap trading, financing, custody, and inventory, all of which required involvement. In the final years, futures and options derivatives trading also fell under the team I led, but I had long passed the age of relearning, so I entrusted futures operations to younger traders in the team. In other words, my investment banking career has hardly ever truly touched derivatives (swap products belong to linear swaps and, strictly speaking, do not count as derivatives). Not working with derivatives in the workplace does not mean I deny their importance. When I was younger, I always felt that spot trading was the way to go. Why? In the trading floor of an investment bank, the loudest voices and the most eye-catching visuals always belonged to spot traders. Those in movies shouting at six or eight screens are also spot traders. But later, I slowly realized that the competition in spot trading is extremely fierce, commissions are constantly being compressed, and marginal profits are getting smaller. On the contrary, businesses like financing and lending, where brokers have scarce resources, can dictate prices and do not lack customer demand. The trading commissions for futures and options are lower, but derivatives win by volume, with trading volumes often 10 to 15 times that of spot. More importantly, when you can integrate spot, swaps, and derivatives, along with research services, custody systems, and clearing processes, you form the foundation of the Prime Brokerage model. In the retail world, there may not be a clear concept of a "Prime Broker," but the fundamental efficiency gains are the same: assets are centrally custodied on the same platform, earning passive income through pledged products while flexibly allocating positions in the derivatives market as collateral; adding opportunities like airdrops and new coin subscriptions can significantly improve capital efficiency. Gate, as an exchange that started with spot trading, has consistently ranked among the top five globally in spot trading volumes for a long time. However, after hitting a bottleneck in spot trading growth, founder Dr. Han hit the nail on the head—our contract product trading volumes have not kept pace. Over the past eighteen months, the team has focused on key areas such as contract product development, enhancing liquidity, and optimizing slippage handling. Although we are still some distance from our true goal, just last May, Coindesk rated Gate's contract products at 82.6, ranking third globally, with the highest market share growth among all exchanges. The team's efforts are commendable. As always, this is just a good start. In the future, we will continue to develop new features, expand trading pairs, and enhance market depth and user experience. Whether in traditional finance or the Web3 world, the user-centric goal remains consistent; whether engaging in spot or derivatives trading, the underlying logic remains unchanged.

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