Drift Protocol, co-founded by Cindy Leow, is redefining DeFi with innovative prediction markets, meme coin trading, and 50x leverage—aiming to become the ultimate Web3 super app.
CoinMarketCap sat down with Cindy Leow, co-founder of Drift Protocol, in early November to discuss the platform's evolution, 2024 developments, and roadmap for the future. From its token launch to prediction markets and meme coins, here's what she had to say about Drift's journey and vision.
It's been a huge year for Drift Protocol—you launched a token in April, and raised $25M in your Series B. How are you on top of every hot narrative from meme coins to prediction markets in 2024?
Cindy: We started the project in 2021 with a vision that DeFi needs to be integrated into the entire crypto ecosystem—it can't exist on its own plane. We're seeing that vision take place where everything in crypto actually touches DeFi in some way. Tokens, meme coins, and AI coins are all fundamentally a function of speculation and token ownership.
Drift isn't just a perpetual exchange—we're a borrow-lend exchange enabling tokens to be used as collateral for derivatives. We're also a prediction market enabling you to bet on anything that is not crypto assets.
All of these are powered by what we consider the foundations of DeFi: borrow-lend and collateral.
We built on Solana and now own one because we believe that all, if not most, tokens are going to be generated in the fastest, cheapest, and most efficient blockchain. Solana has proven itself to be the home for many newly generated assets.
You launched Bet in August—what makes Drift's prediction markets different?
Cindy: Fundamentally, we don't see prediction markets as any different from trading crypto assets—they're just a synthetic version of an outcome that allows you to trade it. The beauty of crypto is that you can turn any price feed into something tradable.
What sets us apart is capital efficiency. If you're holding a position for a long time, even just a month, and keeping your USDC locked up, you're foregoing yield. Currently, stable yields are around 6-7%.
With Drift's cross-collateral system, when you lock up your funds in a position, you're also earning yield at the same time. Your USDC on Drift, if you're locking up to go long on Trump, is still earning that 6-7%.
You previously tweeted about major speed and UX improvements. Are you trying to match centralized exchange efficiency or surpass it?
Cindy: I wouldn't necessarily say we're building a better centralized exchange—we're building an all-around better product for anyone involved. We're seeing people say they don't need to use centralized exchanges anymore because they're just using Drift. We're bringing net new products to the market that even centralized exchanges haven't thought of before.
With billions in TVL and millions of unique addresses, what is driving Solana’s popularity?
Cindy: Out of everything, it's the enduring nature of the developer ecosystem that stands out. While tech is one thing, and Solana has an edge there, it's ultimately about how sticky the developer ecosystem is. Solana provides the best environment for creating innovative products, whether on the meme coin side or not.
The presence of composability has enabled the creation of new protocols and user experiences, which can only happen if everything is on one chain. On Ethereum, if you want to use different types of products on different chains, there's a whole step in between transferring your money. User experience wins, and Solana enables that.
What are you doing with meme coins on Drift?
Cindy: People have been very excited to trade meme coins, and our bread and butter is to give people what they want to trade. Our biggest listings in the past couple of months have all been up-and-coming new coins. We're still the only platform that has tokens like WIF, MooDeng Mother, Popcat and Bonk. These markets have proven to be the most exciting for people to trade.
You're launching 50x leverage—can you tell us about that?
Cindy: We're launching 50x leverage this week because there's been huge demand for people to take larger leverage positions. We've made many improvements to our risk engine to introduce this. Now you can use up to 50x on SOL, BTC, and ETH, our three biggest markets.
What does a Web3 super app look like, and how is Drift becoming one?
Cindy: A super app to us is an experience where you get all of your needs from a financial perspective on Drift. Think about it like you're keeping your money in a safe place that's earning yield, but then you also have a brokerage account.
On top of that, you have a speculative account. You have your wallet to explore other crypto services. We see Drift turning into this ecosystem with all of these services ready for you to use within a single platform, which is why we're also launching community strategies—you can invest in other people's trading strategies, and these people are the best market makers in crypto.
There's a real need for integrated financial services in DeFi, and that's really the only way we're going to scale forward—if DeFi can provide you a better experience than CeFi, better yields, better capital efficiency, and better liquidity. That's our North Star and where we're headed.
What's in the pipeline for Drift in 2025 and beyond?
Cindy: Getting deeper into the L1 to support the exchange will be quite important.
- We're launching a lot of new liquidity mechanisms that will give you the experience of being on a centralized exchange without compromising on holding your assets on Solana—that's a big research project we have lined up.
- Mobile is a big focus for us too. I think this isn't really talked about enough right now, but we're very interested in that.
- We're also looking into AI quite seriously. We think that being able to, for instance, invest in AI trading bots or getting AI to help you with your trading is going to be a pretty important narrative moving forward. It's still early stages, but you can expect a lot from that front.
This article contains links to third-party websites or other content for information purposes only (“Third-Party Sites”). The Third-Party Sites are not under the control of CoinMarketCap, and CoinMarketCap is not responsible for the content of any Third-Party Site, including without limitation any link contained in a Third-Party Site, or any changes or updates to a Third-Party Site. CoinMarketCap is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement, approval or recommendation by CoinMarketCap of the site or any association with its operators.
This article is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. It is important to do your own research and analysis before making any material decisions related to any of the products or services described. This article is not intended as, and shall not be construed as, financial advice.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s [company’s] own and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinMarketCap.
