I recently listened to a very interesting interview where Arthur Hayes recounted his early steps in the crypto world. What caught my attention was how he took advantage of the Mt. Gox crisis in early 2014 to arbitrage Bitcoin between mainland China and Hong Kong. At that time, the price differences between markets were huge.

But the most revealing thing was realizing that short-term trading without a solid technical foundation simply doesn’t work in the long run. Hayes learned this the hard way. Instead of continuing to try scalping, he decided to pivot toward where he truly had an advantage: derivatives.

He already had experience trading futures and options in the traditional world, so when he partnered with Ben Delo and Sam Reed around 2014, the idea was clear: create a derivatives exchange. While the spot market was becoming increasingly saturated with new platforms, they saw the opportunity in futures. It was a pretty smart strategic move.

What’s interesting is seeing how the first people who truly understood crypto derivatives were those coming from the traditional financial world. Arthur Hayes is a good example of that. He took his experience in conventional derivatives markets and adapted it to Bitcoin. The lesson here is clear: in a new market, sometimes the expertise from other sectors can be more valuable than anything else.