At 3 a.m., I brewed a cup of tea, sat in front of my computer, and just blankly stared. Then I suddenly thought of something—people say options buyers bet on volatility while sellers eat the time value, and honestly, it’s kind of interesting. Time value, put simply, is slowly consuming that little bit of “waiting money” in your account. Buyers think: if the price rises, you take the profit; if it falls, you cut the loss—just hold it for a few days. But can you truly afford to tangle with time? It wears you down a little every day; if you don’t get a direction by the expiration date, that unrealized loss really becomes a realized one.

As an arbitrage trader, I’m actually more used to acting as the seller. Retail buys, but somehow someone is profiting not only from volatility—also from that extra “time-baked bread” kind of money. But now modular blockchains are all the rage; developers are having a blast, while users look completely clueless. So, is the time value in the DA layer also quietly eating away the gas fees on-chain? Anyway, in the end, every technical narrative has to turn into a cost narrative—otherwise, just telling stories doesn’t mean anything.