E186: Variational CEO: This Hidden Fee Is Quietly Draining Your Crypto Account

<p>Lucas Schuermann is the founder and CEO of Variational, a peer-to-peer derivatives protocol built on Arbitrum. Former Genesis executive, former quant, and someone who went to Columbia at 12 and started a hedge fund at 20.</p><p>Today we get into why variational charges zero trading fees, how it's aggregating liquidity from traditional finance to list hundreds of assets on chain, why perps have a funding rate problem most traders don't understand until it costs them, and what happens to old-school brokers once this liquidity actually moves.</p><p>___________</p><p>THE SHIFT NEWSLETTER</p><p>💡Go beyond the mic - subscribe to The Shift, my new weekly newsletter where I share the uncut stories, raw takes, and behind-the-scenes notes from When Shift Happens: https://www.kevinfollonier.com/</p><p>___________</p><p>PARTNERS</p><p>⚖️ Variational aggregates liquidity to offer industry-leading depth on crypto, equities, commodities, and more: https://www.variational.io/ </p><p>🚀 Jupiter is the most used Decentralized Exchange in Crypto and the largest DEX by volume on Solana: https://jup.ag/ </p><p>💳 KAST lets you manage and spend stablecoins or crypto with a Visa Card or Apple Pay. Live in 100+ countries - Get $20 Signup Bonus - https://go.kast.xyz/VqVO/SHIFT - promo code: SHIFT </p><p>🌱 Bitwise Asset Management manages $15B+ across 30+ crypto investment products — ETFs, index funds, alpha, staking, and more. https://bitwiseinvestments.com/ </p><p>⚖️ Ethena is a synthetic dollar protocol on Ethereum, offering a crypto-native, non-bank-dependent stablecoin called USDe. It uses a delta-neutral hedging strategy with staked ETH to maintain a $1 peg. https://ethena.fi/ </p><p>♾️ Coinsilium provides vital funding and expert advice to Web3 and AI-powered early-stage technology companies. https://www.coinsilium.com </p><p>🚀 Kalshi is a US regulated financial exchange that allows users to trade on the outcomes of real-world events : https://kalshi.com/category/crypto</p><p>___________</p><p>FOLLOW VARIATIONAL 👇</p><p>• Twitter: https://x.com/variational_io</p><p>• Linkedin: https://ky.linkedin.com/company/variational</p><p>FOLLOW WHEN SHIFT HAPPENS</p><p>Twitter (X): https://x.com/KevinWSHPod  </p><p>Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/kevinfollonier_ </p><p>TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kevinfollonier_</p><p>Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinfollonier/</p><p>Website: https://kevinfollonier.com/</p><p>DISCLAIMER</p><p>The info contained herein is for i