The Hidden Cost of Zero-Fee DEX’s

Ruslan Fakhrutdinov from Extended Perp Exchange talks about building a unified margin across perps, vaults & yield, spot, and an integrated lending market. He explains critical components for a trustless perp DEX such as self-custody and on-chain solvency checks. Ruslan shares his experience with user acquisition programs, the total cost of execution vs. zero fees, and Extended’s transparent fee model. We also discuss gauging sustainable product market fit in a post-airdrop environment and the roadmap for cross-asset collateral.

Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Notes:
* Perp DEX market share grew 15-20%
* Vault earns up to 1% in liquidations
* Using 90% of vault shares as collateral

Timestamps:
00:00 Start
00:03 Ruslan’s background
01:12 What is Extended?
03:14 What must be on-chain?
05:55 Perp DEX liquidity
07:09 Calculating price of execution
09:06 Zero fees, good or bad?
13:22 Promotions vs regular users
18:32 UX design
21:35 Mobile trading apps
23:43 Perp DEX aggregators?
27:51 Vault system
29:50 Estimating Vault risk
34:28 End stage Vault design?
38:10 Spot market plans?
42:46 Validators
43:34 Next 5 years
46:10 RWA on DEXs
47:53 Wrapping assets vs native
49:06 Wrap up

The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Backed by Paradigm, Electric Capital and Haun Ventures. The founders, Eugene and Jerry, have experienced Citadel Jane Street in the Solana Core team since launching their order book DEX, Phoenix. They’ve done over $80 billion in trading volume by making onchain order books competitive with centralized exchanges. 

Ellipsis is hiring for New York-based engineers. Work with a small focus team who are results driven, collaborative, and use a modern stack. If you’re an engineer who wants to work on infrastructure that’s already proven itself in the market, go to ⁠⁠ellipsislabs.xyz⁠⁠.

Enjoy this episode? Get the full Blockspace experience.

Create a free account to access exclusive research, market data, and Bitcoin mining insights from our team.

Create Free Account

Related Episodes

Zack Shapiro breaks down the current state of crypto policy, the battle over the CLARITY Act, and why the banking lobby is fighting stablecoin yield. Zack explains the "Defi Mullet," AI agent personhood, and the reality of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
Feb 22, 2026
Ex-Bank of Canada economist Mitchell and liquid fund veteran Kevin join the show to discuss Sierra, the evolution of liquid yield tokens.
Feb 15, 2026
Tyler Whittle joins the show to discuss the looming threat of quantum computing to modern cryptography. We chat the Q-Day timeline, Google’s Willow breakthrough , and why Bitcoin must transition to post-quantum standards to survive the next decade.
Feb 08, 2026
David Hoffman discusses the "crypto hangover," the shift from communities to businesses, and why internet capital markets are the only way to keep pace with AI.
Feb 03, 2026
Lucas & Hersch from World Markets explains why centralized exchanges function like casinos, how onchain risk engines unlock up to 50% returns, and why fully transparent DeFi market structure may replace today’s perp platforms.
Jan 25, 2026
Max Resnick discusses his transition from Ethereum to Solana, the intricacies of MCP for solving MEV, and the rise of prop AMMs like Humidify. He dives into on-chain market structure, censorship resistance, and competing with Hyperliquid.
Jan 10, 2026
Bitcoin developer Brandon Black (ReardenCode) analyzes the reality of the quantum computing threat to Bitcoin.
Dec 28, 2025
Vladimir Novakovski joins us to discuss Lighter’s rapid rise as a top DEX. We cover the zero-fee model, ZK technology for verification, and the surge in on-chain Forex volume. Vlad also shares roadmap alpha on options, fixed income, and upcoming tokenomics.
Dec 21, 2025
Ian Miers, Zcash co-founder & cryptographer, discusses zero-knowledge proofs, crypto privacy, identity solutions, quantum computing threats, and why blockchain transparency is fundamentally broken for payments.
Nov 29, 2025
Now, listen here

Get updates on new episodes and a whole lot more

By subscribing, you agree to the Blockspace Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.