head of product @variational_io ||| one of the lads at @0xSteadyLads
New York
Joined July 2020
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Justin Bram retweeted
Open interest limits on all TradFi perps are now 3 times higher.
This increase comes from OLP improvements in today's mainnet release. Limits will continue to climb as OLP and the platform mature.
Justin Bram retweeted
In mid-September, we made the decision to allocate a large chunk of our dev resources towards auditing and further improving protocol security. This included additional audits of both the codebase and our operations, AI-enabled pentesting, red teaming, and more.
Public mainnet is now right around the corner, and the trading API is being rolled out to a small set of whitelisted alpha testers before being publicly launched this month.
We remain on track for this year’s TGE and major partnership announcements that we alluded to in our tokenomics update. Expect to hear much more from us beginning later this month!
Justin Bram retweeted
Variational is the cheapest place on-chain to trade both small ($10k) and large ($1M) orders for every TradFi market with a swap listed.
TradFi liquidity on-chain.
Justin Bram retweeted
Throwback to @JustinCBram sharing the stage with @JohannKerbrat from @RobinhoodApp at @XRPSEOUL during last month’s KBW.
Justin Bram retweeted
The Lads take it to the @token2049 stage in the latest episode 🇸🇬
One year since 10/10. We pulled up last October's chart and went through what actually changed 🫡
In Ep #104 we cover:
🟡 @TaikiMaeda2 Names His zcash:native Stop Loss
👋 Why @JustinCBram Sold 100% Of His ethereum:native
🤖 The AI Coin Nobody Can Buy
🦀 @gametheorizing On Everything Becomes Crab
🍝 Pasta of the Week & More!
Full links below! 👇
Justin Bram retweeted
🎤 @XRPSEOUL 2026 Highlights | Fireside Chat
"The Next Wave of Onchain Innovation"
Leaders from Robinhood and Variational discuss the next wave of onchain innovation and how global platforms are bringing it to users.
🗣Speakers:
• Johann Kerbrat (@JohannKerbrat), SVP and General Manager at @RobinhoodApp
• Justin Bram (@JustinCBram), Head of Product at @variational_io
🔎 Key Takeaways:
1️⃣ Expanding Assets & 24/7 Market Access
While currently offering perpetuals for 8 crypto assets, Robinhood plans to expand into commodities like gold, silver, and oil. Anticipating further regulatory clarity, the platform announced 24/7 stock trading this week to capture immense off-hours demand.
2️⃣ Frictionless Retail Onboarding
By integrating directly with DeFi lending protocols, Robinhood enables its millions of funded users to access on-chain yields and tokenized equities without needing to manage private keys or seed phrases, seamlessly bridging traditional brokerage users to onchain finance.
3️⃣ Democratizing Private Equity
The next major frontier for tokenization is private equity. Tokenizing private equity and closed-end funds will provide everyday users access to wealth-generating opportunities historically reserved for institutions.
💡 The Takeaway
Robinhood uses blockchain to upgrade traditional finance. By enabling instant settlement, 24/7 liquidity for equities and commodities, and private equity tokenization, it democratizes retail access.
Hosted by @XRPLKorea
Justin Bram retweeted
Steady Lads Live comes to TOKEN2049.
Next week, @Taikimaeda2 (@HFAresearch), @justincbram (@variational_io), @dim_ss (@SeliniCapital) and @gametheorizing go live on the BingX Labs Stage.
Wed 7 Oct · 4:50 PM · BingX Labs Stage
Justin Bram retweeted
32% of @variational_io's total supply is being targeted for the airdrop -- even more than @HyperliquidX and @Lighter_xyz.
@JustinCBram :
“We wanted to make sure that our users were getting the biggest airdrop as a percentage, I think, in crypto history.”
“So we’re targeting a 32% airdrop of the total supply proportional to points holders.”
“We definitely wanna grow our user base and continue rewarding our existing users.”
NEW EPISODE - Is @variational_io the Next Hyperliquid?
Variational isn’t trying to be another perp exchange. Lucas Schuermann (@variational_lvs) & @JustinCBram break down its broker model, how it taps into TradFi liquidity, why swaps could be a better retail primitive for RWAs, and the vision for accessing thousands of global markets from one USDC balance.
Plus: the 32% VAR airdrop, mobile, and the push to bring the next wave of traders onchain.
CHAPTERS
---
0:00 Broker, Not Exchange
5:07 Why Brokerage Wins for Retail
8:22 What Is a Swap?
9:58 The Real Cost of Trading
11:43 Bringing TradFi Liquidity Onchain
14:44 Building Variational
23:14 From Crypto Traders to Everyone
26:42 The Next User Base
30:35 What Actually Happens Onchain?
34:00 Inside OLP
37:03 Arbitrum and User Funds
39:44 The VAR Token and 32% Airdrop
42:34 Funding the Token Model
44:11 The 2027 Roadmap
47:44 Protocol or Platform?
Justin Bram retweeted
NEW EPISODE - Is @variational_io the Next Hyperliquid?
Variational isn’t trying to be another perp exchange. Lucas Schuermann (@variational_lvs) & @JustinCBram break down its broker model, how it taps into TradFi liquidity, why swaps could be a better retail primitive for RWAs, and the vision for accessing thousands of global markets from one USDC balance.
Plus: the 32% VAR airdrop, mobile, and the push to bring the next wave of traders onchain.
CHAPTERS
---
0:00 Broker, Not Exchange
5:07 Why Brokerage Wins for Retail
8:22 What Is a Swap?
9:58 The Real Cost of Trading
11:43 Bringing TradFi Liquidity Onchain
14:44 Building Variational
23:14 From Crypto Traders to Everyone
26:42 The Next User Base
30:35 What Actually Happens Onchain?
34:00 Inside OLP
37:03 Arbitrum and User Funds
39:44 The VAR Token and 32% Airdrop
42:34 Funding the Token Model
44:11 The 2027 Roadmap
47:44 Protocol or Platform?
Justin Bram retweeted
1/ Launching a new site RWApulse to monitor where the best place is to trade RWAs are
👉 rwa.perpetualpulse.xyz
Justin Bram retweeted
A year and a half ago, we launched Omni to bring broker-style trading on-chain. Back then, we got excited about hitting $1M in daily volume. As we relentlessly iterated on our product with UI redesigns, spread improvements, new order types, and more listings, our user base grew exponentially. Eventually, we started seeing $10M, $100M, $500M, $1B+ days.
Now, Omni is one of the largest on-chain trading venues by any metric: $3B+ in daily volume and nearly $2B in open interest. More than half of the platform's activity is in non-crypto markets. That rapid growth is driven primarily by swaps, our new instrument bringing TradFi liquidity on-chain.
Omni was (and continues to be) shaped by the feedback of traders. Hyperliquid proved that if you do right by your community, they will do right by you. That's why 32% of $VAR is going to Variational traders at TGE, fully unlocked. No external market makers on Omni, and no points for OLP. 100% of the allocation goes to real users.
We have so much left to build: trading API, 24/7 swaps liquidity, spread rebates, OLP deposits, spot markets, and Pro for options. TGE will be just the start of our journey to make Variational the best place for retail and institutions to trade any global market on-chain.
I'm excited to share more about our upcoming partnerships. For now I'll just say that the wait will be worth it. See you in Q4.
Justin Bram retweeted
Variational has crossed $3B in daily trading volume for the first time.
More than half of this volume is on swap markets.
Justin Bram retweeted
E185: @variational_io - Zero Fees, More Assets, No Funding Rate
@variational_lvs co-founded a hedge fund at 20 that Digital Currency Group acquired a year later, then walked away from that exit to build Variational that now sits second only to Hyperliquid in open interest and daily volume.
His argument: crypto rebuilt exchanges before it built brokers, and that architectural gap is what's holding on-chain trading back.
0:00 Intro
2:20 Merch, Travel & Being Back in Singapore
5:13 Who Is Lucas Schuermann?
5:24 How Lucas Thinks About Building Trust
6:03 Starting College at Age 12
8:26 How Do You Actually Skip That Many Grades?
9:45 Making Friends Six Years Younger Than Everyone Else
10:40 Are You Still a "Weirdo" at 30?
11:40 Starting a Hedge Fund at 20 - "Hubris of the Young"
14:09 From Paper-Reading Group to a Real Fund
16:50 Acquired by Digital Currency Group at 21
18:59 Why Sell the Fund to DCG?
19:54 Sponsors: Variational & @Bitwise
20:47 Did You Regret Selling That Early?
21:51 The Money DCG Made Off Their Work
22:38 Starting a Market Making Firm
24:46 Explain Variational Protocol to Your Mom
26:49 Biggest Mistake Building Variational
28:13 The "Holy Sh*t, We Built Something Massive" Moment
29:54 Reason #1: Zero Fees
32:59 How Do You Trust the Price With Only One Market Maker?
34:33 Are Trading Fees a Scam?
35:29 How Much Do Fees Actually Cost Traders?
36:33 Reason #2: Asset Selection & What "Liquidity" Really Means
40:20 Why Hasn't Crypto Solved This Already?
42:39 Where On-Chain Order Books Break at Scale
46:04 Sponsor: @KASTxyz
46:52 Why Wouldn't a Hyperliquid Trader Switch to Variational?
49:28 Who Gets Destroyed When Wall Street Liquidity Arrives On-Chain
51:18 Reason #3: Swaps
52:34 The Real Problem With Perps: Funding Rates
55:18 Roger's BitMEX Story: "Holy Sht, I Can Print More Bitcoin"
58:44 The Hard Lesson: Wiped Out by Funding Fees
1:00:38 Why Perps Are Easy but Options Aren't
1:01:13 What Is a Swap, Really?
1:03:20 How Swaps Beat Perps
1:05:28 Why Raise $50M in May?
1:07:30 Sponsor: @JupiterExchange & @ethena
1:08:14 Does VC Funding Help or Hurt a Project?
1:09:46 Variational vs. Hyperliquid: The Architecture Difference
1:11:44 Why Didn't Hyperliquid Build for Hundreds of Assets First?
1:13:14 Staying Relevant After the Points Program Ends
1:15:11 The "AWS of Liquidity" Analogy, Revisited
1:16:47 What Hyperliquid Gets Wrong About the Future
1:17:48 What Variational Could Get Wrong
1:19:06 Who Wins Long Term: Binance, Coinbase, Hyperliquid, or Variational?
1:21:39 Bitcoin Price Outlook & Crypto Adoption in 2026-27
1:23:59 Variational's Endgame
1:25:51 The One Thing to Remember
1:27:18 Closing Thoughts
Justin Bram retweeted
Please welcome @JustinCBram, Head of Product at @variational_io.
Justin previously served as Co-Founder & CEO of Astaria and Head of Growth at Ondo Finance.
📅 Oct 3, 2026 |📍Grand Hyatt Seoul
🎟 bit.ly/4zk8nvl
🎙️ Apply to speak: bit.ly/4cteDH2
🤝 Become a sponsor: bit.ly/4wboCI5
