cindy (@cindyleowtt) “Five and a half years ago, @crispheaney, @bigz_pubkey, @davijlu and I set out on” — TopicDigg

Five and a half years ago, @crispheaney, @bigz_pubkey, @davijlu and I set out on a weird, winding, and wonderful journey to build a perpetual futures exchange. The crypto market structure was extremely immature then. Perps were just starting out, most DeFi users were paying $200 to execute a single transaction on Ethereum. We were one of the first to bring a fully on-chain perpetual DEX to market and launched for the first time on Solana in November 2021. Today, as the exchange relaunches and enters its next chapter, I'm stepping down from Drift, now @VelocityDEX. I'm extremely proud of what we built – one of the largest exchanges on Solana with over $150B traded. Chris and Z, our technical cofounders, led the technology front to build every piece of the exchange stack, while David and I put together an incredible and experienced growth and operational team. I poured my heart, soul, and many years of the most insane ups and downs into building and growing Drift – a gruelling, but immensely fulfilling journey. In many ways, it felt like my first child. This April, we faced a state-level attack by DPRK, after a long-planned six months of social engineering infiltration. Going through it and the aftermath was by far the worst week of my life. Within ten sleepless nights, we closed a deal with Tether that put users on a path to recovery. We hired @redacted_noah, ex-head of protocol engineering at Helium, to lead the rebuild of Velocity’s smart contract technology, a difficult task he took on enthusiastically and with zest. We brought on @namanmtl, who joins us from Binance and Trust Wallet to lead Growth and Recovery to grow our trader base for the relaunch. I am proud of my team who stepped up to take initiative above and beyond – especially @tracybbd who personally took the pains to speak to every single trader and market maker on the exchange. Over the next few months, the team refused to quit and hunkered down to rebuild the exchange with a full security upgrade. Designing DFX as well as coordinating on multi-nation asset recovery working alongside @zeroShadow_io and local law enforcement agencies to freeze assets was a huge feat. This week, Velocity finalized their audit by @osec_io and @asymmetric_re and fully open-sourced the exchange. After a long and arduous journey, with many security audits in tow and with massive effort from the team, the exchange relaunches today – even better and faster than before. I would like to shout out the incredible team that will be carrying on the Velocity product. @davijlu, along with Foundation, will continue to move on the asset recovery and law enforcement work. @redacted_noah will continue to build out Velocity’s technology, shipping new features like CLOB and Prop AMM that will make the product even better and smoother. @Defioppa, who previously led product at Binance, will continue to lead the product at Velocity. @tracybbd will lead partnerships and stakeholder relationships. @namanmtl will join us from his extensive background at Binance to lead growth. With a heavy heart, I fully own this decision to step down. I have always done my best work building from zero to one. Velocity is now at the stage where it needs operators who can take it from one to ten, and I trust this team to take it to the next level. It is the right decision for me and for the protocol, to open a new chapter for Velocity. I've been all in on crypto, my whole career since I was 19. Now I will be spending energy on exploring what’s next for me personally. I care about building bridges between Asia and the US, between digital and physical infrastructure, and about bringing what I've learned home to my local community in Southeast Asia. I will actively continue to champion Velocity, and the founders and teams I’m backing. To our users and partners: thank you so much for the trust. I know the Velocity team is genuinely giving the relaunch all they have. To our investors: thank you for all your guidance and support all these years. To our team: thank you for everything. I couldn't have imagined doing this with anyone else.