Olympus Pro Marketplace
Bonds for DeFi
Olympus Pro Marketplace
DeFi
Experience Leadership
In 2021, most DeFi protocols relied on yield farms to attract liquidity, and it wasn’t working. Farmers arrived for the rewards and left just as fast: only 58% of those who joined a farm on launch day were still there after 24 hours, and just 30% after 72 hours. The result was constant sell pressure, unstable token prices, unreliable liquidity and capped upside from impermanent loss. Olympus had a better model. Its bonding mechanism let protocols build their own liquidity by selling discounted tokens, released to buyers over time, in exchange for assets the protocol would own permanently. Olympus Pro packaged this as a service, offering a cross-chain bond marketplace where other protocols could use Olympus bonds to build protocol-owned liquidity. I led user research, service design and product design for the launch, including creative direction, UX and UI for both the public website and the Web3 dApp. In just three to four weeks of intense research and design, the challenge was to make linear vesting bonds clear and appealing to two very different audiences: experienced DeFi traders and newcomers who had never bought a bond before. My role User research, service design, personas and scenarios, creative direction, UX/UI, UX copywriting and user testing. The outcome Launched after just 3–4 weeks of research and design Over $60 million in total bonded value within 3 months of launch Adopted by major DeFi projects across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Fantom and more A cross-chain marketplace that brought Olympus bonding to other protocols as a service
Challenge
DeFi had a liquidity problem. Most protocols relied on yield farms to attract liquidity, but farmers came for the rewards and left as soon as they dried up. Only 58% stayed beyond the first day and just 30% after three days, leaving protocols with sell pressure, unstable prices and liquidity they couldn’t rely on. Olympus had a better answer in bonds, which let protocols build liquidity they owned permanently, and Olympus Pro set out to offer bonds as a service to other protocols. The biggest obstacle was that most people didn’t understand how bonds worked. Even in traditional finance, bonds can be confusing, and DeFi bonds added more unfamiliar ideas. Users were buying tokens at a discount, but instead of receiving them straight away, the tokens were released gradually over a vesting period. People needed to understand what the discount meant, why they had to wait, how vesting worked, when they could claim and how this compared to simply buying on the market. Without that understanding, a good deal looked like a risk, and users either stayed away or made costly mistakes. The audience made it harder. Experienced DeFi traders wanted to compare discounts across bonds quickly and act fast, while newcomers needed to be guided through a concept they had never seen before. Protocols using the marketplace also needed confidence that their bonds would be presented clearly to their own communities. All of this had to happen in just three to four weeks, across a public website and a cross-chain dApp. The challenge was to turn an unfamiliar financial mechanism into something people could understand at a glance and trust enough to use, on a launch timeline that left no room for confusion.
Solution
Rather than starting from scratch, I built Olympus Pro on the existing Olympus V1 design system. Olympus users already knew and trusted that experience, so extending it into a new bonds marketplace meant people moving between Olympus and Olympus Pro would feel at home straight away. Reusing the system’s colours, typography and components also made it possible to launch in just three to four weeks without trading off quality. Where the marketplace needed something new, I designed it to fit the system. Bond listings were presented as a clear, scannable marketplace, with each bond showing the essentials at a glance: the token, the discount, the vesting period and how much was available. Experienced traders could compare bonds across protocols and chains quickly, while newcomers could see at a glance which bonds offered value. To solve the biggest problem, that people didn’t understand bonds, I made the mechanics visible and explained them in plain language. The bond flow showed users exactly what they were paying, what they would receive, the discount compared to the market price and how their tokens would vest over time. After purchase, a clear vesting view showed how much had been released, how much was still to come and when tokens could be claimed, turning an abstract idea into something people could watch happen. The same system carried through to the public website, which introduced bonds to protocols and their communities and explained why they offered a better alternative to yield farming. Research, personas and user testing guided each decision, so the final design worked for DeFi veterans and first-time bond buyers alike. The result was a new marketplace that felt like a natural part of the Olympus ecosystem: consistent, familiar and trusted, while making bonds clear enough for anyone to use.
Result
Olympus Pro launched on time after just three to four weeks of research and design, and quickly proved that bonds could work as a service for the wider DeFi market. In its first three months, the marketplace saw over $60 million in total bonded value, with protocols across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Fantom and more using it to build liquidity they owned permanently. Protocols joined in successive partner cohorts, including Inverse Finance, which used the marketplace to switch from liquidity mining to protocol-owned liquidity. The service also grew Olympus’s own revenue: by January 2022, the Olympus Pro treasury had grown around 800% in three months, funded by a 3.3% fee on partner bonds. The bigger impact was on DeFi itself. Olympus later said that Olympus Pro had found product-market fit and kicked off a wave of liquidity-as-a-service competitors. The product went on to become Bond Protocol, an independent platform dedicated to bonds as a service, run by the same team. Launched after just 3–4 weeks of research and design $60M+ in total bonded value within 3 months Used by protocols across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Fantom and more Olympus Pro treasury grew ~800% in 3 months Sparked a wave of liquidity-as-a-service competitors Evolved into Bond Protocol
From our Client:
“William took Olympus Pro from idea to live marketplace in just three weeks. In that time, he researched how people understood bonds, shaped the service and designed both our website and dApp, making a complex product clear for experienced traders and newcomers alike. His speed and focus got us to launch on time, and the marketplace went on to bond more than $60 million in its first three months. Thank you, William.”"Brand made us credible to procurement departments."
Zeus
Founder