Backpack
I have known Armani Ferrante for over six years.
He is one of the most prolific builders in crypto. He led the development of the first on-chain order book ever built — Serum, on Solana. He also created Anchor, which became the default way to write Solana programs.
Then he set out to build Backpack. Backpack has been flying below the radar for years.
That is about to change.
The US regulatory regime is shifting. Regulated CeFi and DeFi perps are coming to the US. Combined with Backpack’s product suite, that shift is going to make the company highly visible, very quickly.
Backpack today is the most licensed and regulated financial services entity in crypto. The team has spent years on the unglamorous work: licenses, custody, banking, and market structure across almost every major jurisdiction — Europe, Asia, Australia, Japan, and very soon the US.
The point of all that plumbing is not a press release. It is to offer first-principles-correct risk management, margining, and trading to anyone, anywhere, across CeFi and DeFi.
Backpack is the only company that is both (1) fully regulated and licensed globally and (2) has actually built a perps exchange with unified cross-margin that works at scale across volatile market cycles.
This will manifest in two ways: CeFi and DeFi.
In the US, Backpack intends to be a major player in CeFi perps, with best-in-class regulated infrastructure. And in DeFi, Backpack’s infrastructure will work with new and existing public protocols to power regulated on-chain equities and derivatives activity on Solana.
Backpack is building the future of Internet Capital Markets on Solana.
Board, Check, Check
A few months ago, Armani asked me to join Backpack’s Board of Directors. I was not an investor at the time. I said yes immediately.
Shortly after, I invested $1M. Over the next two months my conviction in Backpack’s opportunity and strategy grew, and I asked to invest another $3M, for a total of $4M.
Backpack is the largest single angel investment I have ever made, by a wide margin.