Why Cardinal is Building on Arbitrum

Burt Rock

— 2 min read
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Why Cardinal is Building on Arbitrum

Cardinal is building a new generation of derivatives, starting with the Yield Perp, a novel condition-based perpetual yield instrument. When we chose where to build, we needed an ecosystem that understood financial applications and infrastructure fast enough to keep up with highly leveraged trading. Arbitrum checked every box.

A home for innovation

Arbitrum has always been a playground for innovation in DeFi. Some of the industry’s most important products have emerged from its ecosystem, and projects like GMX and Panoptic have helped push onchain derivatives forward within it. Beyond the technology, Arbitrum's team stands out for their genuine understanding of what financial applications need to succeed, from reliable infrastructure to an engaged community.

Built for speed

Yield Perps offer leverage of up to 5,000x. That’s only possible because they have no liquidations: your maximum risk is the margin you put into a position, and nothing more. But no liquidations doesn’t mean time stops mattering. With highly leveraged positions, every second counts. Prices move fast, and so does a position’s PnL, so the gap between deciding to act and having your trade land needs to be as small as possible.

On Ethereum’s Sepolia testnet, a new block arrives roughly every 12 seconds. In early testing, that made for a slow experience that didn’t match what we wanted to deliver. On Arbitrum, a new block arrives about every 250 milliseconds, which makes trading Yield Perps feel close to instant.

Building together

Since choosing Arbitrum, we’ve had exceptional support from their team. They’ve been extremely responsive to technical questions and introduced us to the Arbitrum community. That kind of support is surprisingly hard to find, and it’s made a real difference as we’ve brought Cardinal into public view.

As we move forward, each decision we make will need to consider what's best for Cardinal and how to serve traders with the best UX. We hope Arbitrum can continue to be a partner in these goals. We see enormous potential in the next generation of derivatives, and we’re excited to be building in the ecosystem that's providing a foundation for this future.

Make your move

Join us as we build the next generation of financial products.

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