GRVT co-founder Hong Yea left behind a rising executive career at Goldman Sachs to launch a hybrid crypto exchange as the market collapsed.
Four months after the mainnet, it has processed over $5 billion in volume. Yea tells BeInCrypto how his Wall Street roots helped engineer a decentralized trading powerhouse.
A Leap of Conviction in a Market on Fire
When Hong Yea left a decade-long career at Goldman Sachs, where he had risen to executive director, crypto markets were in freefall. It was late 2022, and FTX had just collapsed.
Confidence in centralized platforms had evaporated. But for Yea, the implosion was not a deterrent—it was validation.
“FTX crystallized our thesis. Centralized counterparties are single points of systemic failure. We saw that coming—and built GRVT to be the opposite,” Yea told BeInCrypto in an interview.
That conviction would be tested. While former colleagues moved toward managing director promotions and fatter bonuses, Yea built a next-gen exchange from scratch. One that would fuse institutional-grade speed and compliance with the decentralization ethos of Web3.
Today, just four months after its public mainnet launch, GRVT has processed over $5 billion in trading volume.
It is the first licensed decentralized exchange (DEX) under Bermuda’s Class M framework and one of the few platforms bridging Wall Street’s rigor with blockchain’s permissionless infrastructure.
Why a Goldman Exec Bet on Blockchain
For Yea, the pivot was not sudden. A trader by training, he spent years inside Goldman watching promising financial products die behind walled gardens.
“I saw brilliant tools and strategies that never reached beyond institutional silos. At the same time, DeFi lacked the risk controls, performance, and compliance needed to scale. I realized: if we could combine both worlds, we could unlock finance for everyone,” he explains.
The spark came at a 2022 crypto conference in Barcelona. Yea saw clearly that blockchain was not just speculative—it was a superior substrate for finance.
“It’s like a smarter internet. Not just for data, but for logic. Immutable, programmable, global. That’s what finance needs,” he articulates.
The Hybrid Advantage: CEX Speed Meets DEX Trustlessness
In the interview, Hong Yea presented GRVT as a purpose-built hybrid, not a traditional DEX or a centralized exchange with a Web3 gloss.
The platform, he said, separates matching and risk logic off-chain from settlement and custody on-chain. With this, users get the speed of centralized venues without ceding control of their assets.
“Every trade is executed with sub-millisecond latency, but settled on-chain via smart contracts that never touch user funds. It’s trustless execution at institutional speeds,” Hong Yea remarked.
Users sign trades cryptographically using SecureKey technology, which combines multi-party computation (MPC) with biometrics for maximum safety. At the same time, onboarding feels like Web2—email, password, 2FA.
Behind the scenes, GRVT’s zero-knowledge chain ensures privacy while keeping settlements transparent. Crucially, the platform allows users to instantly rehypothecate margin across markets—an edge even legacy prime brokerages rarely offer.
GRVT’s “CeDeFi” architecture combines off-chain order matching and risk management with on-chain self-custodial settlement using a private zk-powered Validium chain. It eliminates intermediaries, avoids on-chain custody fees, and enables users to maintain sole control of their assets.
“Trades execute in sub-millisecond latency but clear trustlessly in users’ own wallets,” Yea said.
This design directly targets the weaknesses of both CEXs and DEXs:
- CEXs offer convenience and speed but force users to relinquish custody, introducing counterparty risk.
- DEXs provide transparency and control but suffer from latency and fragmented liquidity.
GRVT bridges that divide. Users sign trades with biometrics via a SecureKey while all assets remain in their wallets.
“We blend Web2 login flows with cryptographic controls and one-click trade signing,” Yea explained. “It’s the speed of Binance with the self-custody of Uniswap—minus the trade-offs.”
$5 Billion in 120 Days With Regulation As The Blueprint
According to Hong Yea, GRVT’s explosive growth was engineered through raw performance, ecosystem incentives, and early partnerships. Its matching engine operates with latency under 10 milliseconds, outpacing Ethereum-based DEXs, Solana (SOL), and even newer Layer 2 solutions.
However, it is not just about speed. GRVT rewards market makers, community contributors, and liquidity providers, and creates a balanced, multi-stakeholder system.
Reportedly, more than 40 institutions, including CoinRoutes and top prime brokers, now trade on GRVT, injecting deep liquidity from day one.
Moreover, in a post-FTX playing field, the timing is opportune. Retail users demand transparency; institutions demand compliance. GRVT meets both demands without compromise.
“We’re not a niche. We’re a bridge. Retail wants safety, institutions want access. We offer a platform where both can trade on equal footing,” Yea added.
While most DEXs attempt to dodge regulation, GRVT leaned in. It became the world’s first licensed DEX under Bermuda’s Digital Asset framework.
“We treat compliance as code. Our chain enforces KYC and trade surveillance at the protocol level. That’s not just policy—it’s unbreakable,” Yea emphasized.
Reportedly, GRVT is now in active discussions with regulators across Asia, Europe, and North America, working toward multi-jurisdictional licensing for a globally compliant rollout. Yea believes this regulatory adoption is not a constraint but a critical enabler.
“Rules aren’t the enemy—they’re the gateway to institutional trust,” he stated.
Meanwhile, GRVT’s vision does not end with crypto trading. Yea sees a future where tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), including equities, funds, and institutional strategies, trade peer-to-peer (P2P) on a decentralized, composable platform.
Wall Street Is Watching
While some in traditional finance (TradFi) remain skeptical of crypto, the institutional tide is turning. The window is reopening with MiCA (Markets in Crypto Assets) in Europe, Hong Kong’s digital asset push, and a softening US regulatory tone.
“Wall Street is warming up. However, this time, they will come not to dominate, but to integrate,” Yea concluded.
Building long-term trust on a blockchain may seem like a leap for a trader who once priced risk in microseconds. However, for Hong Yea, it was a calculated trade—and so far, it is paying off.
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