Stepan Belorybkin

I entered the crypto industry in 2020 as a regular user. I started with investing, exploring DeFi protocols and actively trading while gradually going deeper into the ecosystem. Over time I began to better understand how crypto projects actually work, their economics, incentives and how they interact with users.
While watching the industry evolve, I kept noticing the same pattern. Many projects were driven primarily by greed. Protocols tried to extract as much value as possible from users while giving very little back to the community. These models often work only in the short term and eventually erode trust in DeFi.
This became my main motivation.
I wanted to build a protocol that is closer to the original idea of crypto, transparency, decentralization and fair value distribution between participants.
This is how the idea of ZEUS Exchange was born.
ZEUS Exchange is a fully onchain perpetual trading protocol built on Base. All core processes, trade execution, liquidations and reward distribution are governed directly by smart contracts without intermediaries or offchain components.
But technology alone is not the goal. The main idea behind ZEUS is to build a protocol that is designed for the long term and aligned with its users. A protocol should not only extract value from its community, but also return value back to it, allowing participants to earn not only from their own trades but also from participating in the protocol itself.
I believe models like this are necessary to build a more sustainable and honest infrastructure for the next stage of DeFi.