The Solana Options Standard

On November 11th, 2024, @EpicentralLabs officially announced the start of its ambitious journey to create the first Option Standard on Solana — making it easier for developers and protocols to introduce options trading into their DeFi platforms.

The Solana Options Standard will be an open-source SDK for developers to create American and European-style Options, with room for future exotic options as well.

“Options are one of the most popular financial derivatives, making up roughly 40% of market trading volume as of September 2023 in U.S. stock markets.”
— NYSE: Trends in Options Trading (2023)

Option contracts (similar to FX structures) can provide exceptional diversity to an investor’s portfolio — and soon, to crypto traders on Solana as well.

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The Current State of Options on Solana

Unfortunately, options don’t really exist on Solana in the same way they do in traditional markets.
There are only a handful of functioning protocols with the concept of decentralized options.

A notable example is @DualFinance, who pioneered Liquidity Staking Options (LSOs) — though LSOs primarily focus on adjusting staking incentives across Solana rather than providing generalized derivatives infrastructure.

Today, most liquid and tradable option chains still exist on centralized exchanges, requiring:

• Proprietary market data
• Know-Your-Customer (KYC) verification
• Compliance with jurisdictional restrictions

The result: limited access, low composability, and no real “standard” for decentralized options.

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DeFi & Derivatives on Solana

Since 2020, Solana’s DeFi ecosystem has grown massively.
From early borrowing/lending protocols like @savefinance_ (formerly Solend) and @marginfi, to experimental meme-coin platforms like @pumpdotfun — Solana’s low fees and lightning speed have created a playground for builders.

Yet, across decentralized exchanges (DEXs), the most common financial products are:

• Spot Trading
• Perpetuals / Leverage Trading
• Outcome / Betting Markets

To stand out, some DEXs pair with lending pools to generate yield for LPs — such as @JupiterExchange and its JLP tokens.
Still, there remains little diversity in derivative products on Solana.

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Closing the Competitive Gap

“Literally the goal of Solana is to carry transactions as fast as news travels around the world — so speed of light through fiber. Who we’re competing with is NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange.”
— Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana Foundation (2021)
Source: Solana Foundation Blog

A standardized SDK for how options are created, executed, assigned, and exercised removes the friction of building custom option logic for every SPL token — and ensures strong security guarantees through audited smart contracts.

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Security First

Solana’s on-chain programs can deterministically process option lifecycle events like creation, exercise, and settlement.
By anchoring these functions on-chain, transparency replaces trust, and every transaction can be verified publicly.

Once the Option Standard SDK reaches completion, each line of code will be audited to uphold Solana’s reputation for safety and performance.

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Open Source, No Gatekeeping

There’s no reason for this to remain private.
Epicentral Labs is open-sourcing the Solana Options Standard to empower developers and protocols alike.

Epicentral’s goal isn’t profit — it’s ecosystem growth.
By making this SDK accessible to everyone, the DAO aims to:

• Facilitate conversations and strategies around options
• Educate developers and traders
• Incubate startup projects within the EpicentralDAO

“Providing value to the Solana ecosystem while staying authentic.” — Epicentral Labs

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What’s Next

Throughout Q4 2024, Epicentral Labs is building and testing the SDK toward a beta launch in Q1 2025.
The DAO will integrate with existing DeFi protocols to avoid reinventing the wheel, leveraging best-in-class infrastructure and liquidity primitives.

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Get Involved

Visit epicentrallabs.com to learn more about the Solana Option Standard, or join the community via Discord.

Epicentral Labs is always looking for open-minded contributors to help shape the future of on-chain options.

If you enjoyed this article — follow @EpicentralLabs for more updates.

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Published November 11, 2024 — by Epicentral Labs DAO LLC.