Darius Tabatabai is a derivatives and electronic trading veteran who became a Web3 founder as co-founder of Vertex Protocol, a decentralized exchange built on Arbitrum. His career spans FX, metals, and options trading in traditional finance, followed by roles in crypto trading and advisory, before moving into decentralized finance product development and exchange infrastructure.
Overview
Tabatabai is best known for co-founding Vertex alongside Alwin Peng. Vertex positions itself as a vertically integrated on-chain trading venue that aims to deliver centralized exchange-style performance while preserving self-custody and on-chain settlement. Tabatabai’s background in risk systems, options, and electronic market structure informs the protocol’s emphasis on capital efficiency and cross-margin design.
- Primary role: Co-founder, Vertex Protocol
- Core expertise: Options and electronic trading, risk systems, and market structure
- Focus: Building high-performance DeFi trading infrastructure and integrated product suites
History and Background
Before entering crypto full-time, Tabatabai spent more than a decade in traditional finance roles focused on FX and metals derivatives. His career includes positions at UBS Investment Bank as an FX and metals options trader, followed by senior precious metals trading responsibilities at Credit Suisse. He later served as Global Head of Metals Trading at Merrill Lynch, reflecting a long-running specialization in liquid, price-sensitive markets where margining, risk limits, and execution quality are central.
After traditional finance, he expanded into advisory and buy-side roles, including multi-year work at Arion Investment Management Limited as portfolio manager and later head of trading. He also held a brief head of trading role at CrossTower and served as head of trading at JST Capital. These positions marked a transition toward digital assets and set the groundwork for a move into DeFi-native market infrastructure.
Vertex Protocol and the Pivot to Arbitrum
According to CryptoSlate’s Vertex Protocol project report, Tabatabai and Peng originally co-founded the project to build an on-chain forex market on the Terra ecosystem. Following Terra’s UST de-peg, the team pivoted to Arbitrum and refocused on building a decentralized exchange that combines an order book and AMM model with integrated lending and borrowing.
The project report also notes that the founders raised $8.5 million in late 2021 and later attracted support from a mix of market makers and venture firms. Tabatabai’s role is closely tied to product direction and market structure decisions that align with professional trading workflows, including margining, liquidation design, and multi-market collateral use.
Technology and Features
Vertex is commonly described as a hybrid exchange that combines a constant product AMM with an off-chain order book. The order book is designed for fast matching and execution; the AMM provides a fully on-chain path for execution if the order book becomes temporarily unavailable. CryptoSlate’s project report states that settlement occurs on-chain, enabling self-custody while retaining a trading experience intended to be familiar to centralized exchange users.
Vertex also integrates spot trading, perpetual futures, and money markets into one interface. A core design element is universal cross-margin, where account balances, unrealized PnL, and certain platform positions can be used as collateral across products, subject to margin requirements enforced by an on-chain risk engine. The protocol’s incentive and governance system is tied to its native asset, covered in CryptoSlate’s Vertex Protocol (VRTX) profile.
Use Cases and Market Position
Tabatabai’s work at Vertex sits in the broader effort to narrow the usability gap between centralized and decentralized exchanges. Vertex targets traders who want deeper functionality than swap-only DEXs, including limit orders, cross-margin trading, and a unified capital base across spot, perps, and lending. Building on Arbitrum also positions the platform within the Layer 2 landscape, where lower fees and faster confirmation times can support higher-frequency trading strategies.
Education
Tabatabai holds a BSc in Government and Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He later completed an MSc in Computer Science with Data Analytics at the University of York, reflecting a combination of financial markets training and technical study aligned with data-driven trading and protocol design.
Notable Milestones
- 2004 to 2013: Derivatives and metals trading roles across UBS, Credit Suisse, and Merrill Lynch.
- 2016 to 2022: Portfolio management, advisory, and crypto trading leadership across Arion Investment Management, CrossTower, and JST Capital.
- 2021 to present: Co-founding and building Vertex, including a pivot from Terra to Arbitrum and expansion into a multi-product DeFi exchange stack.
Risks and Considerations
Operating a derivatives-capable DEX introduces technical and market risks, including smart contract vulnerabilities, oracle and liquidation dynamics, and liquidity fragmentation across venues. Hybrid architectures can also introduce operational dependencies around off-chain components, even when settlement remains on-chain. As with many DeFi protocols, regulatory uncertainty and evolving compliance expectations may influence user access, product scope, and risk disclosures over time.
