Vitalik recently asked: “What if we use options as the base of DeFi, instead of CDPs and liquidations?” That is the idea behind Split Markets. Today, most leverage is built on debt. You deposit collateral. You borrow exposure. If the market moves against you, you get liquidated. Split Markets takes a different path. Instead of debt, an asset is split into two sides: P N = 1 One side takes the protected / covered side. The other side takes the upside. For traders, this means something simple: You can buy upside with fixed risk. No margin calls. No forced liquidation. No getting wiped out before expiry. Your max loss is the premium you paid. Split Markets is building liquidation-free markets for the next generation of DeFi. Upside should be tradable. Risk should be fixed. Markets should survive volatility.

Most leverage in DeFi is built on debt. You deposit collateral, borrow exposure, and hope you do not get liquidated. Split takes a different path. On Split, you can trade ETH long or short by paying a premium upfront. That premium is your max loss. No margin account. No liquidation engine. No forced close before expiry. If ETH moves your way, your N token captures the upside. If it does not, your loss is capped at what you paid. You can exit before expiry or hold till physical settlement. This is leverage rebuilt with fixed risk. Trade direction. Know your max loss. Stay alive till expiry.

Options-based synthetic assets are live onchain: split.markets Split turns WETH into tradable long/short claims with fixed downside. Traders pay a premium; LPs lock collateral, take the other side, and earn that premium. Positions can close or exercise against WETH/USDC vault balances. Settlement does not need an ETH/USD oracle read. This is the path to synthetic assets without debt or liquidation engines.

this is the frame. x*y=k turned liquidity into a simple invariant. P N=1 turns collateral into tradable claims instead of debt positions that need liquidation. ETH direction is the first market. the bigger unlock is synthetic assets built from fully-backed claim splits. we shipped this at split.markets