Founders Space Spotlight | 🎙️ AIRTX & @AftermathFi | $SUI DeFi Arena

The Spaces features RTX (Air TX), founder of Aftermath Finance, in a candid conversation about his journey from competitive sports and law school to building fully on-chain perps on Sui. RTX frames crypto culture as hyper-gambling with global access but emphasizes the grind and user empathy learned from sports and hands-on building. He recounts learning R/Python for legal data science, moving through sneaker botting and fantasy sports ML to DeFi during the 2020–21 cycle. Frustrated with farming risks and UX gaps in perps, he set out to build a user-first, fully on-chain order book. He explains why Aftermath chose Sui early: object-oriented design, non-conflicting transactions and emerging gas prioritization, despite tooling immaturity and dependency on chain upgrades. RTX offers a pragmatic view on L1 proliferation (dedicated blockspace), ETH’s ETF-led narrative, and Sui’s strengths in BD/storytelling versus the need for better dev tooling and third-party composability. Aftermath Perps is near launch (in testing), targeting 1B USD in open interest daily, with strict robustness and on-chain constraints. Key lessons: resilience, ship vs. perfection trade-offs, and user-first decisions. Advice to builders: build what you are passionate about and would personally use.

Founder Space Spotlight: Interview with RTX (Aftermath Finance)

Participants

• RTX (aka Air TX) – Founder of Aftermath Finance; former law student; self‑taught builder/trader; known for direct, often sarcastic commentary on crypto culture.
• Host – Founder Space Spotlight moderator (small‑business owner, long‑time crypto investor). Name not provided in the recording.
• Capo/Kappa – Co‑host/supporting speaker early in the session.
• Kevin – Aftermath’s technical lead (and RTX’s brother‑in‑law); machine‑learning background; referenced throughout (not present live).

Session focus

A long‑form AMA exploring RTX’s background, how he found crypto, the origin and design choices behind Aftermath Finance, why the team chose Sui, candid views on the broader crypto ecosystem and Sui’s strengths/weaknesses, the current state of Aftermath’s on‑chain perps, and what success looks like.

Big picture takeaways

• Crypto culture and markets: RTX frames crypto as global, always‑on hyper‑competition with heavy elements of PvP and speculation—but also as one of the most meritocratic, open arenas for talent and opportunity worldwide.
• Founder mindset: His path emphasizes competitive drive, resilience, and turning hobbies into serious work. He prioritizes building products he personally wants to use and puts user responsiveness above marketing optics.
• Chain strategy: He expects more app‑specific L1s/dedicated blockspace to proliferate; bridging is improving; decentralization is a spectrum and stablecoins remain centralized regardless of base chain.
• Sui reality: Strong engineering and some standout protocol features, but developer experience for complex, multi‑app integrations still lags; Mysten’s BD/marketing narrative has been savvy, yet tooling and change‑management need to improve.
• Aftermath perps: Built fully on‑chain on Sui with an orderbook architecture designed to use Sui’s unique capabilities—technically difficult but aligned with the team’s long‑term thesis. Near launch, but sensitive to upstream protocol changes.

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RTX’s background and formative influences

• Competitive sports and “grind”: RTX played high‑level sports growing up; the daily repetition without immediate payoff shaped his work ethic. He’s drawn to puzzles, competition, and “figuring out how to win” even when out‑gunned on paper.
• Family and education: Raised in a conservative Armenian household with engineer/mathematician parents. Studied history (not finance/CS). Completed law school (did not sit for the bar) and realized early that practicing law wasn’t for him.
• Learning to code (via law): Picked up R for legal data science (especially around voir dire/jury selection), then moved to Python after community pointers. That started the technical pivot.
• Early builder experiments:
  • Sneaker bots: Partnered with Kevin (now Aftermath’s technical lead and RTX’s brother‑in‑law) to build bots that bypassed retail anti‑bot systems (Nike etc.). Early profits faded as the space professionalized; scaling limits (addresses, infra) made it hard for a small team.
  • Fantasy sports: Applied ML to lineup construction; did okay early, then competition spiked and the team moved on.
• Entering crypto: Through DeFi Summer—attracted by the speed, volatility, and immediate feedback loops vs. pink sheets and other speculative corners of TradFi. Early positions included BNB and the “supply chain onchain” narrative coins. What stuck was a deep interest in perpetuals mechanics and market structure over unsustainable yield farming.

Crypto worldview

• Hyper‑gamified, PvP environment: “We’re clicking buttons and hyper‑gambling” while the world deals with heavier issues. Yet it’s also the best global, equal‑access market—people who never got a fair shake can prove themselves.
• Dopamine and agency: Crypto’s constant markets and instant feedback are uniquely compelling; it’s very hard to find an equally engaging industry.

Aftermath Finance: origin story and product thesis

• User‑first frustration: RTX used perps and felt many builders weren’t actual users; he wanted more assets listed and a product aligned with trader needs.
• Architectural stance: Build a fully on‑chain orderbook/perps system that leverages the base chain rather than relying on off‑chain matching. He recognizes this is far harder than off‑chain engines (hence few teams attempt it), but believes the effort aligns with where the market is going.
• Team composition: RTX drives product and trading perspective; Kevin leads the technical build (ML background); a small network including a PhD‑level math partner supports market design and risk.
• Market‑making: Aftermath now also operates a market‑making arm; they design perps as the product they themselves would want to trade on and market‑make in.

Why Sui: selection logic and tradeoffs

• Comparative diligence: The team engaged with multiple ecosystems (e.g., Solana, Sei, Injective/Tendermint forks, Vega‑derived approaches) and considered a dedicated chain for full control.
• Sui’s appeal:
  • Object model and parallel execution: Reduced transaction contention; the ability for unrelated transactions not to compete was key.
  • Throughput/latency trajectory and engineering pedigree: Confidence in core infra given the team’s background; expectation that essential features would arrive even if not present at the time.
  • Programmable transaction blocks and gas‑priority mechanics: Later features (priority fees) make Sui unusually “opinionated” in a good way for trading use cases.
• Risks they accepted:
  • Early bet: Chose Sui when it was still very early (testnet wave 2). Several critical features weren’t ready, forcing them to build bespoke infra that later became obsolete as Mysten shipped official components (e.g., gRPC APIs, Rust SDK).
  • External dependency: On‑chain design plus upstream protocol changes can brick test deployments; they experienced a recent break due to a Mysten update with breaking changes.

Assessment of Sui (strengths and gaps)

• What’s working well
  • Engineering caliber: RTX repeatedly acknowledges the core team’s talent and the progress made.
  • BD/Marketing: Mysten has crafted a strong narrative (Diem/Meta origin, regulatory hurdles overcome) and can speak to family offices/institutions; partnerships (e.g., with major exchanges) demonstrate savvy execution.
  • Specific protocol features: Gas prioritization/transaction ordering controls are a powerful, under‑marketed differentiator for trading systems.
  • Building their own apps: Mysten launching and running their own products (e.g., Walrus, DeepBook) forced real developer empathy and yielded better tooling.
• What needs improvement
  • Tooling for composability: It’s still hard to build complex apps that integrate across multiple protocols; third‑party integrator experience lags.
  • Change management: Breaking changes can disrupt downstream teams; more rigorous comms/compatibility practices would reduce developer pain.
  • Ecosystem breadth/liquidity: There are relatively few large, tradable assets on Sui; for active trading/market‑making, a larger set of high‑cap tokens matters. RTX is now pragmatically pro more token launches/airdrops to bootstrap activity.
  • Focus on what devs need: Ship for external builders, not just for Mysten’s own use cases. RTX sees improvement here but wants it to be a priority.

Views on the broader chain landscape and Ethereum

• App‑specific chains and dedicated blockspace: RTX predicts a proliferation of L1s/sovereign execution environments because teams want control over fees, user experience, and performance. Bridging is improving enough to make this feasible.
• Stablecoin reality: Regardless of base chain, major stablecoins are centrally controlled (freeze lists, policy levers). Decentralization is a spectrum with practical limits.
• Ethereum’s narrative shift: RTX argues recent ETH momentum owes more to TradFi advocacy and ETF flows than to protocol changes; institutions buying “the bag” changed sentiment, not a tech inflection.

Aftermath Perps: state of play

• Architecture and difficulty: A fully on‑chain orderbook perps system on Sui, using “all of Sui” (object model, execution, data pathways). It’s intentionally hard—most teams opt for off‑chain engines.
• Current status: In test, very close to mainnet. A recent Mysten update introduced breaking changes that temporarily bricked the test deployment; the team expects to resolve quickly.
• Hard‑learned lessons:
  • Don’t build bespoke infra too early: They built streaming, SDK, and other components that later had to be discarded when official, better tools arrived.
  • On‑chain equals operational sensitivity: Once deployed, contract upgrades must be handled carefully; upstream node/protocol changes can have outsized impacts.

Success metrics and roadmap intent

• North Star for perps: $1B daily open interest would represent clear product‑market fit; “a couple of billion” would be phenomenal. Volume alone is less meaningful than sustained OI.
• Market‑making growth: Aftermath’s MM arm has expanded; the product is built to be attractive to both traders and liquidity providers.
• Reliability and safety: No downtime, no exploits, robust operations, and compatibility across protocol upgrades are essential for credibility.

Product philosophy and user focus

• Users > community optics: Fixing UX issues can matter more than running giveaways. Bad airdrops or pushing low‑quality assets damages trust; responsiveness in Discord/Twitter is part of the product.
• Mental management: Pressure from competitor timelines and upstream dependencies is real; RTX jokes that “shitposting on Twitter” helps vent, but the underlying message is resilience and keeping a sense of humor.

Founder lessons from RTX

• Resilience: Things can always get harder; you need a long runway of effort before results show.
• Perfection vs. shipping: Know when “good enough” is acceptable vs. when to wait for the right architecture. Today’s decisions compound into next year’s outcomes.
• Everything is your problem: External gaps (oracles, infra, tooling) have a way of becoming your team’s problem when you’re early and ambitious.
• Build what you’d use: Passion and first‑principles user empathy are non‑negotiable. If you’re not the user, you’ll miss the details that matter.

Advice to aspiring builders

• Build something you are passionate about and would personally use. Treat hobbies seriously—if you care enough, you can reach competitive levels.
• Be realistic about chain choice and dependencies: Early ecosystem bets can pay off, but plan for tooling gaps and breaking changes. Don’t over‑invest in bespoke infra that may be superseded.
• Obsess over users: Fast support and tangible UX improvements beat promotional noise.

Notable highlights and anecdotes

• Early crypto path: From BNB and “supply chain onchain” narratives to perps and market microstructure.
• Exploit vigilance: While testing, Aftermath discovered a vulnerability around DeepBook’s mainnet go‑live (per RTX), reflecting how deeply they engage with core infra.
• Culture and candor: RTX’s public tone (sarcastic, blunt) stems from a view that the space is inherently comedic and speculative—even as it’s the best meritocratic arena available.

Closing sentiment

RTX remains convinced that fully on‑chain perps aligned with Sui’s architecture are worth the difficulty, and that the market is converging toward that thesis (more teams attempting on‑chain orderbooks on newer high‑performance chains). He credits Mysten’s engineering and BD, wants sharper dev tooling and change management, and defines Aftermath’s success by deep, sustained trader engagement—ultimately, open interest and reliability over hype.