Anand Gomes is a finance and technology professional with experience in commodity and credit trading who co-founded the crypto trading platforms Paradigm and Paradex. He serves as the Chief Executive Officer for both companies, applying his background in traditional financial markets to the development of digital asset infrastructure. ^{[1] [2]}

Education

Gomes attended Savitribai Phule Pune University in India, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in 2006, followed by a Post Graduate Diploma in International Business in 2009. He later moved to the United States to continue his education at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. In 2011, he completed two master's degrees: a Master of Business Administration with a focus on Investments and Securities, and a Master of Science in Finance, Derivatives, and Risk Management. ^[8]

Career

Gomes began his career in 2006 at Unique Valves Pvt Ltd, where he worked as a senior manager in business operations. In 2010, he moved into finance as an intern in equity capital markets at ITI Capital Limited (formerly Collins Stewart Inga) before joining KeyBanc Capital Markets in 2011 as an MBA intern in derivatives. He remained at KeyBanc for several years, holding roles as an associate in OTC commodity derivatives, an assistant vice president, and later a vice president in oil and gas credit trading, with responsibilities across both high-yield upstream and investment-grade midstream credits.

In 2018, Gomes became an advisor at the University of California, Berkeley’s Data-X Lab, contributing to projects involving AI, blockchain, and data science. That same year, he co-founded Paradigm, a trading network for institutional crypto derivatives, where he has served as CEO. Under his leadership, the company expanded into a broad liquidity platform and raised a Series A financing round in 2021.

In 2024, Gomes co-founded Paradex in Singapore and became its CEO. The platform focuses on trading across spot, futures, and options markets with a single collateral framework. He continues to lead both Paradigm and Paradex, combining his background in traditional finance with his work in digital asset markets. ^{[1] [9]}

Interviews

Surviving Crypto’s Biggest Crash

On the When Shift Happens podcast in September 2025, Gomes shared his journey through the crypto industry's challenges and successes before and after the FTX crash. He began by developing an institutional exchange in 2019 to address the liquidity needs of large traders who struggled to execute large transactions quickly. Following the FTX collapse, which resulted in substantial financial losses for him and his team, he emphasized the importance of survival and continued innovation within their business. Faced with declining market volumes and volatility, they decided to build their own decentralized exchange, Paradex, to deliver a better trading experience. The founder reflected on the broader cultural implications of crypto, believing it would soon transition to mainstream acceptance, following the trajectories of gaming and electronic music, ultimately offering individuals a new, decentralized way to engage with finance and technology. ^[2]

Paradex

On the I Pledge Allegiance podcast with Larry Sukernik (Reverie) in May 2024, Gomes shared his journey into the crypto space, which began in 2019 after years of trading derivatives at a bank. He identified a market gap for a platform to effectively manage complex transactions in crypto derivatives, leading to the launch of Paradigm as an OTC exchange for institutions, despite significant disruptions following the FTX collapse, which affected their business volume, Gomes and his team pivoted to develop Paradex, a decentralized exchange (DEX) designed to address the trust issues inherent in centralized exchanges. He emphasized the importance of building resilient technology to handle liquidity and trading complexity while discussing strategies to attract and retain users. The conversation highlighted the competitive landscape of perpetual products in the crypto market, the importance of maintaining a strong reputation, and the need to drive user engagement through unique offerings while navigating regulatory pressures in the evolving industry. ^[3]

Presentations

Degen Vaults 3.0

At StarkNetCC in July 2024, Gomes presented details about Paradex’s newly developed high-yield multi-strategy portfolios, referred to as "degen vaults," during a discussion. Paradex, StarkNet's first application chain, had achieved significant trading volume since launching its platform nine months earlier, processing approximately $32 billion in trades. Gomes explained the evolution of vaults, starting from basic versions that offered limited functionality and lacked liquidity provisions, to more complex iterations with improved capital efficiency and strategies. He proposed that Paradex’s upcoming version 3 vaults would offer end-to-end on-chain investment management, incorporating multiple asset types and methods, and introducing liquidity tokens to improve asset utilization. He emphasized the advantages of these vaults in aligning incentives between sophisticated investors and retail users, enabling the latter to benefit from professional insights without the stress of active trading. Additionally, Gomes announced plans for cross-chain bridging and wallet support, along with various enhancements to the platform's functionality, expressing optimism about the direction of decentralized finance. ^[6]

Power Over Gas

At StarkNetCC in July 2024, Gomes presented the evolution and performance of Paradex, the perpetual decentralized exchange (DEX) built on the StarkNet app chain. Launched in October of the previous year, Paradex achieved significant milestones, handling approximately $150 million in daily volume and reaching a total of $32 billion since inception, with $17 million in total value locked (TVL). Gomes discussed the challenges they faced in DeFi trading, particularly liquidity and performance issues, prompting the development of Paradex to combine the benefits of centralized exchanges with the transparency and self-custody of decentralized finance.

Notably, the team addressed gas fees, reducing the cost per trade from 6,000–8,000 gas at launch to under 500 gas, thereby facilitating the addition of new markets, growing from three to 55. The presentation highlighted Paradex's ongoing efforts to refine its operations and further expand its market offerings, outlining plans to reach 200 markets to meet user demand. Additionally, Gomes mentioned collaborative optimization efforts with Starkware to enhance the app chain's capacity and performance, highlighting the complexities of managing decentralized trading infrastructure. ^[5]