Genius Terminal is a non-custodial, on-chain trading terminal that provides an integrated interface for discovering, analyzing, and trading crypto assets across multiple blockchains. The platform is designed to aggregate liquidity from various decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and venues, with a primary focus on providing private trade execution for professional and large-scale traders.

Developed with backing from the Web3 venture firm YZi Labs, Genius Terminal aims to address the market issue known as the "transparency bug," where the public nature of blockchains allows large transactions to be easily tracked, potentially revealing a trader's strategy. ^{[1] [2]}​

Overview

Genius Terminal functions as an execution-layer tool rather than a standalone decentralized exchange. Its software interface connects to multiple decentralized liquidity sources, including spot and perpetual futures DEXs, allowing users to execute complex trading strategies from a single dashboard. The platform's core value proposition is its privacy-preserving technology, which is intended to give on-chain traders the level of discretion typically associated with centralized exchanges (CEXs). ^{[2] [1]}​

The project is the first to be launched from the YZi Labs ecosystem and gained significant market attention in January 2026 following a large strategic investment from the firm and the appointment of former Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao as an advisor. ^{[3] [4]} The stated goal of the platform is to create a unified, high-performance layer for DeFi trading that combines deep liquidity, fast routing, and private execution. ^[2]​

History

In its early stages, the project was presented by co-founder Armaan Kalsi at a BNB Chain Most Valuable Builder (MVB) demo event in New York City, where he first engaged with the team from YZi Labs. ^[2]​

On June 10, 2024, YZi Labs announced a "seven-figure" strategic investment in Genius Terminal. This announcement coincided with the platform's beta launch, which was designed to address user challenges in cross-chain trading. ^[3] During its pre-launch and beta phase, the platform processed over $160 million in trading volume across at least ten different blockchains. ^[1]​

A major public launch occurred on January 13, 2026. On the same day, YZi Labs announced a "multi-8-figure" follow-on investment, and Changpeng Zhao was confirmed to be joining the project as a strategic advisor. ^{[4] [1]} Following this launch, the Genius team began actively responding to community feedback. On January 14 and 15, 2026, the team announced several technical improvements, including fixes for cross-chain sponsorship reliability, reduced gas costs, and more reliable BNB swaps. The full, open-access version of the platform, including its advanced privacy protocol, is scheduled for release in late 2026. ^{[4] [2]}​

Technology and Features

Genius Terminal integrates a suite of tools for trading, analytics, and privacy. Its architecture is designed as a non-custodial layer that interacts with on-chain protocols without taking custody of user funds. ^[2]​

Core Architecture

The platform operates as an aggregation and execution terminal. It connects to various DEXs for both spot and perpetuals trading, allowing users to find and execute trades across different chains. This distinguishes it from a DEX, as it is not a liquidity venue itself but an interface that connects to them. Advisor Changpeng Zhao described it as "a trading terminal that connects to perp dexes." ^{[4] [1]}​

Privacy Protocol and Ghost Order

A central feature of Genius Terminal is its proprietary privacy technology, designed to solve what YZi Labs calls the "transparency bug"—the difficulty of executing large on-chain trades without signaling intent to the market. ^[1]​

Mechanism

The platform's privacy is enabled by a proprietary order type known as the "Ghost Order," which leverages Multi-Party Computation (MPC). This system works by generating and managing ephemeral wallet clusters, allowing a single user to orchestrate a complex trading strategy across hundreds of different addresses simultaneously. The funding links between these wallets are kept confidential from public on-chain observers, preventing the trades from being traced back to a single entity. Despite the privacy, the transactions remain cryptographically auditable. This technology allows users to execute all strategies without surrendering control of their private keys. ^[2]​

Cross-Chain Functionality

The terminal is built to unify the fragmented DeFi landscape, enabling seamless interaction across multiple blockchains.

Cross-Chain Swaps

A core function of the platform is facilitating swaps across different blockchains without requiring the user to leave the interface. The development team has focused on improving the reliability of these swaps, specifically mentioning enhancements for BNB cross-chain transactions following the January 2026 launch. ^{[4] [3]}​

Gas Sponsorship

Genius Terminal offers a gas sponsorship feature, which allows users to perform transactions without holding the native gas token of the chain they are interacting with. After its public launch, the platform experienced some throttling issues with this feature, which the team publicly addressed and worked to resolve. Improvements included reducing sponsorship costs significantly and implementing a fix for cross-chain sponsorship using EIP-7702, an Ethereum Improvement Proposal related to account abstraction. ^[4]​

Trading and Analytical Tools

In addition to its privacy and cross-chain capabilities, the platform provides a range of tools for traders.

Supported Products

At its public launch, Genius Terminal supported spot trading, perpetual futures, and copy trading. The perpetuals trading feature integrates with external decentralized derivative platforms such as Hyperliquid. ^{[1] [3]}​

Token Discovery and Analytics

The terminal includes a dashboard for discovering new and trending tokens across supported networks. Users can filter assets by metrics such as market capitalization, liquidity, 24-hour trading volume, age, and transaction count. For in-depth analysis, the platform provides real-time price charts powered by TradingView, detailed transaction histories, and security information, including buy/sell taxes, minting authority status, and freeze authority. ^[3]​

Other Features

• Portfolio Tracking: A "Holdings" section allows users to monitor their cryptocurrency assets across various wallets and chains. ^[3]
• Points and Airdrop System: The platform features a points system that tracks user activity, which suggests a potential future airdrop to reward early and active users. ^[3]
• Trading Competitions: Genius Terminal hosts daily trading competitions with a prize pool distributed to top performers to incentivize platform usage. ^[4]

Funding

Genius Terminal has secured two notable rounds of funding from YZi Labs.

2026 Strategic Investment

On January 13, 2026, YZi Labs announced a "multi-8-figure" strategic investment in Genius Terminal. The investment, valued between 99,999,999, was intended to accelerate the development of the platform's privacy protocol and support its goal of creating a "private on-chain trading experience." YZi Labs is described as the independent investment firm and family office of Changpeng Zhao, managing approximately $10 billion in assets. ^{[4] [1]}​

2024 Initial Funding

On June 10, 2024, YZi Labs made its initial "seven-figure" strategic investment into Genius Terminal. These funds were allocated to support the platform's beta launch, enhance its cross-chain capabilities, and facilitate its market expansion. ^[3]​

Key People and Organizations

Genius Terminal Team

• Armaan Kalsi: Co-founder and CEO of Genius Terminal. He presented an early version of the platform at a BNB Chain event where he was introduced to YZi Labs. ^[2]
• Ryan Myher: A member of the Genius Terminal team involved in community management and user support. ^[4]

Investors and Advisors

• YZi Labs: The primary investor and backer of Genius Terminal. It is a Web3 venture studio and investment firm headed by Changpeng Zhao. ^[1]
• Changpeng "CZ" Zhao: The founder of Binance and head of YZi Labs. He joined Genius Terminal as a strategic advisor in January 2026. ^[4]
• Ella Zhang: Head of YZi Labs, who led the firm's investment into Genius Terminal. ^[2]
• Alex Odagiu: An Investment Partner at YZi Labs who commented on the firm's investment thesis for Genius Terminal. ^[2]

Supported Blockchains

As of its beta launch, Genius Terminal supported a variety of blockchains to enable its cross-chain functions. The integrated chains include:

• Solana
• Ethereum
• Base
• Binance Smart Chain (BSC)
• Arbitrum
• Optimism
• Polygon
• Avalanche
• Sonic
• HYPEREVM
• Sui

This list represents the networks available during the platform's early phases, with the goal of expanding support over time. ^[3]​

Quotes

• Armaan Kalsi, Co-founder & CEO of Genius: "The funding is about alignment more than anything else; aligning with YZi Labs means we have the industry’s most thorough and well-resourced backer taking a meaningful swing at creating an ‘on-chain’ Binance, while focusing on what makes CEXs better than DEXs right now: privacy.” ^[2]
• Ella Zhang, Head of YZi Labs: On meeting Armaan Kalsi, “He has the distinct traits of a founder who’s going to win: sharp, logical, and articulate. I pulled him aside from the crowd after his demo -- and found out he understood deeply what he’s building, and later we were even more impressed seeing the advanced version of Genius.” ^[2]
• Alex Odagiu, Investment Partner at YZi Labs: “The next phase of DeFi is about execution and privacy. Genius is building a unified, high-performance trading layer that delivers deep liquidity, fast routing, and privacy-enabled execution - allowing professional and power users to operate on-chain with the same efficiency and discretion they expect in traditional markets.” ^[2]
• YZi Labs Spokesperson (June 2024): “The current landscape of decentralized trading is too fragmented. Users have to navigate multiple platforms, each with its own interface and complexities, just to trade across different chains. Genius Terminal is our solution to this problem. We are building an all-in-one platform to unify this experience.” ^[3]