# Lucas V. Schuermann > Lucas V. Schuermann is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Variational, a cryptocurrency derivatives trading firm and protocol he started in 2021. - Canonical URL: https://iq.wiki/wiki/lucas-v-schuermann - Categories: People in crypto - Tags: Developer, Founder, Investor, Researcher, Speaker - Created: 2026-09-28T14:44:02.341Z - Last updated: 2026-09-28T15:07:57.670Z - Source: IQ.wiki — the world's largest blockchain and crypto encyclopedia (https://iq.wiki) --- **Lucas V. Schuermann** is the co-founder and chief executive officer of [Variational](https://iq.wiki/wiki/variational), a [cryptocurrency](https://iq.wiki/wiki/cryptocurrency) derivatives trading firm and protocol he started in 2021. Before Variational he served as vice president of engineering at Genesis Trading and founded the hedge fund Qu Capital, which was acquired by [Digital Currency Group](https://iq.wiki/wiki/digital-currency-group) in 2019.[\[1\]](#cite-id-ll4e13hnf4)​[\[2\]](#cite-id-ifzmpwlbdx) He is based in George Town, Cayman Islands.[\[3\]](#cite-id-7t6b1bywap)​ ## Early Life and Education Schuermann began university-level mathematics coursework unusually early, taking classes at the University of Oklahoma from 2008 to 2014, which he has stated began at age 12.[\[1\]](#cite-id-ll4e13hnf4) During this period he also participated in scientific research at the university, and in 2013 he was named a semifinalist in the Siemens Competition run by the Siemens Foundation.[\[1\]](#cite-id-ll4e13hnf4)​ He earned a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Columbia University between 2014 and 2019, where he was identified as an Egleston Scholar, a distinction he has described as placing him in the top 1% of his class.[\[1\]](#cite-id-ll4e13hnf4)​[\[3\]](#cite-id-7t6b1bywap) While at Columbia he founded the Egleston Scholars Executive Board and served on the executive boards of the Columbia Data Science Society and the Columbia Application Development Initiative, as well as representing engineering students on the Columbia Engineering Student Council.[\[1\]](#cite-id-ll4e13hnf4) In 2014 he was recognized as a National Merit Scholar by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation and nominated as a Presidential Scholar by the U.S. Department of Education, and in 2015 he was a Kakehashi Project Fellow at Columbia, a program associated with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.[\[1\]](#cite-id-ll4e13hnf4) He later completed part-time graduate coursework in computer science at Stanford University between 2020 and 2021.[\[1\]](#cite-id-ll4e13hnf4)​ ## Career #### Early Engineering and Finance Roles Lucas V. Schuermann held early positions in software engineering, web development, and academic research. Between 2010 and 2014, he worked as a frontend engineer serving local businesses. From 2011 to 2012, he was a software engineering intern at Synappsys Digital Services, where he worked with the generation and manipulation of laser-scanned 3D meshes, which served as a basis for later work with [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain). From 2013 to 2014, Schuermann conducted research at the University of Oklahoma in mathematics and physics. His work included research on the Alekseevskii conjecture with Professor Michael Jablonski and on Casimir torques with Professor Kimball Milton. In 2015, he worked as a researcher at Wolfram Research on functionals of cellular automata with Dr. Stephen Wolfram. During the same period, he began research at Columbia University, working with the Columbia Computer Graphics Group from 2015 to 2016 and the Columbia Bionet Group from 2015 to 2017. In 2016, Schuermann worked as a quantitative strategist in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs. He also joined Fero Labs as its first employee and worked there as a software engineer from 2016 to 2017. In 2017, he worked in robotics as a software engineer at Google X, Alphabet's research and development division. #### Qu Capital In 2017, Schuermann co-founded Qu Capital with [Edward Yu](https://iq.wiki/wiki/edward-yu), whom he had met while studying and conducting research at Columbia University. Schuermann remained with the firm until 2019, when Qu Capital was acquired by [Digital Currency Group](https://iq.wiki/wiki/digital-currency-group) (DCG). #### Genesis Trading After the acquisition of Qu Capital, Schuermann joined Genesis Trading, a [cryptocurrency](https://iq.wiki/wiki/cryptocurrency) over-the-counter trading desk owned by DCG, as Vice President of Engineering. He held the position from 2019 to 2021. During his time at Genesis, Schuermann worked with [Edward Yu](https://iq.wiki/wiki/edward-yu) on the firm's [cryptocurrency](https://iq.wiki/wiki/cryptocurrency) trading operations. Schuermann has described the desk as having processed more than $250 billion in cumulative trading volume. He and Yu left Genesis in 2021 to establish a new company. #### Variational In 2021, Schuermann co-founded [Variational](https://iq.wiki/wiki/variational) with [Edward Yu](https://iq.wiki/wiki/edward-yu). The company initially operated as a proprietary trading firm and raised $10 million to support its trading activities. The founders later directed trading profits toward the development of the Variational Protocol. Variational operates as a cryptocurrency derivatives platform. Schuermann has described its infrastructure as a non-custodial request-for-quote (RFQ) system on Arbitrum for bilateral derivatives transactions, in which trades are executed directly between counterparties rather than through a shared order book. External profiles describe the platform as a [peer-to-peer](https://iq.wiki/wiki/peer-to-peer-trading-p2p) protocol for perpetual contracts and other derivatives, including leveraged perpetual futures markets. Schuermann is identified in different sources as the founder or co-founder and chief executive officer of [Variational](https://iq.wiki/wiki/variational). The company was founded in 2021 and has expanded its team across multiple countries. Company data cited in the available profiles reports $61.8 million in total funding across four previous rounds. #### Columbia University Schuermann held teaching and entrepreneurial positions at Columbia University alongside his research and professional activities. From 2016 to 2017, he served as a teaching assistant for COMS W3157 Advanced Programming in C and COMS W4160 Computer Graphics. His responsibilities included preparing assignments and curriculum, conducting recitations, holding office hours, and working on grading systems. From 2018 to 2021, he served as an entrepreneur in residence with Columbia Engineering Entrepreneurship. #### Research and Engineering Schuermann's research has included computational physics, computer graphics, robotics, mathematics, and related areas of computer science. At Columbia University, his work included projects with the Computer Graphics Group and the Bionet Group. Among his research projects is "Spectral Analysis of Discrete Differential Operators for Geometry Patch Matching," conducted with Keenan Crane and Alec Jacobson. The project examined discrete differential operators, including the Laplacian and a modified Dirichlet energy, in the context of geometry matching and mesh processing. His work with the Columbia Bionet Group included "Towards an Autonomous Drosophila Robotic Platform" and "Visual and Motor Interfaces for Neurokernel." These projects involved computational models of fruit fly nervous and visual systems, including the use of deep reinforcement learning and GPU-parallelized simulation. Other projects include "shux: A Language for Particle-Based Physics Simulation," "Extending Winnowing for Code Similarity Detection," conducted with Zach Schuermann, and "Functionals of Cellular Automaton Rules," conducted with Carlos G. Martin at Wolfram Research. Earlier research at the University of Oklahoma included "Classification of Unimodular Einstein Lie Groups Towards Resolving the Alekseevskii Conjecture," conducted with Professor Michael Jablonski, and "Casimir Torque in Inhomogeneous Dielectric Plates," conducted with Professor Kimball Milton and William Long. Schuermann has also worked on open-source and personal engineering projects involving real-time physics simulation. Between 2021 and 2023, he developed fluid and soft-body simulation experiments using Rust and WebAssembly, including position-based fluid dynamics, smoothed-particle hydrodynamics solvers, and implementations of extended position-based dynamics demonstrations. Earlier engineering projects included a low-cost extensible quadcopter research platform and Laminar Dynamics, a team founded to develop autonomous drones for medical supply delivery in Africa. Laminar Dynamics reached the finals of the Columbia Venture Competition in 2016. Schuermann also received engineering project grants in 2017 and 2020 for a real-time ray-traced black-hole simulation in virtual reality. #### Talks and Presentations Schuermann has presented on software engineering, data science, and quantitative finance. At Columbia University in 2016 and 2017, he delivered presentations titled "Software Engineering: Writing Good Code," "Introduction to Data Science," and "Google Cloud for Data Science." He also presented "Avoiding Overfitting in Finance" as part of a series on quantitative finance. In 2024, Schuermann presented "The [CEX](https://iq.wiki/wiki/cex-centralized-exchange) to [DEX](https://iq.wiki/wiki/decentralized-exchange) Transition" at Liquidity Day during the Token 2049 conference in Singapore. The presentation addressed changes in cryptocurrency derivatives market structure involving centralized and decentralized trading venues. [\[1\]](#cite-id-ll4e13hnf4) [\[2\]](#cite-id-ifzmpwlbdx) [\[3\]](#cite-id-7t6b1bywap) [\[4\]](#cite-id-b60t8sw2zx) [\[5\]](#cite-id-5DvUCcIdH5kIsUth) [\[6\]](#cite-id-MGnRgRwtCxEvanwW) ## Interviews #### Variational's Trading Model and Market Structure #01 On August 2, 2026, Lucas V. Schuermann, Co-Founder of [Variational](https://iq.wiki/wiki/variational), appeared on The Gwart Show to discuss his professional background in quantitative finance and the development of Variational. Schuermann described his previous work in systematic trading, including market-neutral strategies, market making, and over-the-counter (OTC) trading, as well as his experience developing trading infrastructure before co-founding Variational. [YOUTUBE@VID](tfS9k2w1WhM) Schuermann described [Variational](https://iq.wiki/wiki/variational) as a brokerage-oriented trading platform that uses a Request for Quote (RFQ) system instead of a conventional order book. Under this structure, users trade against an internal liquidity provider known as Omni Liquidity Provider (OLP). The OLP assumes the position resulting from each trade and manages the resulting exposure by executing hedges across external trading venues. This approach differs from models in which orders are directly matched with independent market makers. The discussion addressed the use of external liquidity for crypto assets and [real-world asset](https://iq.wiki/wiki/real-world-assets-rwas) (RWA) markets. According to Schuermann, OLP can connect to both crypto-native venues and traditional financial markets when managing its positions. He explained that differences between derivatives listed on separate venues can complicate hedging because contracts may use different indices, funding mechanisms, and other specifications. These differences can also create basis risk between otherwise similar positions. Schuermann discussed swaps as an instrument being developed by [Variational](https://iq.wiki/wiki/variational) to address some of these characteristics. Unlike perpetual contracts, swaps are designed to use a more predictable funding structure and to correspond more closely with the instruments used for hedging in traditional financial markets. He described the instrument as applicable to [RWA](https://iq.wiki/wiki/real-world-assets-rwas) markets and as complementary to perpetual contracts. The platform's architecture was also discussed in relation to its deployment on [Arbitrum](https://iq.wiki/wiki/arbitrum). Variational combines on-chain settlement components with off-chain systems used for connectivity and execution across external venues. Schuermann identified transparency and the separation of user collateral as two reasons for maintaining on-chain components. When an account is created, a separate settlement contract is deployed to hold its collateral, with trading results and related balance changes recorded through that contract. Another subject of the discussion was the distinction between price discovery and trade execution. Schuermann characterized order-book venues as infrastructure commonly associated with price discovery, while describing [Variational's](https://iq.wiki/wiki/variational) model as focused on aggregating liquidity and executing trades. He compared this separation with the distinction between exchanges and retail brokerages in traditional financial markets. The interview also covered [Variational's](https://iq.wiki/wiki/variational) incentive and points programs. Schuermann described these programs as mechanisms for attracting users and increasing platform activity, while emphasizing that continued usage depends on the trading functions offered by the platform. The discussion included the discontinuation of loss refunds and the use of other mechanisms intended to distribute part of the platform's revenue to users. The conversation concluded with a discussion of the potential role of brokerage-style platforms in [digital asset](https://iq.wiki/wiki/digital-assets) markets. Schuermann described a model in which retail users interact with a single trading interface while liquidity and hedging activity are distributed across multiple underlying venues. He also discussed the potential application of this structure to RWA derivatives and other instruments traded across both crypto and traditional financial markets. [\[5\]](#cite-id-5DvUCcIdH5kIsUth) #### Onchain Derivatives and Real-World Assets #02 In an episode of Flirting with Models, Lucas Schuermann, co-founder of [Variational](https://iq.wiki/wiki/variational), discussed the company’s work in onchain derivatives trading and the development of its retail platform, Omni. According to Schuermann, Omni uses a request-for-quote (RFQ) model in which trades are quoted by an internal liquidity provider. The model is designed to distinguish retail order flow from other types of market activity, with positions either offset internally or hedged through external venues. [YOUTUBE@VID](_5bYsyJUx68) Schuermann also discussed [Variational’s](https://iq.wiki/wiki/variational) approach to trading real-world assets, describing the use of relationships with traditional finance dealers to provide liquidity for assets whose primary markets operate outside [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) networks. He addressed the differences between perpetual futures and swaps, particularly regarding funding mechanisms, pricing conventions, and the relationship between onchain instruments and their corresponding hedging markets. According to Schuermann, Variational’s swaps use a separate financing component linked to short-term interest rates rather than the variable funding mechanism commonly associated with perpetual futures. The interview further covered [Variational’s](https://iq.wiki/wiki/variational) institutional products and its relationships with traditional finance counterparties. Schuermann stated that the company had agreements representing more than $1 billion in open-interest capacity with traditional finance dealers. He also discussed the potential use of this capacity across different derivative instruments and asset classes as Variational expands its trading and settlement infrastructure. [\[6\]](#cite-id-MGnRgRwtCxEvanwW)