Challenges in the Market
♟Challenges in the Market – Barriers to Disrupt
The global investment landscape—especially its decentralized finance (DeFi) frontier—is expanding at record speed. Market capitalization for digital assets has surpassed US $2 trillion more than once, and daily on-chain volumes rival those of major stock exchanges. Yet this explosive growth has surfaced deep structural flaws that keep true financial freedom out of reach for most participants.
⮕ Structural Pain Points
Centralised gatekeepers
Traditional hedge funds and many “crypto-funds” rely on licensed custodians and opaque committees, preserving power hierarchies and single points of failure.
Excessive management & performance fees
Hedge funds extract up to 2 % + 30 % (management + carry). In 2024 alone, investors surrendered US $93 billion in fees and poor executions.
Opacity in decision-making
Proprietary black-box strategies prevent independent verification of risk, slippage and execution quality.
Credibility gap for managers
Retail investors lack objective, on-chain metrics to validate a manager’s skill or track record.
Limited access to quality education
Professional finance courses remain expensive and centralised; most DeFi tutorials stop at wallet basics, leaving a vast skills gap.
⮕ Quantitative Impact
US $218 billion in hedge-fund gains are produced each year, yet only US $125 billion reach end-investors; the rest is siphoned by fees, hidden spreads or operational drag.
More than 70 % of first-time crypto users abandon DeFi after a single failed transaction or excessive gas fee (Chainalysis 2023 survey).
$1.9 billion was lost to rug pulls and protocol exploits in 2022 alone (CertiK Annual Report), eroding trust in on-chain products.
⮕ Underlying Drivers
Technical complexity—Multi-step bridging, signing and liquidity routing intimidate newcomers and create fatal error points.
Market manipulation—Large entities and bots exploit thin order books, front-running retail participants and distorting prices.
Regulatory whiplash—Sudden policy shifts freeze assets, delist tokens and force platforms into reactive compliance, leaving users stranded.
Information asymmetry—Professional traders wield data feeds and co-location advantages unavailable to average investors.
Emotional bias under high volatility—Without risk tools and education, retail holders often buy tops and sell bottoms, converting volatility into realised loss.
The result is a widening gulf between potential and realised returns. Any solution that aims to democratise investment must therefore remove fees, surface transparent data, certify competence, and automate risk controls—without introducing new layers of complexity.
In the next section, we explore how Orypton’s architecture was purpose-built to neutralise these challenges and turn structural headwinds into a community-owned advantage.
Last updated