Nithin Kamath Tweet: The rapid expansion of speculative trading avenues in the US since the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed financial markets, bringing cryptocurrencies, prediction markets and several new asset classes into the mainstream, according to Zerodha co-founder and CEO Nithin Kamath.
In a post on X, Kamath reflected on how the market landscape has evolved, from the emergence of zero-day options before the pandemic to the growth of crypto derivatives, stablecoins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralised finance (DeFi) and prediction markets.
Kamath argued that the pace of change in US financial markets since the pandemic had been particularly striking, with several products that were once considered niche now attracting mainstream participation.
"The rate at which the US markets have changed (mutated) since COVID is nuts. Before COVID, the last major "innovation", if you want to call it that, was 0-day options. But since then, you've had crypto trading, and with that, stablecoins, derivatives, NFTs, and DeFi, not to forget shitcoins," said Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath said in a post on X.
He noted that cryptocurrency had moved beyond its earlier image as a fringe asset class, with trading increasingly supported by established financial products and regulatory acceptance. Crypto futures and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have helped bring digital assets closer to traditional financial markets, while the broader ecosystem has expanded to include stablecoins, derivatives, NFTs and DeFi.