We are proud to announce that OKX has partnered with SUN ZU Lab to bring you their first Exchange Liquidity Analysis report. This report focuses on OKX spot and perpetual futures liquidity, providing valuable insights to navigate the dynamic landscape of trading on OKX.

“During this period, the crypto market experienced a significant upswing, and OKX showed considerable trading volume and healthy order books in February 2024”, according to the analysis by SUN ZU Lab.

Link to the official announcement!

Download full report to uncover more insights

La startup française Sun Zu Lab, spécialisée dans l’analyse quantitative, vient de réaliser une levée de fonds de 2 millions de dollars avec la participation de l’investisseur renommé Tim Draper. Dirigée par Stéphane Reverre et Vincent Madrenas, la société se positionne comme une solution pour les émetteurs de tokens et les market makers en offrant une transparence totale sur la gestion des liquidités sur les plateformes d’échange.

Lien vers l’article complet sur Cryptoast.

Sun Zu Lab lève 2 millions de dollars et se rapproche de Tim Draper

Créée en 2020, la startup française Sun Zu Lab a récemment levé 1,7 million d’euros (2 millions de dollars) avec la participation de l’investisseur américain Tim Draper. Le tour de table – le second pour Sun Zu Lab, a également vu participer FunFair Ventures mais également Elaia, qui avait déjà participé au premier financement.

Un apport de capital qui permettra à la startup, fondée par Stéphane Reverre et Vincent Madrenas, de développer sa spécialité, à savoir l’analyse quantitative.

L’analyse quantitative : un terme abstrait à première vue, mais dont l’utilité s’avère pourtant essentielle dans le monde financier ainsi que celui de la blockchain, plus particulièrement depuis l’avènement des exchanges centralisés (CEX) et décentralisés (DEX).

« Vous êtes quelqu’un qui a besoin d’acheter ou de vendre un token, et vous avez en face de vous un marché extrêmement fragmenté et vous voyez que les intermédiaires qui sont en face de vous ont chacun une performance propre, ils sont plus ou moins bons dans ce qu’ils font. […] L’objectif de Sun Zu Lab, c’est de permettre à un investisseur face à un marché fragmenté, pas complètement régulé, de trouver la meilleure solution à son problème. »

Stéphane Reverre, co-fondateur de Sun Zu Lab

Stéphane et Vincent bénéficient tous 2 d’une forte expérience dans le milieu, le premier ayant passé plus de 25 ans dans l’univers du trading tout autour du monde, ce qui lui a permis d’acquérir une forte expérience concernant les différents marchés, la régulation, l’éducation et l’évolution réglementaire. Le second quant à lui, a travaillé chez SESAMm pendant 4 ans afin d’acquérir des connaissances sur les solutions de trading pour les actifs numériques.

Comme nous l’a expliqué Stéphane Reverre, Sun Zu s’adresse principalement aux émetteurs de tokens et aux markets makers en leur offrant une transparence totale sur la façon dont sont gérées les liquidités sur les plateformes d’échange.

Effectivement, lorsqu’un token est émis, il faut ensuite être en mesure de le surveiller, et veiller à ce que les market makers fassent bien leur travail concernant les liquidités du token en question sur les exchanges.

« Vous payez une certaine somme d’argent, et puis à un moment donné vous allez vous dire, est-ce que le market maker fait bien son job ? En réponse à cela, on propose un tableau de bord sur lequel on intègre le flux de ces plateformes pour l’analyser, et on va faire un peu de travail quantitatif dessus, ce qu’on appelle de la microstructure de marché. À l’aide d’indicateurs techniques, on va analyser s’il y a du layering, du spoofing, de la manipulation sur les carnets, afin de délivrer tout cela en temps réel à nos clients. »

Stéphane Reverre, co-fondateur de Sun Zu Lab

Selon Stéphane Reverre, Sun Zu Lab compte ajouter les market makers directement dans la conversation afin qu’ils ne fassent pas seulement l’objet d’une analyse, mais qu’ils deviennent acteurs à part entière afin de délivrer le meilleur produit possible à leur client.

Une expansion à l’international

Bien que Sun Zu Lab possède des bureaux à Paris et à Metz, sa clientèle, elle, ne se limite pas aux frontières de l’Hexagone. Ainsi, la startup tricolore assure déjà une présence à l’international et veut se placer à l’avant-garde alors que la régulation se durcit aux États-Unis et se clarifie en Europe, notamment avec l’arrivée de MiCA. Un changement de paradigme qui s’opère déjà, et qui amène de nombreux acteurs à se déplacer vers l’Est.

« Pour ces différentes raisons, beaucoup d’acteurs préfèrent aujourd’hui se diriger vers l’Asie. Nous ne nous adressons qu’à des professionnels et des institutionnels, donc nous observons cela de près. Cela est un signal fort pour nous, car cela signifie que les acteurs concernés acceptent l’idée que le marché doit être régulé, ils acceptent l’idée que s’ils veulent attirer une nouvelle clientèle, qu’elle soit française, américaine ou anglaise, ils doivent être plus transparents. Et c’est là que Sun Zu Lab intervient. »

Stéphane Reverre, co-fondateur de Sun Zu Lab

La participation de Tim Draper à la levée de fonds de Sun Zu Lab est loin d’être anodine. Stéphane Reverre nous apprend d’ailleurs que le célèbre investisseur américain a été piqué d’intérêt pour le travail de Sun Zu Lab au détour de la Paris Blockchain Week (PBW), et compte bien faire passer la startup à la vitesse supérieure avec, probablement, une relocalisation aux États-Unis à la clé. « Il y a un gros objectif sur le sol américain, » nous confie-t-il.

Enfin, cet apport de capital devrait permettre à Sun Zu Lab d’agrandir ses rangs. La startup tricolore compte actuellement une dizaine d’employés, et souhaite recruter, entre autres, côté développement afin de parfaire son produit.

Summary:

• SUN ZU Lab, the Paris-based Digital Asset Data Solutions Provider, welcomes Tim Draper (Draper Associates) and Fun Fair Ventures to its capital. Elaia, the historic investor, renewed its trust in the team and the vision.
• Founded in 2020 by Stéphane Reverre (CEO) and Vincent Madrenas (COO), SUN ZU Lab is a leading solutions provider on a mission to bring better data and transparency to the global web3 ecosystem. SUN ZU Lab leverages its deep market microstructure expertise and cutting-edge technology to collect the most granular market data from major liquidity venues, analyze it, and deliver actionable insights and solutions through real-time dashboards and API streams. 

In a post-FTX world, digital assets providers are more than ever under the scope of regulators and institutional investors who are getting more and more demanding in the level of service they expect. In this world, SUN ZU Lab has developed the relevant tools to help market makers and token issuers better perform together for the benefit of investors. SUN ZU is empowering their relationship with liquidity analytics and monitoring in order for each side to get the best results in total transparency.

SUN ZU Lab was co-founded by traditional finance veteran Stéphane Reverre, who has launched and developed many trading activities at some of the most significant financial institutions (Société Générale, Millennium Partners…), and Vincent Madrenas, who spearheaded the creation of an electronic trading platform dedicated to digital assets at French start-up SESAMm. With a team of top-notch capital market professionals, the company provides tools and services targeted to institutions to improve market access and efficiency.

SUN ZU Lab has made significant breakthroughs in 2023, signing Tier-1 clients from the industry. After an initial round of €1.5M in 2022, this new money will be used to invest in technology and product development. Stéphane Reverre: “We are very proud to join Draper Associates’ portfolio of visionary disruptors, along with trailblazers such as Tesla, Coinbase, or Robinhood, and delighted to see Elaia renew their trust in our vision of a more efficient digital marketplace where confidence in trading infrastructure is such that adoption becomes very natural. This round is a testimony towards the relevance of our mission to the overall ecosystem at a time when regulation is getting more and more demanding.”

Quote from Tim Draper:

“SUN ZU Lab has the right vision on the missing elements needed to institutionalize the digital assets market. I believe the team is perfectly positioned to make its contribution.”

The new money will be used to continue product development, including some recruitment. And, of course, to continue to bring the best products to our existing and future clients.

About SUN ZU Lab:

SUN ZU Lab is a leading data solutions provider based in Paris, on a mission to bring better data to the global crypto ecosystem through independent quantitative analyses. We collect the most granular market data from major liquidity venues, analyze it, and deliver our solutions through real-time dashboards, API streams, and historical files. SUN ZU Lab provides crypto professionals with actionable data to monitor the market.

About Draper Associates:

Founded in 1985 by Tim Draper, Draper Associates is the leader in early-stage venture capital and continues to invest in technology companies that show exceptional promise. The firm’s investments have included Coinbase, Baidu, Tesla, Skype, SpaceX, Twitch, Hotmail, Focus Media, Robinhood, Carta, and other industry unicorns at the early stage. Draper Associates has built a reputation for encouraging entrepreneurs to drive their businesses to greatness, transform industries with new technologies, and build platforms for extraordinary growth, jobs, and wealth creation. Send plans to plans@draper.vc. To learn more, visit www.draper.vc

About Elaia:

Elaia is a venture capital firm specializing in funding early-stage technology companies. The firm focuses on software, internet, and digital media startups and has a strong track record of backing companies that become successful and profitable. Elaia’s team includes experienced investors and entrepreneurs who provide valuable guidance and support to the startups in their portfolio. With a focus on helping companies scale and grow, Elaia is a valuable partner for any entrepreneur looking to launch a technology business.

About FunFair Ventures: 

FunFair Ventures helps early-stage web3 projects through funding and advisory. Using private capital, they provide value and ongoing support to investment partners. Having developed, scaled, and exited their ventures, the team has practical experience in web3 technology and tokenomics. Since its inception in late 2021, FunFair Ventures has executed 35 investments, 25 of those in the last 12 months. https://funfair.ventures

We were pleased to organize a networking breakfast event and a panel around the theme #CeFi and #DeFi: Risks and Opportunities in 2023, co-hosted with Valk. Our amazing panelists, Salama Belghali, Global head of Business Development & partnership at BitMex; Yves Choueifaty, President & Founder of TOBAM; Nic Basson, COO at Old Street Digital and Florent Jouanneau, Principal at White Star Capital, gave us insights about the perceived risks in the industry and how they’ve been able to navigate through them.

The event was a fantastic success, with over 150 attendees! It was moderated by Stéphane Reverre, CEO of SUN ZU Lab and Antoine Loth, CEO of Valk.

Click here to have a sneak peek of the event. We hope to see you at our next one!

 

We had the pleasure to participate to the Learn and Pick Mission Internationale with Bpifrance and Team France during the Singapore Fintech Festival in November 2022.

Watch Stéphane Reverre’s interview here!

During this major event dedicated to Fintech, we were hosted by BPI on the Pavillon France booth.

Want to learn more about SUN ZU Lab and its unique offering, or want to meet us? Just contact us!

We had the pleasure of participating in the AM Tech Day event, hosted by l’Agefi at the French iconic Palais Brongniart.

During this major event dedicated to Asset Management that brings together both buy side and sell-side, we had the honor of being name the Best Digital Asset Initiative.

This award recognizes our effort to bring more transparency into the crypto-sphere, thus helping crypto institutions better understand the market movements.

Want to learn more about SUN ZU Lab and its unique offering, or want to meet us? Just contact us!

Stéphane Reverre, CEO and co-founder of SUN ZU Lab, shares his hope for a more regulated crypto world with FinMag.fr.

This article has been written by Sarah Kirton, financial writter at Finmag.

What is the mission and wish of SUN ZU Lab?

Our mission is to bring transparency to the digital asset market. This means allowing, or even forcing, each of the market participants (investors or intermediaries) to disseminate information in order to make the investment mechanisms more fluid, to ensure that the end investor can make investment decisions with all the information available.

We want to shed light on the system, to ensure that the prices traded, that the commissions are made public, so that the price that emerges from supply and demand is a price that better reflects the macro-economic balance. As a consequence, the market functions better, the allocation of resources is done better, and we therefore we have a more efficient market.

This is the economic theory that is used in traditional markets that we decided to apply to digital asset finance.

We also hope that participants’ mindsets will change, and that they will realize how much they have to gain by adopting a more transparent approach, as this will greatly expand their market.

What difficulties has SUN ZU Lab encountered since its creation?

The difficulties we encounter are essentially difficulties of conviction linked to an asset class perceived as too opaque and complex.

We are evolving in an unregulated world, with the contradiction between the desire to regulate it which comes up against the constraints that this entails.

Trying to convince clients that crypto will only emerge from its maturation phase by being adopted by the greatest number, and that this can only be done through greater transparency, is not accepted by all.

Customers are tempted to continue innovating without constraints, without reporting, without pressure, and they don’t like the idea of a framework.

What is the definition of transparency in the crypto world?

Market transparency is first and foremost data on transactions that take place in the capital markets. It is a question of publishing a certain amount of information on what they do, on the price and the volumes of the operations they do.

The actors that are the Stock Exchanges, that are the investors, whatever their nature (individuals or institutions), the brokers, or the investment funds,

ask themselves the question every day of how to sell, what is the best price, and they need someone to compile data and publish it, without conflict of interest so that the information is reliable, and let it serve as a guide.

What is the definition of transparency in the crypto world?

Market transparency is first of all data about transactions that take place in the capital markets. It is about publishing a certain amount of information about what they do, about the price and volumes of the transactions they do.

The different actors – stock exchanges, investors, whatever their nature (individuals or institutions), brokers, or investment funds – ask themselves every day how to sell, what is the best price, and they need someone to compile data and publish it, without any conflict of interest, so that the information is reliable, and that it serves as a reference.

Which market is SUN ZU Lab mainly aimed at?

It’s a BtoB market / institutional market, that is to say all the market players who carry out transactions.

Those who buy because they invest, those who speculate, those who take orders (RTO: order routing and transmission) like the real estate agent for example, the exchanges, which allow liquidity to be expressed and concentrated in the orders, and then the liquidity providers, which are entities capable of providing liquidity to clients: a client who would like to carry out a transaction for a large size, needs someone who can provide a price.

How do you analyze liquidity in crypto markets and what impact does it have on market efficiency?

It’s all about data. We record everything that happens, as much as we can.

We say on average, for this type of asset and for this size, this is the market price you should pay.

The price of the digital asset, if it’s different from the market price, may have some tradeoffs, so it’s “a priori” standardized.

We make the data talk by compiling prices, which are real time prices (best execution prices), that allow an investor to know what he should buy, the price he should pay, to allow him to discuss, or negotiate with his intermediary if it is different.

This gives all market participants the ability to assess the margin, or the quality of the price given to them, or even to trade with confidence, with informed players.

How do you see the future of SUN ZU Lab?

We are tied to the future of crypto. We are a service provider operating on the basis of available data, serving a set of customers.

We are not so much tied to the price of bitcoin, but rather to the evolution of the crypto ecosystem: will it mature, will it accept some regulation, whether self-inflicted or imposed by the regulator?

If we want to access the retirement savings of the French, we cannot extract ourselves from a financial system that works in a certain way.

At the moment, crypto represents only 1% of the total addressable savings, there is a place and a colossal opportunity for growth and adoption for digital assets, if and only if the ecosystem and the people who compose it accept a certain form of convergence in practices and in regulation.

And, in these practices and in this regulation, our core focus is on transparency.

So if the market evolves and matures in the direction of more transparency, we have a bright future ahead of us, otherwise… we will have tried!

You can retrieve the full article on Finmag!

In this podcast hosted by Les Samourais du business, Stéphane Reverre, CEO of SUN ZU Lab, explains why SUN ZU Lab decided to assess the liquidity of crypto markets. Liquidity is a key criteria to consider when investing in the crypto markets. Therefore, it’s important to assess the amount of crypto assets ready to be bought by natural buyers, the amount of crypto assets ready to be sold by natural sellers and the amount of crypto assets between, traded by speculators who buy and sell at the same time without carrying risk for a long time.

SUN ZU Lab has developed independent quantitative analytics to better understand crypto liquidity. Stéphane also gives us his point of view on the crypto markets and how they are structured. Then he

Listen to the podcast here!

In this interview, Stéphane Reverre, CEO of SUN ZU Lab, details how he got the idea to create his company with Vincent Madrenas. Liquidity is a crucial topic, which needed to be better considered with institutional standards and a quantitative perspective. SUN ZU Lab has developed independent quantitative analytics to better understand crypto liquidity. Stéphane also details the challenges a start up like his faces!

Watch the video!

Lionel Ribeiro, CEO of TrakX alongside Stéphane Reverre, CEO of SUN ZU Lab

In this video, Lionel emphasises the importance of augmented data for Trakx‘ activities and highlights how SUNZU Lab’s unprecedented crypto quantitative analytics have been particularly helpful.

“The reality is that without proper quality and independent data, it’s difficult to scale” said Lionel.
This is why SUN ZU Lab attaches paramount importance to providing high quality data, in line with its mission to bring transparency to the cryptosphere.

TrakX is one of SUN ZU Lab’s historic clients.

Watch the interview!

About TrakX: Trakx is a global fintech company creating new standards for digital asset investments. Through their trading platform, they offer thematic Crypto Tradable Indices (CTIs) and customised solutions, providing sophisticated investors a high degree of compliance, custody and liquidity. Trakx is registered with the French regulator (AMF). For more information, please: www.trakx.io.