Looking at this round of market trends, one trend is very obvious: the enthusiasm for spot trading can no longer fully represent the entire market, and more and more funds are starting to shift towards various contracts, options, and structured products. This kind of thing boils down to one word—leverage. How enjoyable leverage is largely depends on whether the underlying data is strong enough. From the beginning, APRO has not concealed its preference for the contract track. If you look at its supported asset list and cooperation list, it is clearly tilted towards perpetual, options, and leveraged agreements.
The reason is also understandable: the contract business has the highest requirements for price feeding accuracy, delay, and stability, and the willingness to pay for high-quality data is also the strongest. This is similar to the logic in traditional finance where the 'derivatives department is always the profit center of the exchange.' Concentrating resources in this 'home court' may sacrifice some general market narratives in the short term—after all, for many newcomers only involved in spot trading, whether the oracle is high-frequency or multi-source aggregated is not so strongly perceived. But from a long-term perspective, this is equivalent to locking in a 'high-value user group': those old players who have been rolling in the contract market, their sensitivity to good and bad data is higher than anyone else, and they are more willing to provide feedback with real money.
Looking at APRO's on-chain revenue composition now, a significant portion already comes from these leveraged protocols. As the overall size of the contract market continues to expand, it will naturally rise along with it. The market value is currently in an awkward yet comfortable stage of 'there's room to go up and there's support below'—attracting medium to long-term funds that value growth, while not easily being pierced by a few large orders. For someone like me, who can easily get rattled by short-term fluctuations, this state makes it easier to hold on.
Of course, putting all your eggs in one basket also means taking on the corresponding industry risks. If future regulations tighten the on-chain leverage market and user preferences shift significantly, APRO cannot remain unaffected. However, based on the current development trajectory, as long as humanity has not collectively quit the addiction to 'leveraging', the infrastructure related to contracts is unlikely to become obsolete. Instead of chasing narratives about the metaverse today, AI tomorrow, and RWA the day after, I would prefer to watch these products that have been honed around the demand for honest trading grow little by little.
