DEX by DEX, part 5 — Aevo: the options vault, a different animal
Aevo's vaults aren't about following a trader or being the perp house — they sell options to earn premium. That's a third category, and it comes with a hidden shape: short convexity. Smooth income, until it isn't.
So far this series has found two models: follow a trader (rare) and be the house (everywhere). Aevo introduces a third. Aevo is a DeFi options and structured-products venue, and its vaults do something neither of the others does: they sell options to collect premium.
What an options vault actually does
The classic strategy — a "DeFi option vault" — sells covered calls or cash-secured puts on assets like ETH and BTC, pocketing the premium buyers pay. In calm or gently rising markets, it drips steady income, and the APY looks lovely. You are, in effect, selling insurance.
The hidden shape: short convexity
And selling insurance has a shape. An options-selling vault is short convexity: you earn a small, steady premium most of the time, but take an outsized loss when the market makes a big move — exactly when the insurance you sold pays out. It's the smooth-line-until-it-isn't payoff, the same fragile profile that flatters a track record right up until the tail event. The headline yield is the premium; the risk is in the rare, violent move it doesn't show you.
How it compares to Hyperliquid
This isn't really a competitor to Hyperliquid's vaults — it's a different product for a different goal (structured options income vs. backing a perp trader). Think of it as a complement: a yield source, if you genuinely understand that you're selling volatility and accept the tail. What carries over is the discipline: judge it by its worst window, not its calm average, and never let a high "options APY" stand in for a real risk read.
The verdict
Aevo's options vaults are a legitimate, sophisticated yield tool — for people who know they're short convexity and have sized for the day the market gaps. If you don't know what that sentence means, that is itself the answer: it's not the vault for you yet.
← Part 4: Jupiter's JLP | Part 6: Aster & the copy-trading frontier →
Nothing here is financial advice.