Comparison of three DeFi Binary Options platforms
Comparison of OptionBlitz, Buffer and PRDT
OptionBlitz, Buffer and PRDT are some of the most talked about DeFi binary options platforms in the DeFi space. Other names such as “up down options,” “fixed-time trading” and “prediction markets” are also used but we will just refer to them as binary options.
All three offer slightly different features and pros/cons so lets start the analysis.
PRDT
PRDT.finance launched in fall 2021 and appears to be inspired by PancakeSwap Predictions as you can see in the two screenshots below, their interface is very similar!
In 2022 they launched their pro version but the project has been maintained poorly with critical features missing. Limited trading pairs and maturities restrict the potential of this app plus the lack of account abstraction for non-defi native users.
From a technical perspective PRDT is not actually decentralised, it uses a centralised price feed delivered by the Binance API which has risks stemming from market manipulation and on the smart contract level, owner related privileges undermine the security of trader capital.
There is no staking program available to market makers/liquidity providers and no support for gasless or 1-click trading. The lack of a serious referral program severly restricts the growth potential of this dapp.
Pros:
- Up to 90% payout for Bitcoin and Ethereum markets
- 1-minute maturities available
Cons:
- Centralised
- Only 5 crypto markets available to trade
- Max expiry 30 minutes
- No gasless trading or 1-click trading
- Poor feature set and poor trading interface.
Score: 4/10
Buffer Finance
Buffer first launched on Binance Smart Chain in December 2021, before migrating to Arbitrum in October 2022. It offers a more ‘tradey’ interface but the team has suggested a future pivot to ‘GameFi’ so we expect them to emulate Rollbit in the coming years.
Buffer is a decentralised project and offers slightly more assets than PRDT but unfortunately the price has a spread function attached which means that your win rate is severely compromised when placing these short term trades. Community feedback has resulted in a lot of traders looking elsewhere and it appears that they integrated the spread as a substitute for a robust risk management engine which is lacking.
The platform has a centralised keeper mechanism which means that user trades are relayed by their keeper before being executed. This has resulted in reports of trades being cancelled or reverted. This is disappointing because entering and exiting positions at specific times is so important with this type of trading.
There are currently only 18 assets (crypto, metals and forex) available to trade with expirations ranging from 1 minute to 4 hours and payouts from 65% to 90%.
Pros:
- Up to 90% payout for Bitcoin and Ethereum markets
- 1-minute maturities available
- Sponsored gas transactions
Cons:
- Centralised order execution
- Keeper fee and Settlement fee
- Spread function
- Limited features
Score: 6/10
OptionBlitz
OptionBlitz launched in 2023 but had been in development since 2022. It has arguably the slickest interface on the market and has a huge variety of option types, markets to trade and features which help it stand out.
When it comes to DeFi Binary Options, it is clear that OptionBlitz is king. It boasts 40+ assets to trade including crypto, metals, forex and stocks plus maturities from 2 minutes to 24 hours.
1-click and gasless trading is supported plus the app can generate a wallet inside the browser if you don’t have a wallet such as Metamask. What’s really attractive is the easy to use interface, graphical position management with chart annotations clearly labelling trade entry and exit plus stats pages for account review.
The really unique feature for OptionBlitz are its barrier and vanilla options. As of now there is no other place to trade these options and they are really easy to use. Barrer options labelled as Touch and NoTouch allow you to set a barrier price or two barriers, which must be touched or not touched. Two barriers make a boundary or corridor option. Vanilla options are really interesting too because among all the DeFi options platforms, none allow you to speculate on ultra short-term durations less than 24h. On OptionBlitz you can do this so they are really useful to combine with other trading instruments for some advanced strategies.
Some cool trader’s features include trading signals available in the left panel, live chat, multi-lang, hot assets and watchlist.
From a technical perspective, OptionBlitz has followed principles for the highest decentralisation factor possible, this is echoed by its Certik audit report with a code security score of 90.38, order execution is directly from the client with no centralised keeper involved. All prices are delivered by Pyth and there are no spreads or fees!
Pros:
- Beautiful lightweight desktop + mobile interface and rich graphical design
- Max payout for barrier options 400%
- 40+ assets to trade
- 1-click and gasless trading available
- Wide range of products, Binary, Touch, Double-Touch, No-Touch, Double-No-Touch, Vanilla options
- Up to 24h expiry
- Staking program
- Aggressive affiliate program
- No fees, no spreads
Cons:
- Max payout for Binaries is 70%
- Lowest expiration 2 minutes
Score: 9/10
