Scaling a Zero-Latency Trading Platform to $10M+ Profit in 12 months.
The Solana meme coin market was polarised. On one extreme was pump.fun—hyper-viral but plagued by regulatory risk. On the other were traditional aggregators—safe, but too slow for 100x moves. My role was to architect a terminal for the "Professional Degen": the trader who demands bot-speed execution with institutional stability.
The Market Gap
There was no home for the "Professional Degen"—the trader who demands the raw speed of a bot but the stability of a legitimate platform.
Safety vs. Speed
pump.fun offered viral speed but regulatory risk. Traditional aggregators were safe but too slow for 100x moves. We needed to close this gap.
Dual-Stakeholder Alignment
Harmonizing strategic priorities between a regulated fintech (MoonPay) and a data-heavy aggregator (DexScreener), each with distinct timelines and success metrics.
Zero Foundation
No existing design system, brand identity, or patterns. Moonit required a complete visual language and product DNA while sprinting toward launch.
The Credibility Gap
The platform needed to feel "native" to crypto-degenerates while maintaining the institutional trust of the MoonPay parent brand.
The Strategy: Achieving "Bot-Parity" Execution
In this market, profit and loss are defined in milliseconds. My primary design KPI was Time-to-Trade. We hypothesized that the standard pattern (Browse → Click → Details Page → Buy) was a primary friction point.
The "Pro Mode" Architecture
Direct Injection (Zero-Nav): Implemented "Quick Buy" inputs directly on index cards. Users can qualify and execute a trade without ever loading a secondary page—reducing interaction cost from 4 clicks to 1.
Session Mode: Designed a flow where users sign once to unlock a 1-hour trading window, eliminating the intrusive wallet pop-ups that break flow during high-volatility moments.
Signal Density: Curated data hierarchy to surface only execution-critical metrics (Liquidity, Market Cap, Volume), filtering out vanity metrics to support split-second decisions.
The "Pro-Degen" Visual Identity
Adopted a "Space Terminal" aesthetic—dark modes, monospace data density, and neon signal colors to match the mental model of a high-frequency trading desk.
Enforced rigid grid systems and explicit error handling to signal that while assets might be volatile, the infrastructure was solid.
Built a flexible design system that worked equally well on high-density trading dashboards and viral social marketing assets.
Department of One
Ownership of the full vertical: Product Strategy → UI/UX → Animation → Marketing. Ruthlessly prioritized "must-have" flows over "nice-to-haves" to meet aggressive profit targets.
Cross-Entity Alignment
Acted as the translation layer between MoonPay's corporate requirements and DexScreener's agile, data-first culture, delivering a unified product vision that satisfied both commercial entities.
Impact
Bot-Parity Achieved
The "Pro Mode" architecture reduced Time-to-Trade to under 2 seconds, matching the speed of automated trading bots.
Power User Retention
Successfully captured the "Professional Degen" segment exiting pump.fun for a more stable, regulated environment.
Brand Elasticity
Created a visual language that successfully bridged the gap between "Corporate Fintech" and "Crypto Native" audiences.