Guest: Lynn Nguyen, CEO of Saros

Interview: momo, ChainCatcher

The decentralized exchange Saros in the Solana ecosystem has been very active recently. The platform announced the launch of a long-term token buyback plan, with an initial investment of $38 million to purchase 100 million SAROS tokens, which directly drove its token price to a monthly increase of over 70%. Meanwhile, Saros welcomed its new CEO Lynn Nguyen, an operations expert who has previously worked at well-known trading platforms such as Alameda, FTX US, and Cube Exchange, bringing rich operational and liquidity management experience to the platform.

As a project incubated by the Vietnamese cryptocurrency platform Coin98, Saros has previously secured $3.75 million in private funding from institutions like Solana Ventures and Hashed. The platform's core innovation lies in its Dynamic Liquidity Market Maker (DLMM) protocol, which allows liquidity providers to customize price ranges, thereby improving capital efficiency and reducing impermanent loss compared to traditional Automated Market Makers (AMM).

Recent data shows that Saros is maintaining a good development momentum. The platform's cumulative trading volume has surpassed $300 million, and the market capitalization of its token SAROS has risen from $30 million at the beginning of the year to over $400 million.

In an exclusive interview with ChainCatcher, Lynn Nguyen revealed that this is just the beginning of Saros's long-term value building—20% of the protocol's revenue will continue to be used for buybacks, and the token will be deeply integrated into core scenarios such as ecological governance and user incentives. In the fiercely competitive landscape of Solana's DEX, Saros is exploring a differentiated development path through technological innovation and a "builder-first" development philosophy.

How does the DLMM protocol differ from traditional AMM mechanisms?

1. ChainCatcher: Please introduce yourself first. What significant industry experiences did you have before joining Saros? What motivated you to become the CEO of Saros?

Lynn Nguyen: I hold a master's degree in finance, and my early career began in traditional finance, working for hedge funds and wealth management companies. In 2019, I started to find traditional finance work tedious, so I began researching Bitcoin and Ethereum and started investing.

I officially entered the crypto industry by joining FalconX when the crypto ecosystem was still immature, mainly focused on trading and settlement.

After that, I joined Alameda in an operations role and then became the head of settlement at FTX US. After the major incident at FTX in 2022, I took a break and then joined Cube Exchange as Chief Operating Officer.

During my time at Cube Exchange, I helped the company raise funds and led the establishment of almost all departments, increasing Cube's daily trading volume from zero to between $5 million and $15 million.

I recently joined Saros as CEO, which excites me. I chose to join Saros partly because I see the enormous potential of DeFi, which is growing larger and more efficient. On the other hand, I have known many core members of the Saros team for years, and we have built a deep trust and understanding. Saros has very rich resources, which is rare in the industry. I look forward to exploring and growing in this field by joining Saros.

2. ChainCatcher: What is the background of the core team members at Saros? Where are they mainly located?

Lynn Nguyen: We currently have a team of about nine people, distributed across Asia and North America, including many experienced professionals and entrepreneurs. The founding team members have a very strong background in the crypto industry and DeFi field.

3. ChainCatcher: Can you share the founding intention or project vision of Saros? What market pain points does it aim to address?

Lynn Nguyen: Our goal is clear; we want to build a long-term decentralized exchange on Solana, creating a more robust liquidity system to help ecological builders achieve long-term sustainable development.

An industry consensus is that issuing tokens is not easy, and maintaining token value is even more challenging—issues like liquidity depletion, market hotspots shifting, and large holders selling off can make it difficult for projects to survive. While we cannot solve all problems, we are committed to helping project parties achieve long-term development.

For this reason, we are shifting our focus to builders who want to issue tokens and maintain their long-term healthy development. Through the DLMM liquidity solution, practical guidance, and upcoming system integration services, we provide project teams with liquidity visualization monitoring, LP risk control mechanisms, and smoother paths for scaling.

4. ChainCatcher: Saros has launched an AMM product based on the DLMM protocol on Solana. What is this DLMM protocol? What are its characteristics compared to traditional AMM?

Lynn Nguyen: Let me explain the AMM (Automated Market Maker) model with a simple example. Imagine you and a friend have a toy box containing 10 toy cars and 10 dolls. The fewer toys there are, the more valuable they become. For example, initially, 1 toy car can be exchanged for 1 doll. But if the dolls become fewer, and only 1 is left, it might take 5 toy cars to exchange for that 1 doll. This is AMM, which uses a fixed mathematical rule to automatically increase the price of scarce toys and decrease the price of abundant toys.

However, DLMM (Dynamic Liquidity Market Maker) optimizes this trading rule. It's still the same toy box, but this time you can set your own trading conditions. For example, you might say, "I will only trade if someone uses 2 to 4 toy cars to exchange for a doll." This way, your doll won't be exchanged for too low a price, and you can control the trade more flexibly, improving capital utilization efficiency.

In summary, the drawback of traditional AMM is that its capital utilization efficiency is not as high as that of an exchange's order book model, leading to lower returns for traders and market makers. DLMM addresses this issue by allowing users to set their own trading price ranges, making operations more flexible.

5. ChainCatcher: Compared to leading protocols in the Solana ecosystem, such as Raydium and Meteora, what unique differences and competitive advantages does Saros's AMM have?

Lynn Nguyen: Our main difference currently lies in the actual support for developers, and specific plans are currently confidential. But it is clear that we have long abandoned the fantasy of being an "all-in-one super application"—because without market share support, a large and comprehensive model is destined to fail.

The true path to success is to first focus on excelling in one area and then gradually expand. This is precisely why we fully support developers, helping them focus on long-term development and achieve sustainable growth.

After launching the buyback, Saros's three strategic focuses

6. ChainCatcher: The SAROS token recently saw a monthly increase of over 70%. Is this upward trend primarily driven by Saros's buyback plan for 100 million tokens (valued at approximately $38 million)? Additionally, what are the core application scenarios for the SAROS token within the ecosystem?

Lynn Nguyen: Besides the buyback plan, the team has been diligently refining the product.

In fact, we have been planning the buyback for a long time. Moving forward, we will allocate up to 20% of the protocol's revenue for quarterly token buybacks. But the buyback is just a start; our larger goal is to make the SAROS token a true carrier of ecological value—not only reflected in price but also in actual applications.

In the future, the SAROS token will be deeply integrated into the entire ecosystem, serving as the core of the reward mechanism, a certificate for user participation, and gradually expanding into more scenarios such as incentive mechanisms and community governance. This will create a continuously appreciating closed loop.

7. ChainCatcher: What are Saros's key roadmap or strategic goals moving forward?

Lynn Nguyen: The development roadmap for the token is still being adjusted. At this stage, we are mainly focused on three things: first, refining existing products to ensure the stability of basic functions; second, continuously optimizing user experience; and third, actively connecting with developers and various projects to introduce real business needs. These are all foundational tasks, and we will discuss longer-term development once we are well-prepared.

8. ChainCatcher: In the next 3-5 years, what key development trends do you foresee in the DeFi space? What role will Saros play in the Solana ecosystem and the broader chain ecosystem?

Lynn Nguyen: The cryptocurrency industry can change significantly in just six months, let alone in 3 or 5 years.

Recently, I am most concerned with how to make crypto trading fairer, more open, and more efficient. We want to create a truly democratized system where token issuance and trading are no longer monopolized by a few but allow more people to participate effectively, eliminating excessive profit extraction.

We will explore ways to protect ordinary users through technological means, allowing trading mechanisms like DLMM to play a greater role, truly achieving a balance between fairness and efficiency.

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