Bio
James Davies is a derivatives-market veteran and crypto entrepreneur best known for co-founding Crypto Valley Exchange (CVEX), a decentralized derivatives project designed around futures, options, portfolio margining and traditional-style clearing concepts. His career spans decades across conventional derivatives markets and financial-market infrastructure before moving into blockchain-based derivatives. CVEX later rebranded to Jetstream, with the platform now live and trading crypto futures at jetstream.trade. Davies' current professional profile identifies him as Co-Founder & CEO of Jetstream, and he is also building DCN — Derivatives Clearing Network, a credit-intermediation infrastructure project for tokenized derivatives markets launched in November 2025.
About James Davies
James Davies' career traces a path from physics and traditional derivatives-market infrastructure into crypto derivatives and onchain clearing. He began his career in listed derivatives during the expansion of futures and options trading in London, working on interest-rate and other derivatives products. His professional background includes senior roles at major financial-market and technology companies including Trayport (electronic trading and derivatives infrastructure) and Cantor Fitzgerald (derivatives and brokerage). He has also served as an advisor to ICDX, a metals exchange based in Jakarta, since May 2016.
Before entering crypto, Davies worked extensively on exchange technology, clearing systems and derivatives market structure. His transition into blockchain began with Tacans, a Web3-focused venture builder, where he served as Chief Product Officer and co-founded Tacan Labs. This led to the founding of Crypto Valley Exchange (CVEX), which later rebranded to Jetstream. He is also identified as the founder of DCN — Derivatives Clearing Network, his newest venture focused on clearing infrastructure for tokenized derivatives.
Education
James Davies studied Physics at the University of Southampton. His professional profile lists the University of Southampton as his academic institution. Exact degree classification (BSc vs MPhys) and graduation details should be verified directly through official records; this profile uses the conservative description “Studied Physics at the University of Southampton” rather than guessing the precise degree title.
Traditional Derivatives Markets
Davies built his career in traditional derivatives markets, working on futures, options, interest-rate products, commodities and clearing infrastructure. His experience spans electronic trading technology, exchange infrastructure and the post-trade risk-management systems that underpin institutional derivatives markets. This background gave him deep expertise in how central clearing, margining and default management work in conventional financial markets — expertise he has since applied to decentralized derivatives architecture.
Trayport
Davies held a role at Trayport, a leading provider of trading and technology infrastructure for European energy and commodity markets. Trayport's platform is widely used for electronic trading of derivatives and energy products. At Trayport, Davies gained experience with electronic trading systems, derivatives infrastructure and the technology that connects market participants to exchanges and clearing houses. This profile does not attribute Trayport's platform technology solely to Davies; his specific contributions were within the broader context of the company's product and market infrastructure work.
Cantor Fitzgerald
Davies' professional history includes work at Cantor Fitzgerald, a major financial-services firm with operations in fixed income, equities, derivatives and brokerage. His work at Cantor Fitzgerald involved derivatives and electronic trading market structure. The firm is known for its role in inter-dealer brokerage and capital markets. Specific title and product-area details should be verified through official company records.
Clearing and Market Structure
Several concepts central to Davies' career are essential for understanding his crypto work. Central clearing uses a clearing house as the counterparty to both sides of a trade, reducing counterparty risk. Initial margin is the collateral required to open a position; variation margin reflects daily mark-to-market gains and losses. Portfolio margin recognizes offsets between correlated positions, reducing total collateral requirements. Default funds and netting are risk-management tools that clearing houses use to manage member defaults. These concepts matter for crypto derivatives because many existing platforms rely on simpler risk models, auto-deleveraging and socialized-loss mechanisms rather than the full clearing architecture used in traditional markets.
Socialized Losses in Crypto Derivatives
Socialized losses occur when a derivatives exchange cannot cover the losses of a defaulted position using its insurance fund, and instead spreads the shortfall across profitable traders. This can happen during extreme market moves when liquidations fail to execute at prices that cover the defaulted position's losses. Crypto derivatives platforms commonly use insurance funds and auto-deleveraging (ADL) mechanisms to manage this risk. Davies' professional branding prominently emphasizes “Clearing without socialised losses,” reflecting his thesis that better clearing and risk architecture — borrowed from traditional derivatives markets — can reduce reliance on socialized-loss mechanisms. This thesis is attributed to Davies and the Jetstream/DCN project; it is not presented as universally proven.
Perpetual Futures Critique
Davies has been a vocal critic of aspects of conventional crypto perpetual-futures design. Industry reporting describes him as arguing that many crypto perpetual products repeat weaknesses in an earlier futures design he worked on around 2013. Davies is described as a derivatives veteran who helped design the original perpetual concept and later became a critic of its implementation. His criticisms focus on funding-rate mechanisms, potential for manipulation, retail risk exposure and market-structure weaknesses in perpetual contracts. These criticisms should be understood as Davies' arguments about market structure, not as established regulatory findings.
DCN — Derivatives Clearing Network
Davies' current professional profile identifies him as founder of DCN — Derivatives Clearing Network, a venture he started in November 2025. DCN is described as building “credit intermediation infrastructure for tokenized derivatives markets.” This appears to be Davies' newest venture, focused on the clearing and credit-intermediation layer for tokenized derivatives. The relationship between DCN and Jetstream is that of complementary infrastructure: Jetstream is the trading platform, while DCN focuses on the clearing and credit-intermediation layer. Users should consult DCN's official sources for current product status and architecture details.
Tacans
Davies served as Chief Product Officer at Tacans from 2021 to 2024, and is also listed as Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer of Tacan Labs from 2022 to 2024. Tacans is described as a Web3-focused venture builder working on trading applications and smart-contract-based products. The distinction between Tacans and Tacan Labs reflects the venture-builder's organizational structure; this profile treats them as related but distinct entities within the same venture-building framework. Davies' work at Tacans involved product development for DeFi and trading applications, which led toward the founding of Crypto Valley Exchange. Not every Tacans venture should be attributed personally to Davies.
Founding Crypto Valley Exchange
Davies co-founded Crypto Valley Exchange (CVEX), a decentralized derivatives exchange focused on futures, options, portfolio margining and onchain clearing. The project was designed to bring traditional derivatives-market principles — including central clearing, portfolio margin and professional risk management — into the decentralized-finance ecosystem. CVEX announced a $7 million funding round in 2024 to launch what it described as a capital-efficient digital-asset derivatives trading platform. The project initially planned to launch on Arbitrum Stylus, with a mainnet target date of January 2025.
Other CVEX Founders and Leaders
Crypto Valley Exchange was co-founded by a team that includes Mathias Lundoe Nielsen, who has been identified in various sources as CEO and in other sources in different executive capacities. Messari's listing identified Nielsen as CEO and Davies as Co-Founder & CPO, while a November 2024 CoinDesk report identified Davies as co-founder and CEO. Davies' current professional profile resolves this by listing him as Co-Founder & CEO of Jetstream (the rebranded entity). This profile does not erase co-founders or other executives; the executive structure may have evolved during the rebrand.
Why James Davies Matters in Crypto
James Davies' relevance in the crypto ecosystem stems from his unusual background: he entered crypto after extensive experience with conventional derivatives-market infrastructure. His work attempts to apply established clearing and portfolio-risk concepts — central clearing, portfolio margin, Value-at-Risk, default management — to decentralized markets. He is not the inventor of crypto derivatives, futures, clearing, or perpetual futures, nor the founder of DeFi. His contribution is in translating traditional derivatives-market principles into onchain architecture, advocating for better risk management in crypto derivatives, and building infrastructure (Jetstream and DCN) that brings professional-grade clearing concepts to decentralized markets.
Profile at a glance
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Status
- Active
