Julian Koh, co-founder and CEO of Aevo, has driven the decentralized derivatives exchange to process over $100 billion in trading volume. Aevo, built on the OP Stack, emerged from the rebranding and restructuring of Ribbon Finance in 2023 to compete more directly with centralized platforms.
Career Path and Early Ventures
Koh grew up in Malaysia and Singapore before attending Cornell University to study computer science. He left Cornell after two years to focus on cryptocurrency research. During a gap year, Koh worked part-time at Numerai, a San Francisco-based firm that uses crowdsourced machine learning for market trading. This experience introduced him to quantitative modeling applied to financial markets.
Following Numerai, he joined Metastable Capital as a consultant tracking crypto market trends. Later, Koh worked as a software engineer at Coinbase, focusing on crypto integrations, custody solutions, and staking infrastructure. His time at Coinbase also involved collaborating on side projects with Ken Chan, a fellow former engineer.
Building Ribbon Finance and Transition to Aevo
In November 2020, Koh and Chan co-founded Ribbon Finance, launching decentralized options vaults (DOVs) that allowed users to generate yield by selling call or put options on crypto assets. Ribbon Earn was their flagship product, combining options selling with fixed income strategies to stabilize returns. The protocol peaked with over $300 million in total value locked and secured $75 million in a Series B round led by Paradigm in March 2022, following an $8.75 million Series A the previous year.
In July 2023, Ribbon Finance transitioned into Aevo after a community vote. Aevo operates as a Layer 2 order-book exchange offering options and perpetual futures. Token holders of Ribbon’s RBN received a 1:1 swap for AEVO tokens. Since then, Aevo has surpassed $100 billion in cumulative trading volume, reflecting rapid adoption. The platform continued to expand trading incentives into 2026, including a rewards program distributing one million tokens.
Koh also invested in over 40 early-stage crypto startups and various venture funds throughout his career, maintaining a focus on building and supporting crypto innovation rather than pursuing traditional finance paths.
