Stop Building Perp Apps for Normies
After over a decade, perpetual trading has emerged as one of crypto's clearest product-market fits. And because of this, a surge of builders have started racing to create the perpetual trading app that finally onboards the masses. Everyone wants to build the perp app for "normies."
But I think this entire framing is misguided.
What is a "normie"?
Within crypto, a normie is simply someone who isn't familiar with crypto. Whether it's the average TikTok user, Uber driver, gamer, or quantum engineer, if they're not in crypto, they're a "normie." Granted, this frame of thinking is true for many internet-based niches, but crypto has an interesting relationship with normies.
Every industry wants to bring new people in, but crypto has always had a particular urgency around this. I think it stems from the 2017 and 2020-2021 bull markets, where massive influxes of new participants created easy money-making conditions for existing players. During those periods, normies were essentially "dumb money." This subconscious association has lingered, where we constantly equate normies with a lack of intelligence or critical thinking. While this may be true for their trading skillset, we often let it blanket the person as a whole.
And this shows up in the products being built.
Simplified UI misses the point
These "normie-friendly" perp apps share common traits: large text, few buttons, minimal information. The philosophy is clear — don't overwhelm the user. But this approach fails on two fronts:
1. Normies won't suddenly start leveraged trading because the UI is simple.
Would someone who has little to no interest in trading suddenly get into leveraged perpetual trading because the interface isn't overwhelming? Does hiding the orderbook and stripping out data actually make them feel more comfortable taking on leverage? Of course not. A cleaner UI doesn't change the fundamental nature of what they're signing up for.
2. People actually interested in perps want more control, not less.
Think about the persona of someone looking to get into perpetual trading. What are they after? Access to more tools. More data. More control over their trades. An overly simplified UI strips them of exactly what they came for. If they wanted simple, they'd just buy spot on Robinhood.
The Robinhood misconception
Builders often point to Robinhood as proof that sleek, simple UI onboards the masses. They look at Robinhood's history and think: "Simple UI attracted new traders to the market. Let's copy the playbook."
But this fundamentally misunderstands what Robinhood actually did.
Robinhood's simple UI worked because of what they were selling — traditional investing. Buy some Apple. Hold an index fund. The product felt safe, approachable, and low-stakes. When a normie uses Robinhood, the low-entropy UI makes them feel like they're making responsible financial decisions, not gambling. The UI matched the product's positioning.
A perp exchange is fundamentally different. You're selling leveraged trading. No amount of UI simplification changes what the product actually is. A normie isn't going to feel safe opening a 10x long just because there are fewer buttons on the screen. The product itself is inherently high-risk, and no interface can hide that.
"But what about the WSB options traders on Robinhood?"
This is the obvious counter-argument. People were trading options on margin on Robinhood and seemed comfortable doing so. Why can't a simple perp app do the same?
Because that was a moment, not a foundation.
The 2020-2021 WSB era brought a wave of retail traders into options and margin trading on Robinhood. GME, AMC, meme stocks, YOLOs, it was all a cultural phenomenon. And yes, Robinhood's simple UI made it easy for those users to access risky products.
But those users didn't stick around. They either blew up their accounts, matured into more serious traders who moved to platforms with real tools, or quit trading entirely. The WSB crowd was a spike, not a sustainable user base.
Robinhood survived because that wasn't their core user. Their foundation was always the passive investor, the person buying AAPL, SPY, and holding. If Robinhood had built exclusively around the degen options crowd, they'd be in serious trouble. And we can see evidence of this in how that community has declined since the peak.
Why this doesn't translate to perps:
Robinhood had a fallback audience. When the degen wave receded, they still had millions of users who just wanted to buy and hold stocks. Perp exchanges don't have that luxury.
There's no "casual perp trader" who just wants to passively hold a leveraged position the way someone holds an index fund. The product doesn't allow for it. You're building entirely for an audience that will either outgrow your simplified platform or blow up trying. Either way, they're gone.
What actually attracts people to perps
If the goal is to make normies interested in perpetual trading, we have to ask ourselves: what makes perpetual trading interesting to us?
For most of us, it's the accessibility to a wider variety of tools and information. Orderbook flow. Funding rates. Liquidation levels. These give us the feeling of being informed and in control.
Casinos understand this well. Roulette tables display data about previous spins to make players feel like they're making educated decisions rather than pure gambles. While I believe trading data like orderbook flow offers genuinely more valuable information than historic roulette spins, they serve the same psychological purpose: empowerment.
By stripping all of this away in the name of "simplicity," you eliminate what actually attracts people to perp trading in the first place.
You're also alienating existing traders
Here's the other problem: these new platforms are completely ignoring the existing userbase that actively trades perpetuals.
Why would someone who's used to seeing the orderbook, candlestick charts, recent trades, and funding data transition to an app that feels like it was made for someone who just bought their first phone?
A user who gets into perpetual trading inherently does not want a simple UI. The whole reason they got into perps is to have more control over their trading. No one stumbles into perpetual trading by accident, and if they do they likely won't stick around long. You're better off focusing on those actively seeking it out.
The bottom line
The framing of "building for normies" is broken from the start. It assumes a static persona; someone who needs to be coddled with a simple UI and will stay that way forever. But that's not how traders work.
- Normies will not trust or use a perpetual exchange just because it has a simple UI. The product itself is inherently intimidating and no interface changes that.
- Someone who actually wants to get into perpetual trading does not want a simple UI. They're seeking perps specifically for more control and tools.
- The Robinhood playbook doesn't apply. They had passive investors to fall back on. You don't.
A normie perp exchange is simply an oxymoron.
Build for the competence ramp
The real opportunity isn't in dumbing down perps, it's in building the pathway to perps.
Give users a progression: start with spot, move to limited-risk instruments like low-leverage ETFs or dated futures, and only then graduate to perpetuals. Each step up unlocks more tools, more data, more control, but also comes with appropriate safeguards. Auto-liquidation warnings. Position-size caps. Socialized-loss dashboards. Transparent risk at every layer.
Don't build for a static persona. Build for the journey.