DAN ROBINSON
Leading research at the crypto firm Paradigm and co-writing the Uniswap v3 whitepaper.
Dan Robinson is the researcher other crypto researchers read. As head of research at Paradigm, he co-wrote the Uniswap v3 whitepaper and the 2020 essay Ethereum is a Dark Forest, which taught the whole industry what MEV is. He came to crypto the strange way, through Harvard Law and a New York litigation job. His edge is mechanism design, inventing new market rules like TWAMM and power perpetuals. If you want to understand how modern DeFi actually works under the hood, his essays are the syllabus.
Net Worth
Not disclosed
Time Horizon
Long-Term
Risk Appetite
7 / 10
CAREER & BACKGROUND
Started as a litigation attorney at Paul, Weiss in New York. Left law for crypto, spending about two and a half years at Chain and then Interstellar, where he worked on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Stellar projects.
Joined Paradigm in January 2019 as a research partner. Took over as head of research in July 2021.
Co-wrote the Uniswap v2 and v3 whitepapers in 2020 and 2021, plus TWAMM, power perpetuals, and gradual Dutch auctions.
COMPANIES & ROLES
Paradigm. Earlier stops at Chain and Interstellar.
INVESTING STYLE & PHILOSOPHY
Research is the edge. Robinson does not chase hype.
He studies how markets and protocols work at a deep level, publishes the findings for free, and Paradigm invests behind the ideas. He is drawn to elegant mechanism design, the kind of rule that keeps working without anyone stepping in to manage it.
THE PLAYBOOK
Risk Approach
Measured for a crypto native. His bets are designs, not day trades.
Robinson favors what he calls hardened protocols, systems built so no human has to make a judgment call later. He joined Paradigm partly because the firm takes a long view and funds basic research instead of quick wins.
Money Habits
This one is not public. Robinson does not talk about personal spending.
What he does talk about is keeping systems simple and hands-off, so no one has to step in once the rules are set.
BIGGEST WIN
Uniswap v3. He co-wrote the 2021 whitepaper for the concentrated-liquidity design that reshaped how automated exchanges work.
His 2020 essay Ethereum is a Dark Forest is the other one, the piece that put MEV on everyone's radar.
BIGGEST MISTAKE
He has not publicly named a big regret, and as a researcher his work is open essays rather than personal trades. The closest thing to a knock is the ongoing debate over whether Uniswap v3, which he co-designed in 2021, got too complex for casual users.
FINANCIAL PHILOSOPHY
Remove the decision. Robinson argues the best protocol is one where there just is not a decision to make, because discretion is where things break.
Design the rules well up front, make them hands-off, and let the market run. To him theory and building are the same job.
FAMILY & PERSONAL LIFE
Not publicly known. Robinson keeps his personal life off the record.
EDUCATION
Harvard University for his undergraduate degree, then a law degree from Harvard Law School.
BOOKS & RESOURCES
No book
His work lives in free essays and whitepapers. Start with Ethereum is a Dark Forest from 2020, then the Uniswap v3 whitepaper. TWAMM and Everything Is a Perp are for the deeper end
QUOTES (6)
If the chain itself is a battleground, the mempool is something worse: a dark forest.
In the Ethereum mempool, these apex predators take the form of arbitrage bots.
I am excited to announce that I am joining Paradigm as a Research Partner, to help Matt Huang, Fred Ehrsam, and Charlie Noyes build a new kind of investment firm.
NETFIGO SCORE
Proprietary 5-dimension investor rating
Risk Appetite
Contrarian Index
Track Record
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