PaperTrade Attracted $140M, Then Changed the Rules. Was It a Bait and Switch?
Unchained | Oct 23 2026 | 00:32:44
Traders tried to lose money fast to earn PAPER. Now the token may never be transferable, and one tracker shows staking revenue fell 93% in a day.
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PaperTrade drew $140 million in pre-deposits and for one day flipped Nasdaq's daily notional volume by letting traders take up to 1,000x leverage against the house, with a PAPER token as the rebate for losing. Then the team announced it no longer plans to make PAPER transferable.
Jason Pagoulatos, Head of Markets at Delphi Research, joins Laura Shin to unpack how the protocol works and why the reversal landed so badly. He walks through the house pool that pays winners from losers' margin, the launch-day trader who pushed ETH around on Hyperliquid to move PaperTrade's price feed, and why a transferable PAPER would invite a larger attack.
Pagoulatos says the team's reasoning holds up but calls the change a bait and switch for everyone who deposited under the original rules. With one tracker showing staking revenue down 93% in a day, the conversation ends on what makes any token worth holding: a business that would work without it.
Host:
Laura Shin, Host / Unchained
Guest:
Jason Pagoulatos - Head of Markets at Delphi Research
Timestamps
🎬 00:00 Intro
⚡ 02:01 What PaperTrade is and why it briefly flipped Nasdaq's daily volume
🎰 06:46 How PaperTrade's house pool pays winners and mints PAPER for losers
🚀 10:32 Launch week: $140M in pre-deposits and a price-feed play on day one
💰 15:12 Nexo: Generate daily interest on your crypto or borrow funds against your assets at https://unchainedcrypto.com/go/nexo-podcast-yt
🔒 15:59 Why promise transferability if the risk was already in the docs?
🔄 17:31 Why PaperTrade shelved plans to make PAPER transferable
📉 24:07 Is PaperTrade over after a 93% one-day drop in staking revenue?
🧱 27:52 Why Jason says tokens should be judged like equity in a real business
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
========================================================
Thank you to our sponsor!
Put your crypto to work with Nexo: earn daily interest or borrow funds against your assets on one platform trusted by more than 10 million clients.
Find out more at https://unchainedcrypto.com/go/nexo-podcast-sn.
Geo-restrictions, eligibility and terms apply.
========================================================
Quick favor: We're deciding what Unchained does next; new shows, stream times, what's worth paying for. Our listener survey takes five minutes, it's anonymous, and I read the write-in answers myself. Everyone who takes it can enter a drawing for a free year of Unchained Premium or Bits + Bips Premium. Open through Sunday, October 18.
— Laura
========================================================
PaperTrade drew $140 million in pre-deposits and for one day flipped Nasdaq's daily notional volume by letting traders take up to 1,000x leverage against the house, with a PAPER token as the rebate for losing. Then the team announced it no longer plans to make PAPER transferable.
Jason Pagoulatos, Head of Markets at Delphi Research, joins Laura Shin to unpack how the protocol works and why the reversal landed so badly. He walks through the house pool that pays winners from losers' margin, the launch-day trader who pushed ETH around on Hyperliquid to move PaperTrade's price feed, and why a transferable PAPER would invite a larger attack.
Pagoulatos says the team's reasoning holds up but calls the change a bait and switch for everyone who deposited under the original rules. With one tracker showing staking revenue down 93% in a day, the conversation ends on what makes any token worth holding: a business that would work without it.
Host:
Laura Shin, Host / Unchained
Guest:
Jason Pagoulatos - Head of Markets at Delphi Research
Timestamps
🎬 00:00 Intro
⚡ 02:01 What PaperTrade is and why it briefly flipped Nasdaq's daily volume
🎰 06:46 How PaperTrade's house pool pays winners and mints PAPER for losers
🚀 10:32 Launch week: $140M in pre-deposits and a price-feed play on day one
💰 15:12 Nexo: Generate daily interest on your crypto or borrow funds against your assets at https://unchainedcrypto.com/go/nexo-podcast-yt
🔒 15:59 Why promise transferability if the risk was already in the docs?
🔄 17:31 Why PaperTrade shelved plans to make PAPER transferable
📉 24:07 Is PaperTrade over after a 93% one-day drop in staking revenue?
🧱 27:52 Why Jason says tokens should be judged like equity in a real business
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices