Hey 👋 we are Ishan and Sebastian, the founders of Updown.
Overview
Updown lets you trade on whether stocks, crypto, and other markets move up or down over the next 5 or 15 minutes, giving retail traders short-term directional exposure as demand shifts toward faster, capital-efficient trading.
Ask: Help acquiring crypto and retail traders, intros to market makers, and partnerships across onchain trading. Email [email protected] or DM @ishanshah25 on Telegram or @tradeupdown on X.
The problem
Same-day SPX options averaged $2.3 trillion in daily notional volume in Q2 2026. The retail traders behind that volume want something simple: trade a quick move, get a result, roll the money into the next trade. Every existing route gets in the way.
Options turn a directional bet into a pricing problem. Get the direction right and you can still lose, because the move wasn't large enough to cover the premium before expiry.
Perpetuals hand you the whole position to manage. Choose leverage, maintain collateral, time the exit. A temporary move against you triggers liquidation before the thesis plays out.
Prediction markets run longer than the trade. A view on the next 15 minutes means buying into an event that settles days later, then depending on liquidity to exit earl
Our solution
Updown is an onchain derivatives exchange for short-term directional trading, 24/7. Users take a view on stocks, crypto, and alternative assets through a simple Up or Down market, without the complexity of options or perps.
Direction is what you trade. Call it right and the contract pays, however small the move.
No position to manage. No margin, no collateral, no liquidation. The most you can lose is what you paid.
Settlement in 5 or 15 minutes. Standard contracts can be sold back any time before close, and leveraged positions settle automatically.
Trade short-term markets
Take Up or Down positions on stocks, crypto, and alternative assets, with expirations from hours to minutes and a payout based on the outcome.
Customize your leverage
Adjust your exposure to short-term price movements through our integrated leverage product, combining the simplicity of directional markets with the nonlinear upside of options.
Access markets onchain
Trade traditional and emerging assets on one onchain platform, including tokenized equities, crypto, and pre-IPO markets that conventional brokerages can't reach.
Traction
$74K
Cumulative Notional Trading Volume
279.6%
Compounded WoW Volume Growth
0
10K
20K
30K
40K
50K
60K
Sep 29
Oct 6
Oct 13
Oct 20
Vision
Retail trading is moving from buy-and-hold to short-term, accessible derivatives. As tokenization brings equities, crypto, and alternative assets onchain, Updown becomes the default place to trade short-term price movement on any of them. Anyone, anywhere, with the kind of exposure that used to require a professional desk.
Team
Ishan Shah (CEO): Top-ranked Kalshi crypto trader and market maker. Previously at Masterworks, handling finance, legal, and operations for the securitization of multimillion-dollar paintings. Trading on Kalshi and Polymarket is where he saw the gap Updown fills.
Sebastian Quintero (CTO): MIT Bachelor's and Master's in Computer Science and Economics. Previously a Quantitative Strategist at Goldman Sachs on the Electronic Trading Equities team, building execution algorithms for institutional equity trading. He has spent his career in machine learning and market microstructure, which is what short-duration trading infrastructure is built on.
