Stix Case Study

Results

Stix has achieved significant milestones in the crypto secondaries market:

• $4.6B in deal book size
• $200M+ in historical volume
• 1000s of clients served
• Used by industry titans like Eigen Layer, Blast, LayerZero, Berachain, Scroll, Athena, Sei, Celestia, zkSync, and Aleo

Here's their last round announcement on the founder's Twitter: Taran's Tweet and Crunchbase entry

Introduction

Stix is solving one of the most critical challenges in the digital asset ecosystem: creating liquidity. At its core, Stix provides access to privacy-centered deal-making for institutions and professional investors, transforming illiquid positions into wealth through transparent, fair, and accurate market pricing.

The platform delivers structured solutions for the full spectrum of next-generation digital asset participants: managers, investors, early adopters, family offices, venture capital firms, founders, and team members. It's a powerful tool that enables users to explore emerging opportunities and position themselves ahead of the market.

I stepped in as Creative Director to design an experience that communicates this sophisticated financial infrastructure with clarity and confidence, bridging complex functionalities with an intuitive interface that institutional clients could trust.

Context & Problem

Stix wanted to raise for a new phase and realized the gap in the market: while High Net-Worth Individuals (HNWIs) are deeply involved in crypto, there's little infrastructure connecting them with institutions and diversified funds in the secondaries space.

We began with a deep dive into the problem space and defined five main user needs:

• Onboard: Sign up smoothly as a registered investor
• Explore: Browse curated opportunities with confidence
• Trade: Invest with granular precision
• Track: their portfolio with clarity
• Grow: White gloves concierge level service for seamless allocation

Research & Strategy

We mapped the landscape, analyzing established players like Republic, CoinShares, AngelList, and newer entrants like Dizraptor, Second Lane, and Weezy. Our goal: clarity and transparency in an otherwise opaque industry.

Color differentiation was crucial. After rounds of palette studies, we landed on a dark green system — clean, fresh, and forward-looking. This palette needed to evoke boldness without overwhelming, and serve well across all touchpoints from product to web.

Brand Design

The team wanted to simplify their identity — moving from Socratix to Stix. I explored multiple typographic and symbolic directions, aiming to honor the ethos of the old while unlocking a fresh voice for the future. What emerged was a refined brand system that felt both technical and accessible.

One big focus of the brand system was to make a strong impact with a tech forward typeface, with excellent readability and lots of personality. We selected a variation of Degarism's Alliance.

Product Interface

Working closely with the product team, I bridged design and branding to create a cohesive user experience. My role involved designing and implementing:

• Custom iconography and elevation systems
• UI/UX refinements and interaction states
• Content tone and wordsmithing across the platform
• A coded, auto-generating avatar system for user profiles

A central design element in the platform was the investment opportunity cards. We designed these to evoke the tangibility and collectibility of physical trading cards, with a carefully considered information hierarchy that prioritizes critical investment details.

The cards feature subtle elevation, and depth to create a sense of physicality. It was crafted to showcase clear visual indicators of investment, historical raise status, and industry. This design direction not only enhanced usability but also reinforced the unique value proposition of each investment opportunity. We designed dozens of cards variations.

The dashboard was designed to provide powerful opportunity navigation while maintaining an clean, intuitive interface for sophisticated investors.

Analytics, on the other hand, was crafted to get a granular overview of the complexity of portfolio allocation in a nutshell.

Website Experience

The website was our chance to distill everything into one elegant interface. I worked closely with the client to bring product snippets, type, and visuals into a strong personality layer. The experience needed to feel like a digital concierge — high-touch, yet self-directed.

We designed a custom illustration set: linear in style, toy-like in tactility, and structured with a strong isometric grid.

A highlight was the liquidity section — represented as a dynamic dam system powering up as users add tokens. Branded, explanatory, and memorable.

The website needed to convey trust as this is a very niche financial product, like a digital concierge for secondaries. This spirit was infused throughout the entire website through clear action points and sophisticated visual language.

Mobile Experience

The mobile experience was carefully crafted to maintain the same level of sophistication and functionality as the desktop version, with special attention to touch interactions and legibility on smaller screens.

Reflection

Working on Stix was a fantastic journey filled with creative exploration and learning. I had the chance to experiment with new tools like Spline to bring the investment cards to life with dynamic animations and interactions. What made this project special was how we established trust and created a comfortable environment where the client felt at home throughout the design process. By guiding them with confidence and maintaining open communication, we transformed a complex financial product into something approachable and engaging. The project allowed me to push my creative boundaries while delivering a sophisticated platform that truly stands out in the fintech space.

Credits