How HFT Veterans Rethink Blockchain Performance

Altius CEO Annabelle Huang joined Rachit on Touch Grass to explain how a team drawn from high-frequency trading approaches blockchain performance. She traces the two bottlenecks she has chased across her career, liquidity (her focus at Amber Group) and infrastructure (the focus of Altius), and why quant training translates so directly: on an HFT desk every nanosecond maps to profit, which builds relentless optimization instincts. She breaks down where blockchains actually slow down, database I/O and transaction scheduling, and how parallel execution addresses both. On performance, she pushes back on comparing chains by TPS alone, arguing the right measure depends on the use case, and describes a hybrid model pairing an ultra-fast trading environment with a compliant settlement layer. She is explicit that Altius never intended to launch its own chain: it is built to be modular, powering existing ecosystems or helping enterprises stand up their own sovereign infrastructure.

Annabelle Huang appeared on Touch Grass. Listen to the full episode →

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4kZzXNvuSo