High-Stakes Trading Automation Platform
We wanted to build a trading bot platform for a specific kind of user - people with disposable crypto who understood the risks, weren't chasing moonshots, and just wanted their money to work steadily in the background.
Processed high-volume trades
Handled ~R80m ($4.3m) AUM and generated ~R10m ($500k) in profit in 35 days.
Strong execution performance
At peak, contributed to ~20% of Solana trade volume on Bybit in December 2024.
Tech validated under pressure
Execution engine, risk logic, and monitoring proved reliable even during extreme volatility.
Approach
Co-founded the venture and built the entire trading automation engine myself in Laravel (PHP) with MySQL, deployed on Laravel Forge. Designed execution pipelines, risk controls, monitoring, and safety mechanisms. Iterated quickly in real markets, integrating multiple exchanges and handling high-frequency bursts.
Outcome
Within 35 days, the system handled ~R80m ($4.3m) AUM and generated ~R10m ($500k) in profit. The platform achieved significant execution throughput, including contributing to ~20% of Solana's daily trade volume on Bybit in December 2024. The tech worked - but we mismanaged risk, let emotions take over, and didn't gel as a team.
The vision
We always knew we wanted to build a trading bot platform. Not for people chasing 10X-100X-1000X returns, and not for people who needed to be educated on the risks of crypto and trading. We were targeting a specific kind of user - someone with disposable money already sitting in crypto, who was happy to let it trade slowly and accumulate over time.
Before starting the venture, I'd built bots for an arbitrage company in South Africa. They needed a fund management platform to move money between exchanges and accounts efficiently. We thought if they used that platform, and I built a simple arbitrage bot on top, they'd pay a monthly fee that could cover my salary. That would buy us more runway while we worked toward what we actually wanted to build.
The plan was always to run our own bots with our own money. The arbitrage work was meant to fund the path there.
What I built
I built the entire platform myself using PHP (Laravel) and MySQL, deployed on Laravel Forge - an intentionally simple stack that supported rapid iteration and low-latency execution. One partner handled risk management and trading, the other handled the maths model and business side. I handled all the code.
The system included:
- Execution engines
- Real-time risk logic
- Performance and safety monitors
- Fail-safes and circuit breakers
- Multi-exchange integration
- High-volume trade routing
Everything was designed to run autonomously, adjust to live market conditions, and surface actionable operational data.
Over a 35-day window, the bots managed ~R80m ($4.3m) in assets under management and generated ~R10m (~$500k) in profit. In December 2024, one of our strategies accounted for roughly 20% of the Solana trading volume on Bybit - vidence of the system's throughput and reliability.
What went wrong
The technology worked. The system performed under pressure.
But we didn't.
We mismanaged the risk. We let emotions take over. And we didn't gel as a team. When things got hard, we made decisions from fear instead of clarity. The combination of high-stakes markets and internal dysfunction made the venture unsustainable.
The business closed - not because the tech failed, but because we failed each other.
What came after
The lessons stayed with me - how fast-moving teams break under pressure, how poorly managed risk compounds, and how crucial alignment and emotional discipline are in high-stakes environments.
The technical foundation formed the basis for consulting I later did with fund managers, arbitrage companies, and two South African crypto exchanges on trading systems, security, and product design.
The venture ended, but the knowledge became a cornerstone for how I now help teams avoid similar structural pitfalls.