Opium is a protocol that enables the creation, settlement, and trading of decentralized derivatives. According to its whitepaper, derivatives are financial tools that facilitate market participants to further efficiently manage their risk by reducing potential losses while maximizing potential returns. Every derivative symbolizes a token traded on fully decentralized secondary markets. The platform serves as a trustless, transparent, audited, and professional derivatives ecosystem for a trader.

The Opium protocol is a collection of open-source smart contracts constructed on Ethereum. The platform employs a governance model based on a DAO, which engages with token holders by submitting and voting on governance proposals. This procedure determines the liquidity mining logic and impacts the protocol and the behavior of its shareholders.

The OPIUM token is an ERC20 cryptocurrency contributing significantly to the protocol's individuality and decentralization. Token holders can recommend and vote for the platform's initiatives, allowing them to govern the protocol collectively. Users can stake their tokens in various DAO subtypes to define specific responsibilities in the community. Protocol users can obtain OPIUM tokens through liquidity and governance mining.

As per its whitepaper, the Opium exchange can hedge its trading uncertainties and contemplate opportunities inside and outside DeFi. The exchange aspires to be known as "the Bloomberg for decentralized derivatives," listing a multitude of financial derivative products that are freely tradable by everyone. The platform charges a fixed fee for every traded derivative contract to the profitable trader. Ninety percent of the fee is paid to the maker of the derivative contract and the remaining 10 percent is retained in the protocol.

The Opium Protocol was launched in 2017.