Stanford University · MS&E

Ruizhe Jia

I study how technology is transforming
the design of financial markets.

Market Microstructure DeFi Agentic AI

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management Science & Engineering at Stanford University. My research focuses on market microstructure, decentralized finance (DeFi), and the application of AI to financial decision-making.

My work has been published in the Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Financial Economics, and has informed policy discussions at the Federal Reserve, the SEC, and the Bank for International Settlements.

Before Stanford, I was a quantitative systematic trader at Susquehanna International Group, where I led efforts to build systematic trading and market-making strategies for DeFi from the ground up. I hold a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Columbia University (advised by Agostino Capponi) and a B.S. and M.A. in Mathematics from UCLA.

As new technologies reshape finance, I study how to redesign markets to be more efficient, fair, and accessible. I also work on giving decision-makers—human or AI—rigorous frameworks to navigate these evolving systems.

What I Believe

Three technologies are converging
to reshape financial markets.

01

Agentic AI for Financial Decisions

AI will automate financial decisions, but today's systems either refuse to advise or blow up with reckless leverage. The solution is scientific financial modeling as guardrails — give the AI a framework and handcuffs.

02

The Institutional Moment for DeFi

Distributed ledger technology will become the infrastructure of finance. Programmable compliance, tokenized real-world assets, automated settlement — when real capital and ordinary people operate on this infrastructure, DeFi stops being a niche and becomes finance.

03

Privacy & Data as a Financial Asset

Laws say you own your data, but enforcement requires technology — TEEs, zero-knowledge proofs, cryptographic verification. When privacy is technologically guaranteed, data becomes a tradeable financial asset.

01

Market Microstructure

How trades happen. Price discovery, liquidity provision, and the design of more efficient trading systems.

02

DeFi & Blockchain Economics

How programmable markets work. AMM design, MEV dynamics, L2 sequencing, and mechanism design for decentralized systems.

03

AI for Financial Decisions

How AI agents interact with markets. Understanding when they fail, when they refuse, and how to design systems that get delegation right.

Selected Publications

Journal Publications

Review of Financial Studies INFORMS Best Paper

Liquidity Provision on Blockchain-based Decentralized Exchanges

with A. Capponi

Review of Financial Studies

Price Discovery on Decentralized Exchanges

with A. Capponi, S. Yu

Journal of Financial Economics CBER Best Paper

Maximal Extractable Value and Allocative Inefficiencies in Public Blockchains

with A. Capponi, Y. Wang

Under Review

R&R, Management Science

Proposer-Builder Separation, Payment for Order Flows, and Centralization in Blockchain

with A. Capponi, S. Olafsson

Working Papers

The Paradox of Just-in-Time Liquidity in Decentralized Exchanges

with A. Capponi, B. Zhu

Flows and Usage of Stable Coins during Crises

with A. Capponi, A. Sarkar, Y. Wang

Conference & Other Publications

ACM CCS DeFi 2022

To EVM or Not to EVM: Blockchain Compatibility and Network Effects

with S. Yin

AEA P&P 2023

Blockchain Private Pools and Price Discovery

with A. Capponi, Y. Wang

SIAM J. Applied Math 2019

Modeling Environmental Crime in Protected Areas Using the Level Set Method

with D. Arnold et al.

Teaching

MS&E 247

Decentralized Finance & Blockchain

Foundations of DeFi, blockchain technology, and their economic implications. Undergraduate and graduate.

MS&E 347

Advanced Topics in DeFi

Cutting-edge research in mechanism design, market microstructure, and protocol economics. Graduate seminar.

Research Group

Xinmeng Zeng

PhD Student, Stanford ICME

Market microstructure on blockchain-based trading venues. On-chain data analysis and trader behavior classification.

B.S. & M.S. Mathematics, ETH Zurich

Website →

Grants

2025

Stanford-IOG Research Hub

Blockchain economics research. Funded by Input Output Global.

2025

Flashbots Research Grant

MEV and market microstructure.

Curriculum Vitae

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Contact

Office

MS&E, Stanford University