DeFi Quant Research Intern (Digital Assets Market Making) - Brussels

As a DeFi Quant Research Intern at Keyrock, you'll work alongside quantitative researchers, traders and engineers to study on-chain markets and support the development of data-driven trading strategies. You'll analyse blockchain and market data, test hypotheses through backtesting and simulation, build research tooling, and investigate how real-world execution-including gas, transaction ordering, liquidity fragmentation and MEV-affects strategy performance. This is a technical and applied internship based in Brussels (London possible), lasting six months.

What you'll do

• Research on-chain market structure by analysing liquidity, price formation, participant behaviour and execution across decentralized markets.
• Study how protocol mechanics, transaction ordering, gas, slippage, latency and MEV affect execution quality and strategy performance.
• Formulate trading hypotheses and evaluate them using blockchain data, market data, backtests and simulations.
• Build reusable Python tools and data pipelines for research, monitoring and performance analysis.
• Analyse relationships between centralized and decentralized markets and identify their implications for pricing, hedging and risk.
• Support live strategies through monitoring, post-trade analysis and investigation of unexpected performance.
• Present findings clearly, including assumptions, limitations, risks and recommended next steps.

What you bring

• A degree in mathematics, computer science, engineering, physics, quantitative finance or a related field (or recently completed).
• Proficiency in Python for data analysis, and comfort with SQL, Git and command-line workflows.
• Working knowledge of blockchain fundamentals: transactions, state changes, gas, blocks, consensus and finality, and how smart-contract interactions execute on-chain.
• Understanding of AMMs, concentrated liquidity, swaps, liquidity provision, oracles and liquidations, and how decentralized execution differs from a centralized order book.
• Understanding of MEV: how transaction ordering and block construction create arbitrage, liquidation, backrunning and sandwiching opportunities or risks, and how these affect execution.
• Hands-on DeFi experience beyond coursework or social media; ideally you have built or analysed something yourself such as an on-chain dataset, trading or monitoring script, AMM simulation, protocol integration or research project.
• Strong trading judgement to question whether an apparent edge survives fees, gas, latency, slippage, adverse selection and changing market conditions.
• Ability to structure ambiguous problems, test assumptions and communicate findings and limitations clearly in English.

Nice to have

• Experience querying blockchain data through RPCs, indexers, subgraphs or analytics platforms.
• Ability to read Solidity, contract interfaces and event logs.
• Exposure to Rust or another systems programming language.
• Familiarity with non-EVM ecosystems or Layer 2 execution models.
• A technical project demonstrating sustained interest in DeFi or on-chain markets.

What we offer

• A 6-month paid internship with accommodation provided for the entirety or part of it.
• The opportunity to learn about digital assets and blockchain from a 30,000 ft view of the entire ecosystem.
• Working from one of Brussels' newest, nicest and most advanced office spaces.
• A global, collaborative and tech-driven environment with flat structure so you can contribute ideas from day one.
• Hands-on experience, clear learning goals, dedicated guidance and regular feedback.
• The internship is predominantly based in Brussels; selected candidates may be based in London provided at least 1-2 months onboarding is spent in Brussels with the rest of the cohort.

About Keyrock

Since 2017, Keyrock has been a change-maker in digital assets, providing liquidity across 80+ centralized and decentralized exchanges. A global, remote-first team of 200+ people across 40+ nationalities with hubs in Brussels, London, Paris and New York, Keyrock runs a full spectrum of capital markets businesses: market making, high-frequency trading, options, OTC, DeFi trading desks, advisory, and asset management. The company is backed by SC Ventures and is building agentic investment banking capabilities for the era of digital finance.