About
Anestis Finstad
Senior fullstack engineer with 8 years building high-performance Web3, DeFi, and AI products in React/Next.js and TypeScript. Most recently delivered trading-UI features at BitMEX while solo-building and shipping a portfolio of live, revenue-generating AI products. Strong across the whole stack — front-end performance, AWS infrastructure, payments, and production LLM pipelines.
Based in Athens, Greece.
Web3 / DeFi frontend
Built production trading UIs at BitMEX and led MonkeyDex, a Solana DEX with sub-100ms quote integration and fully on-chain copy-trading. Fluent in wallet auth, on-chain flows, and high-frequency real-time interfaces.
Senior fullstack
Takes products from architecture to live, monetized deployment alone — Next.js/React front ends on AWS (Lambda fleets, Aurora/RDS, DynamoDB, SQS), Stripe billing, and Postgres/Mongo data layers. Owns the whole stack.
AI / LLM engineering
Builds production LLM systems: autonomous content pipelines, tool-calling agents, multi-agent orchestration, citation-enforced anti-hallucination, and prompt-cost optimization (cut one pipeline ~78%).
Experience
Founder & Software Engineer
Independent / Founder
- ›The World Now (the-world-now.com) — built and operate a live AI news platform on an interactive 3D globe; an autonomous round-the-clock pipeline has published 6,000+ articles, grew Ahrefs DR 0→15 in three months, and I cut AI generation cost ~78% via prompt caching.
- ›Sitful (sitful.com) — shipped an on-device macOS posture coach in Tauri 2 + Rust, fusing Apple Vision pose detection with AirPods head-motion; live marketing site with Stripe payments, app in notarization.
- ›staqd.ai — launched a marketplace of 67 original AI design skills and buy-once solution templates on Next.js 16 + Tailwind v4, Better Auth, and Stripe.
- ›UsageOwl (usageowl.com) — built and open-sourced (MIT) a native Swift macOS menu-bar app that unifies AI-coding-subscription usage limits (Claude, Codex, Copilot, Kimi) in one place; privacy-first with zero telemetry and no servers — credentials never leave the machine — signed and notarized, under 5 MB.
Frontend Consultant
BitMEX
- ›Migrated the entire BitMEX blog from WordPress to a headless Contentful CMS + Next.js stack (bitmex.com/blog) — category filtering, WEBP/AVIF image optimization, and multi-language support (EN/CN/ES/RU/VI).
- ›Built a custom employee-verification tool (bitmex.com/app/verification) that lets anyone confirm whether a person claiming to be BitMEX staff is genuine — an anti-impersonation defense against social-engineering scams.
- ›Delivered high-performance React/Next.js features across the BitMEX trading UI.
- ›Ran regular client and product-team sessions, translating requirements into polished front-end solutions.
Lead Frontend Developer
MonkeyDex
- ›Architected the Next.js + Tailwind UI for a Solana DEX and copy-trading platform with sub-100ms Jupiter quote integration.
- ›Shipped a fully on-chain copy-trading solution on Solana and led community, partnerships, and growth for the platform.
Frontend Engineer (Web3 Social)
Contribute.xyz
- ›Built the React interface for a $4.7M-funded "Web3 LinkedIn" with Solana wallet auth and verifiable-anonymous profiles.
- ›Implemented on-chain salary streaming, decentralized communities, and a reusable component library with Zustand state; converted Figma designs to production React.
Frontend Developer
SYSCO (acquired by Cegal), Norway
- ›Shipped a government-funded upskilling portal for immigrants from concept to launch in 14 months.
- ›Modernised Toyota Norway's fleet tools and a facilities IoT dashboard with Vue.js and Vuetify.
Web Developer & Digital Marketing
ROWDY Bags (Norway)
- ›Built and maintained nearly all of the leather-goods brand's websites on Shopify — storefront, campaign, and landing pages.
- ›Drove customer acquisition with paid campaigns across Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads while running the brand's exclusive Norwegian distribution.
Education
Ubiqum Academy, Barcelona — Front-End Development Program
2019 · Graduated early with top score
Languages
English
Native
Norwegian
Native
Greek
Native
Spanish
Intermediate
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Who is Anestis Finstad?
Anestis Finstad is a senior fullstack engineer based in Athens, Greece, with 8 years of experience building Web3, DeFi, and AI products in React, Next.js, and TypeScript. He most recently consulted on the BitMEX trading UI while shipping four live products solo.
What has Anestis Finstad built?
Live products include The World Now (an AI news platform with 6,000+ autonomously published articles), Sitful (an on-device macOS posture coach in Tauri and Rust), staqd.ai (a marketplace of 67 AI design skills), and UsageOwl (a free, open-source macOS menu bar app that tracks usage limits across AI coding subscriptions), plus client work for BitMEX and ROWDY Bags.
Is Anestis Finstad available for hire?
Yes. He is open to senior fullstack or frontend roles, applied-AI engineering roles, and consulting — remote (EU or global) or Athens-local. The fastest way to reach him is [email protected] or the contact page.
What is Anestis Finstad's tech stack?
Core stack: React, Next.js (App Router), TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and Node.js, with production AWS (Lambda, Aurora/RDS Postgres, DynamoDB, SQS, CDK), Stripe billing, and Postgres/MongoDB. He also builds production LLM systems: tool-calling agents, MCP servers, multi-agent orchestration, and prompt-cost optimization.
Has Anestis Finstad worked in Web3?
Yes — extensively. He consulted on the BitMEX trading UI, led the frontend of MonkeyDex (a Solana DEX with sub-100ms Jupiter quote integration and on-chain copy-trading), and built Contribute.xyz, a $4.7M-funded Web3 social app with Solana wallet auth.
What AI and LLM work has he done?
He operates an autonomous LLM content pipeline that has published 6,000+ articles with enforced source provenance, cut its generation costs ~78% via prompt caching, and builds MCP servers and multi-agent orchestration systems with persistent memory. His focus is applied AI product engineering, not research.
Where is Anestis Finstad based?
Athens, Greece, with EU work rights, working remotely with teams across EU and US time zones. He speaks native English, Norwegian, and Greek, plus intermediate Spanish.
What did Anestis Finstad do at BitMEX?
As frontend consultant (April 2025 – June 2026) he migrated the entire BitMEX blog from WordPress to a headless Contentful + Next.js stack, built the public employee-verification anti-impersonation tool, and delivered React/Next.js features across the trading UI.