Kelly brings extensive experience in options market making, arbitrage, and risk management, previously working at a Chicago-based proprietary trading firm. Starting as an arbitrage clerk at the CBOE, she quickly transitioned to electronic trading, contributing to the launch of electronic trading for CME's Agriculture options, CBOE's GLD options, and CME's BTC options. While leading an agricultural desk, she also traded SPX, metals, soft commodities, crude oil, natural gas, bonds, Eurodollars, and cryptocurrency options.

She has a strong background in research, strategy development, and education, having taught options theory and developed internal training content. Her interest in DeFi and blockchain led to exploring yield farming, eventually connecting her with Derive, where she served on the launch council before joining the team as a contributor.