Polkadot-centric derivatives exchange raises $6.4M in seed funding

Decentralized exchange dTrade is bringing derivatives trading to the Polkadot ecosystem after concluding a $6.4-million seed investment round, setting the stage for wider decentralized finance use cases on the developer network. 

The private investment round was led by some of the biggest names in the blockchain venture capital world, including Three Arrows Capital and DeFiance. Polychain Capital, ParaFi Capital, Huobi, Mechanism Capital, Bixin Ventures, IOSG Ventures, Hypersphere Ventures and Fenbushi Capital also participated.

Several companies have also stepped up to support liquidity on dTrade, including Alameda Research, CMS Holdings, MGNR, Kronos and Wintermute.

Alameda Research has invested heavily in Defi this year, allocating $20 million toward Reef Finance and $4 million toward Coin98 Finance.

As a decentralized exchange, dTrade allows for the trading of perpetual swaps and options with on-chain settlement. In theory, the platform can accommodate unlimited derivatives markets without custodial and counterparty risks. The trading platform is not available to United States-based traders.

“Derivatives are on track to become the largest market in decentralized finance, similar to how they are the largest asset class in traditional finance,” said Nikodem Grzesiak, co-founder of dTrade. “Derivatives are an exciting use case of blockchain. Entirely new perpetual swaps for blockchain-based assets within Polkadot's multi-chain architecture can be added through a simple governance proposal.”

The popularity of crypto derivatives has exploded over the past year as participants seek additional exposure to the rapidly growing market. CoinMarketCap’s 2020 annual report found that crypto derivatives accounted for 55% of the total cryptocurrency market last year.

Polkadot's developer network has also grown rapidly, with 435 projects having launched on the platform at the time of publication.