Nibiru, a new crypto derivatives protocol co-founded by Tribe Capital GP Arjun Sethi, has raised $7.5 million in seed funding at a valuation of $100 million, two sources familiar with the matter told londonbusinessblog.com.
Tribe Capital, Republic Capital and Kraken invested in the seed round, said a source, who requested anonymity because the information is not public.
Sethi co-founded the startups with four industry veterans – including Sankha Banerjee, formerly with Credence Capital and Binance; and Boris Revsin, co-founder of Republic Capital. Nibiru has attracted nearly two dozen contributors from companies including Meta, Reddit, JP Morgan and Yahoo, an investor deck obtained by londonbusinessblog.com showed.
The crypto market is flooded with centralized (Binance, FTX) and decentralized ETH-based perpetuals and options trading platforms (Dydx, Opyn, Perpetual Protocol). Nibiru is trying to build the first mainstream decentralized multichain solution, according to its website.
Currently on the private testnet, Nibiru’s decentralized protocol unifies derivatives trading, spot trading, staking and tied liquidity, and aims to serve users across more than 40 blockchains, it says. on the website.
On the investor deck, Nibiru says it will provide clients with unlocked hedging capabilities, extremely low gas costs, MEV resistance and high futures volume. It also creates a compound yield in rising/falling regimes using decentralized perps and options, the deck added.
A slide from Nibiru’s investor presentation where the startup describes the current state of the crypto derivatives and options market. Image Credits: Nibiru
The startup plans to launch Nibiru on the public testnet later this year and on the mainnet in the first quarter of 2023, according to the investor deck. Sethi declined to comment on Friday.