Crypto infrastructure startup Ekiden has closed a $2 million seed round to develop trading infrastructure aimed at professional and algorithmic participants in on-chain derivatives.
Ekiden Seed Round
The round drew backing from GSR, Flowdesk, Pyth, Aptos, Monolith, Hardcore Labs, Moonhill Capital and Curiosity Capital. Keyrock joined as a strategic partner.
Angel investors included co-founders and chief executives from Layer Zero, Avail, Aptos Labs, Cube, Chorus One, Trading Strategy AI and Node Guardians.
Ekiden said the capital will fund audits, product development, team expansion and partnerships to scale liquidity.
The platform targets desks, market makers and algorithmic traders rather than retail users.
Its model pairs off-chain matching and a central limit order book with on-chain settlement. Users keep self-custody, and trades are verified through Merkle proofs. The product offers plug-and-play APIs along with FIX and CCXT-compatible access.
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Dervoed Comments
Founder Vitali Dervoed said the gap between professional execution standards and current on-chain trading drove the project. "Our goal is simple: to make blockchain-based derivatives a truly usable tool for serious market participants without giving up self-custody, transparency, or the core advantages of DeFi," he said.
Dervoed's background spans capital markets and roles tied to Neon EVM, RockawayX and Mango Markets. That experience has shaped Ekiden's focus on execution quality and market design.
Institutional appetite for digital assets keeps climbing. A Coinbase and EY survey found 73% of institutional decision-makers plan to raise allocations in 2026, with 46% of that group citing better institutional-grade infrastructure as a key reason.
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