Ethereum Layer-2 network RISE repositioned itself as the foundation for global on-chain markets Thursday with the launch of RISEx and RISE MarketCore, marking a strategic shift toward becoming the infrastructure backbone for decentralized trading.
The announcement accompanied RISE's acquisition of BSX Labs, a perpetuals decentralized exchange on Coinbase's Base network that processed over $15 billion in cumulative trading volume since launching in 2023. The deal brings BSX's orderbook technology and veteran trading team to RISE as the Layer-2 network aims to solve what its founders describe as blockchain's fundamental incompatibility with traditional financial market structures.
"RISE was never just about building a faster blockchain," said Sam Battenally, CEO of RISE, in a statement shared with CoinDesk. "It's about enabling a new market structure for the internet."
The Orderbook Challenge
Traditional financial markets operate on orderbook systems where buyers and sellers submit limit and market orders that match in real time. From equities to foreign exchange, this architecture has powered global trading for decades. But blockchain networks, with their inherent latency and synchronization challenges, have struggled to support true orderbook functionality on-chain without compromising on decentralization or user experience.
Most decentralized exchanges today use automated market maker (AMM) models, where users trade against liquidity pools rather than directly with other traders. While AMMs solved early scalability problems, they introduce inefficiencies like impermanent loss and slippage that don't exist in orderbook systems.
RISE claims its ultra-low-latency architecture can support fully on-chain orderbooks, potentially unlocking deeper liquidity and more sophisticated trading strategies in decentralized finance. The network raised $8 million from investors including Galaxy Ventures and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, with technology targeting 5-millisecond latency and throughput exceeding 100,000 transactions per second.
Strategic Acquisition
BSX Labs, backed by Blockchain Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes, built a hybrid orderbook system that attracted significant institutional and retail trading volume on Base. The team includes alumni from major exchanges including Coinbase, Kraken, and trading firms Jump Trading and FalconX.
"The BSX team built an impressive trading engine that attracted significant volume and a loyal user base," Battenally said, describing the acquisition as "a key strategic step" for RISE.
BSX token holders will receive compensation through an airdrop of RISE's upcoming native token, with 1.5% of total RISE token supply allocated to BSX tokens currently in circulation. The BSX DEX began its sunset process November 11 at 15:00 UTC, with users given one week to close positions and withdraw assets.
"Joining RISE is an incredible opportunity for our team and our community," said Avi, CEO of BSX Labs. "With the resources and ecosystem of RISE, we can now build that future at a much larger scale."
New Market Infrastructure
The repositioning centers on two core products: RISE MarketCore and RISEx.
RISE MarketCore functions as shared orderbook infrastructure, enabling developers to build trading markets directly on the blockchain with pooled liquidity. The system supports spot and perpetual trading markets initially, with plans to expand to options and prediction markets. By providing common infrastructure, RISE aims to solve the liquidity fragmentation problem that plagues many Layer-2 networks.
RISEx serves as RISE's flagship perpetuals exchange, designed to deliver centralized exchange performance while operating transparently on-chain. The platform entered its closed mainnet phase this quarter, with a public launch scheduled for early 2026. RISE MarketCore will then open for permissionless deployment, allowing any developer to launch new markets using the infrastructure.
Performance Claims
RISE's technical approach focuses on what it calls "synchronous composability" — the ability for different DeFi applications to interact within the same transaction block without latency delays. This capability is crucial for sophisticated trading strategies like arbitrage, liquidations, and options market making that require near-instantaneous execution.
The network's architecture employs "Shreds," a sub-block-time transaction confirmation mechanism that RISE says enables its ultra-low latency. The technology allows transactions to be confirmed in milliseconds rather than the seconds typical of most blockchain networks.
Traditional Layer-2 solutions like Arbitrum and Optimism prioritize different trade-offs in the blockchain trilemma of scalability, security, and decentralization. RISE contends its approach maintains decentralization while achieving performance metrics typically associated with centralized systems.
Final thoughts
The announcement comes as Ethereum Layer-2 networks collectively hold over $42 billion in total value locked, reflecting growing adoption of scaling solutions. Competition has intensified among L2s, with Base recently surpassing established networks in transaction volume and user activity.
The DeFi derivatives market, particularly perpetual futures, has emerged as one of crypto's largest sectors. Centralized exchanges process hundreds of billions in monthly perps volume, but on-chain alternatives remain fragmented and technically limited compared to their centralized counterparts.
If RISE can deliver on its performance claims while maintaining decentralization, it could capture significant market share from both centralized exchanges and existing DeFi protocols. However, the network faces execution risk as it transitions from testnet to mainnet operation at scale.
The integration of BSX's proven trading technology and RISE's claimed performance capabilities will be tested as RISEx launches publicly in the coming months, potentially setting a new standard for on-chain financial markets or revealing the continued challenges of bringing traditional market structures to blockchain.