Rho Labs, the developer of Rho Protocol, the crypto-native rates exchange, announces that it has secured $4M in seed funding to “expand the capabilities of its platform.”
Rho enables interest rates trading for a wide range of crypto-native and professional investors.
With a total value of open contracts exceeding $500 trillion, rates are reportedly the largest “single asset class in global financial markets.”
Funding was led by CoinFund, one of the crypto-native investment firms, with participation from Auros, Flow Traders, and other existing investors including Speedinvest.
Alex Ryvkin, Founder of Rho Labs commented:
“Since our launch in 2022, we have observed an evolution of crypto markets with rates, especially perp funding and staking, becoming a critical component of crypto traders’ portfolio returns. With the backing of some of the …VCs in TradFi and Web3 and some of the … liquidity providers in the space, we are … positioned to execute our vision of building a robust and reliable rates market for the blockchain ecosystem, contributing to its maturity and RWA future-readiness.”
With perpetual future funding, staking, and lending rates all in one venue, Rho offers “capital efficient trading.”
It has turned perpetual funding, the most “important” family of rates in crypto, into a liquid tradable asset class, “opening up a raft of new trading opportunities for leveraged trading, basis trading, and enhanced yield strategies.”
Rho’s trading capabilities are also particularly “suited to institutions, as well as ETF and stablecoin issuers. Since its beta launch in June last year, Rho has facilitated over $7 billion of notional volume.”
Alex Felix, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of CoinFund commented:
“Rho Labs is built by capital markets professionals to serve the budding credit opportunity. We … believe in Alex and his team as sophisticated institutional players to deliver the future of rate derivatives in crypto.”
Julien Auchecorne, Head of Ventures at Auros, added
“At Auros, we are deeply embedded power users of the market and experienced volatility risk managers. Interest rate volatility is one of the greatest hurdles to our ability to deploy risk. Unpredictable cost of capital and inadequate hedging mechanisms remain huge hurdles by virtue of the fact that they limit the ability of institutional traders to manage their risk. Rho is developing a solution to these hurdles that will accelerate market adoption on increasingly robust foundations.”
Michael Lie, Global Head of Digital Assets at Flow Traders, also commented:
“Our investment reflects our commitment to advancing financial technology that enhances market efficiency and liquidity, and as institutional adoption accelerates, Rho is scaling at the perfect time to lead the evolution of on-chain interest rate derivatives.”