Rho Labs Raises $2.2M in Pre-Seed Funding Round

Rho Labs, the creator of Rho Protocol, has announced that it has secured $2.2M in a pre-seed funding round. The round was led by Speedinvest and included other investors such as Keyrock, Re7 Capital, Daedalus Collective, and Dmitry Tokarev, CEO of Copper.co.

Rho Protocol: A New Era for Crypto Trading

The Rho Protocol is a non-custodial interest rate futures and swaps market built on blockchain technology. It seeks to merge the transparency and efficiency of zero-counterparty risk on-chain trading with the familiarity and accessibility of centralized exchanges. In this system, collateral and risk are wholly managed on the blockchain.

The protocol aims to enable the same advantages institutional crypto traders enjoy in traditional rate markets. These markets, crucial for derivative traders, offer robust risk management and act as the foundation for fixed-income and other investment products.

Focused on Crypto-Specific Rates

The main goal for Rho is to create a highly capital-efficient market for crypto-specific rates. These include staking, digital asset lending, and funding rates. A private beta of Rho’s market on Arbitrum is set to be launched with a select group of global trading partners later this year.

The Founders and Their Vision

Founded in late 2022 by Alex Ryvkin, former Chief Product Officer of Copper.co, Rho Labs aims to introduce the market to the advantages of on-chain trading. Ryvkin, who has over a decade of experience in capital markets and FinTech, believes that interest rate derivatives are the largest asset class in traditional finance and sees potential in bringing this to the crypto market.

Olga Shikhantsova, Partner at Speedinvest, underlined the importance of interest rate derivatives (IRDs) in hedging against or capitalizing on future rate changes. She expressed her support for the project’s goal to make rates markets more robust and secure through technology, and her excitement to see the role blockchain will play in the future of capital markets.