Paradigm leads $7.6 million seed funding round for perp DEX aggregator Liquid

Crypto startup Liquid, which aggregates multiple decentralized perpetual futures exchanges — including Hyperliquid, Lighter, and Ostium — into one non-custodial app, has raised $7.6 million in a seed funding round.

Paradigm led the seed round, with General Catalyst and several angel investors joining, including Ashwin Ramachandran (co-founder of Nova Fund | BH Digital), Eric Wu (co-founder of Opendoor), Vlad Novakovski (founder of Lighter), and crypto trader smartestmoney.hl, Liquid founder Franklyn Wang told The Block.

The round was structured as equity and closed within five days in March, Wang said, declining to comment on the post-money valuation.

Liquid’s raise comes as VC interest in perpetual DEX platforms heats up again amid surging volumes and revenues. As The Block recently reported, perp DEXes hit record cumulative volume last month, reaching nearly $1.2 trillion, according to The Block’s Data Dashboard.

Hyperliquid, Lighter, and Aster lead the pack, while Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko is also apparently building an onchain perps DEX called Percolator.

How Liquid works

As a perp DEX aggregator, Liquid says it combines the best features of multiple venues, letting traders manage all positions in one place. "We believe a unified frontend allows us to achieve the ultimate user experience while giving customers flexibility under the hood," Wang said.

Wang, who previously served as chief AI scientist of futures at hedge fund Two Sigma, said the goal is to give retail users access to the same level of infrastructure and tools used by institutional traders.

"At Two Sigma, I experienced the power of having all financial tools integrated into one platform. Liquid brings that institutional app experience to everyone," he said. The Liquid app is “very mobile first (sends you push notifications when positions are close to liquidations, etc.),” he added.

On its business model, Wang said Liquid takes “a small additional fee on top of trades.” The app claims to have facilitated over $500 million in trading volume since launching a few weeks ago.

Beyond trading, Liquid says it offers yield vaults through platforms like Hyperliquid with an annual interest rate of about 7%, along with real-time market analysis and automated risk management.

Wang said Liquid is also designed to integrate point-based reward systems directly into its platform, allowing users to manage and track their participation in various projects from one place.

Liquid’s core team of about ten is based in New York City and is “aggressively” hiring across engineering, marketing, and design, Wang said. He declined to say whether any of the seed investors took board seats, either advisory or directorial.

This article has been updated to reflect Ashwin Ramachandran's correct title.

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