We’re excited to announce that Defx has raised $2.5 million in seed funding to launch a new Layer 1 blockchain purpose-built for trading, enabling a dark pool DEX for perpetual futures with encrypted order flow and verifiable onchain execution.
The round includes participation from Pantera Capital, CMT Digital, Gumi Cryptos, CoinShares, Robot Ventures, Cadenza Ventures, Baboon VC, and angel investors Sandeep Nailwal (Polygon) and Mahin Gupta (Liminal).
The funding will support the development and expansion of Defx’s Layer 1 blockchain for real-time, on-chain trading infrastructure of perpetual contracts across cryptocurrencies, commodities, currencies, indices, and more.
A New Paradigm for Onchain Trading
In traditional DeFi, every trade is fully transparent. Order sizes, leverage levels, liquidation thresholds, and position direction are all visible onchain, creating front-running risk, copy trading, and strategic exposure that deters serious traders.
Defx introduces a new model. Using a custom zero-knowledge-based trading engine, all trade intents—including size, leverage, direction, and liquidation thresholds—are encrypted. The protocol ensures:
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Encrypted trade inputs (order size, leverage, direction)
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Hidden PnL and liquidation points
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No public exposure of active positions
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Verifiable fairness of execution, funding, and liquidations onchain
While trading activity remains private, the system maintains full onchain integrity. Every transaction, fill, and state change is provable without revealing sensitive trader data.
Purpose-Built Chain Architecture
Defx is a sovereign Layer 1 built specifically for perpetual futures. It features:
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Sub-millisecond matching via a native central limit order book (CLOB)
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Direct onboarding of assets from Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, Base, Berachain, and more—no bridges or wrapped tokens
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Unified margin engine with multi-collateral, cross-margin accounts
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Liquidity infrastructure composed of vaults, LPs, and market makers
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Native support for both EVM and Solana contracts
This vertical integration enables high performance, secure custody, and composable onchain markets across asset classes.
Why Build a L1?
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Scalability and Throughput: This allows us to put our orderbook fully on-chain and ensure it scales to the levels of the largest CeFi companies in terms of operations per second and latency.
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Customizability: Customized and novel fee models tied to trading activity can be native, permissionless, and on-chain. Additionally, customers choose which assets they pay fees in.
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Prioritization: With a custom L1, the DAO will have control to ensure upgrades, chain optimizations, and UX improvements can be built into the infrastructure layer.
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Dark Pool Primitives: Privacy-preserving bids and asks are built into the chain so that large positions are not broadcasted until executed.
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Consensus Layer and Virtual Machine Stack: These can be chosen based on application needs, while ensuring that the best dApps can effortlessly migrate to Defx.
Vault-Based Liquidity and Passive Yield
Defx introduces vault-based liquidity infrastructure that allows any user to provide capital and earn protocol fees and rewards. Users can stake BTC, ETH, stablecoins, or LSTs to earn passive yield through:
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Trading fees
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Protocol revenue share
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Points and ecosystem incentives
This system is designed to balance deep liquidity for active traders with yield-generating opportunities for passive participants.
Broad Asset and Collateral Support
Defx will support a wide range of underlying markets including:
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Cryptocurrencies
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Foreign exchange (FX)
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Commodities
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Traditional financial indices
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Interest rate perps and other synthetic products
Trades can be funded using multiple forms of collateral, including stablecoins, crypto assets, and yield-bearing tokens—without losing exposure to the original asset.
Founding Team
Defx Labs was founded by Darshan Bathija, Sanju Sony Kurian, and Soumyadeep Das, the team behind Vauld, previously Asia’s largest crypto lending platform with nearly 1 million users.
Having navigated the collapse of centralized custodial platforms in 2022, the team brings a deep understanding of risk management and the need for sovereign, self-custodied infrastructure. Those lessons now inform the architecture and values behind Defx.
Roadmap
The capital raised will support protocol development, network security, liquidity expansion, and onboarding of key trading and LP communities.
Defx is entering its next phase with a focused rollout plan that includes:
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Incentivised trading and points programs
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Competitive trading events and reward campaigns
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Additional vault integrations
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Spot markets
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Embedded self-custody wallets
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Native fiat on/off ramps
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Expansion of governance and permissionless listings
Defx brings dark pool mechanics onchain, privacy-first DEX with high performance trading, real yield through vaults, and no counterparty risk.
About Defx
Defx is a purpose-built Layer 1 blockchain designed for trading perpetual futures across crypto, FX, commodities, and synthetic markets. By combining a high-performance CLOB engine with zero-knowledge proofs and a vault-based liquidity system, Defx offers private, composable, and verifiably fair onchain trading. The protocol enables encrypted order flow, multi-collateral margining, and native cross-chain onboarding without bridges or wrapped assets.