New derivatives protocol Nibiru, founded by Tribal Capital GP Arjun Sethi, has raised $7.5 million in seed funding at a $100 million valuation, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrush.
Tribal Capital, Republic Crypto and Kraken invested in the seed round, said the source, who asked not to be identified because the information is not public.
Sethi co-founded the startup with four industry veterans — including Sankha Banerjee — who previously co-founded Credit Capital and Binance. and Boris Revsin, who co-founded Republic Capital. Nibiru has attracted nearly two dozen contributors, including Meta, Reddit, JP Morgan and Yahoo, according to an investor ship acquired by TechCrunch.
The crypto market is flooded with centralized (Binance, FTX) and decentralized ETH based perpetual and alternative trading platforms (Dydx, Opyn, Perpetual Protocol). Nibiru is trying to build the first major decentralized multi-chain solution, according to its website.
Currently in a private testnet, Nibiru’s decentralized protocol unifies derivatives trading, spot trading, staking and associated liquidity and aims to serve users on more than 40 blockchains, it said on its website.
On the investor floor, Nibiru said it offers clients untapped hedging opportunities, extremely low gas costs, MEV resilience and high futures volume. It is also creating integrated production in rising/falling regimes using decentralized perps and options, the ship added.
Slideshow from Nibiru’s investor presentation explaining the current state of the crypto derivatives and options market
The startup plans to launch NIBIRU on the public testnet later this year and on the mainnet in Q1 2023, the investor said. Sethi declined to comment Friday.
