Harvard alumni-founded Ostium lands $24 million in fresh funding to scale onchain perpetuals for RWAs

Ostium, a decentralized exchange focused on perpetual futures for real-world assets, has raised $24 million in new funding — including a $20 million Series A co-led by General Catalyst and Jump Crypto — as demand for onchain access to traditional markets grows.

The raise includes a previously unannounced $4 million strategic round, bringing the startup’s total funding to $27.8 million, according to a press release shared with The Block. Following the raise, the platform is reportedly valued at around $250 million.

Details disclosed on Dec. 3 also said the company has processed $25 billion in cumulative trading volume to date, including $5 billion in metals trading alone.

Founded by Harvard classmates Kaledora Kiernan-Linn and Marco Antonio Ribeiro, Ostium provides traders with access to perpetual futures exposure on assets including stocks, commodities, indices, and FX directly from a self-custodial wallet.

The exchange is built on Arbitrum and uses a quote-based pricing model that draws from off-chain liquidity venues rather than recreating fragmented markets on Ethereum. Ostium founders say the design allows for faster execution, transparent spreads, and predictable holding costs.

Kiernan-Linn noted the platform was created to solve a structural problem in global retail trading: investors seeking access to traditional markets are still funneled through “conflicted broker-controlled infrastructure” that manages pricing, liquidation, and withdrawals.

“Since Ostium’s earliest days, our thesis has been that the global CFD broker market will be disrupted by DeFi. Our ambition is to build the platform to make that possible,” she said. “The next arc of growth is about disrupting this legacy market with transparent execution and self-custody.”

General Catalyst managing director Marc Bhargava said Ostium is “building transparent and resilient infrastructure poised to disrupt the $10 trillion monthly-volume global CFD market,” citing the team’s early conviction in bridging blockchain rails with existing liquidity.

Jump Crypto CIO Saurabh Sharma echoed that view, saying most new perpetuals platforms are trying to rebuild exchange infrastructure, whereas Ostium “competes with brokers by quoting directly from the real liquidity that already powers equities, FX, and commodity markets offchain.”

The Block first reported in 2023 that Ostium had raised a $3.5 million seed round to build a “perpetual exchange for real-world assets,” positioning itself away from crypto-only perp venues like Hyperliquid, Lighter, and Aster that later emerged.

Ostium’s activity is now overwhelmingly concentrated in real-world assets. More than 95% of open interest is tied to traditional markets, according to the company. During the recent gold rally, Ostium accounted for more than 50% of total onchain gold perpetuals open interest, the team said.

Other backers in the latest round include Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute, GSR, Balaji Srinivasan, SIG, LocalGlobe, Crucible Capital, Nick Van Eck, Shiliang Tang, and angels from Bridgewater, Two Sigma, and Brevan Howard. Ostium plans to expand asset coverage and scale its infrastructure with the new capital.

Going after offshore brokers

Alongside crypto-native users, Ostium plans to target non-U.S. investors seeking access to U.S. markets. The platform aims to capture a share in a segment often served by a patchwork of offshore brokers with inconsistent execution and slower technology.

Kiernan-Linn said that market remains “a textbook use case for blockchain,” and that traders want exposure to global markets without wiring capital into custodial systems governed by discretionary broker rules.

Ostium’s model keeps user funds in segregated smart contracts, with all trading activity verifiable onchain. The company argues this approach offers the transparency of a decentralized protocol with the market reach of a brokerage.

Venture capital keeps backing trading and exchange startups

Ostium’s raise adds to a busy year for crypto venture capital.

Galaxy Research data shows crypto and blockchain startups secured more than $11.4 billion across the first three quarters of 2025, including $4.8 billion in Q1, $2 billion in Q2, and $4.65 billion in Q3. Trading and exchange businesses accounted for a large share of that total, with late-stage deals for firms like Revolut and Kraken contributing to quarterly spikes.

Full-year projections from Galaxy and PitchBook suggest crypto VC could reach $18–25 billion in 2025, driven by growing institutional interest in trading platforms, DeFi infrastructure, and tokenization plays.

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