Ostium Labs Secures $24 Million to Expand Onchain Perpetuals for Real-World Assets

Ostium Labs has successfully raised $24 million in new funding, comprising a $20 million Series A round led by General Catalyst and Jump Crypto, plus a previously unannounced $4 million strategic round. This brings the company's total funding to $27.8 million and places its valuation near $250 million.

The capital will be used to accelerate the firm's mission to bring traditional market trading onchain using a peer-to-peer, self-custodial model. Ostium operates a perpetual futures protocol on the Arbitrum layer-2 network, offering exposure to stocks, commodities, indices, and foreign exchange. The platform's unique architecture sources direct price feeds from external traditional liquidity venues, avoiding the creation of fragmented onchain markets.

The company reports significant traction, with over $25 billion in cumulative trading volume, including $5 billion in metals trading. Notably, more than 95% of its open interest is concentrated in Real-World Assets (RWAs). During a recent gold rally, Ostium captured over 50% of total onchain gold perpetuals open interest, positioning itself as a key platform for sizable, predictable trades.

Founded by Kaledora Kiernan-Linn and Marco Antonio Ribeiro, Ostium aims to disrupt the legacy Contract for Difference (CFD) market and offshore brokers by replacing intermediaries with segregated smart contracts and transparent, verifiable execution. "Our first clear product-market fit came from crypto-native traders who wanted exposure to traditional assets without moving their capital into custodial broker infrastructure," said CEO Kiernan-Linn. "The next arc of growth is about disrupting this legacy market with transparent execution and self-custody."

Investors see strong potential in the model. The funding round included participation from a notable group of backers such as Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute, GSR, Balaji Srinivasan, Localglobe, Susquehanna International Group (SIG), Crucible Capital, and angels from major traditional finance firms like Bridgewater, Two Sigma, and Brevan Howard. The investment underscores a broader trend in crypto venture capital, which raised over $11.4 billion between January and September, with increasing focus on DeFi infrastructure and tokenization.