Onchain perpetuals exchange Ostium announced a strategic partnership with U.S. stock exchange operator Nasdaq on Monday, becoming what it claims is the first onchain trading venue to offer equity perpetual products powered by Nasdaq data. The integration aims to provide global traders with transparent, instant-settlement access to U.S. equities directly on blockchain rails.
"Access to U.S. markets has historically been fragmented, permissioned, broker-gated, and limited by geography," Ostium stated. "Traders worldwide can now gain exposure to U.S. equities on Ostium with the benefits of blockchain rails: transparency, instant-settlement, and self custody." The platform operates as a decentralized venue for leveraged trading in traditional assets—including stocks, indices, commodities, ETFs, and forex—and has processed over $50 billion in cumulative volume across more than 26,000 traders as of last month.
Ostium functions as a bridge between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), allowing users to remain fully self-custodial while benefiting from institutional-grade liquidity. The partnership required months of engineering effort focused on data integrity, security, and display policies, noted CEO Kaledora Kiernan-Linn. To mark the collaboration, Ostium placed an advertisement on the Nasdaq building’s facade in Times Square, identifying itself as an official Nasdaq Data Client.
Founded by Harvard alumni Kiernan-Linn and Marco Antonio Ribeiro, Ostium has raised $27.8 million in total funding, including a $20 million Series A round co-led by General Catalyst and Jump Crypto in December, with participation from LocalGlobe, Susquehanna, and Alliance DAO. The broader trend of traditional market infrastructure connecting with DeFi continues, as seen in Nasdaq’s March partnership with Payward (Kraken’s parent) to develop infrastructure for tokenized equity markets.
