Ithaca Finance raises $2.5m to build on-chain options protocol

Ithaca Finance, a decentralized finance (defi) startup building composable options infrastructure, has raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed funding round. 

The round was co-led by crypto trading firm Cumberland and venture capital firm Wintermute Ventures.

Ithaca aims to bring more options trading volume on-chain and meet the growing demand for structured products in crypto markets. 

Now, in testing on Arbitrum, its protocol uses an algorithmic market maker model to bootstrap liquidity.

Commenting, Ithaca CEO Dimitrios Kavvathas said:

“We are truly grateful for our investors’ support and are looking forward to revolutionizing the digital asset options trading landscape with their guidance and partnership.”

Kavvathas previously held leadership roles at Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and crypto lender Amber Group. Ithaca’s technical team also has experience across traditional finance and crypto startups.

Ithaca says it can shorten the path to institutional-scale options trading volumes across blockchains by fragmenting options contracts into fundamental building blocks. Its permissionless infrastructure aggregates liquidity and enables risk transfer across assets and time horizons.

Following an invite-only launch, Ithaca plans to open its protocol later in Q1 2024. The funding round also included backing from GHAF Capital, Room40 Ventures, and several angel investors.

The planned launch is when defi is recovering after the drop in 2022. So far, the defi total value locked (TVL) stands at over $56 billion.

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