Defx Labs Raises $2.5M Seed Round to Launch a Zero-Knowledge Dark Pool DEX for Perpetual Futures Trading

Defx, a new Layer 1 built for trading, has announced a $2.5 million seed round to launch a dark pool DEX for perpetual futures trading - where order flow, position sizes, leverage, long/short exposure, and liquidation thresholds are all fully encrypted using zero-knowledge tech, while transaction integrity remains publicly verifiable onchain.

Defx, a new Layer 1 being built for trading has announced a $2.5 million seed round to launch a dark pool DEX for perpetual futures trading - where order flow, position sizes, leverage, long/short exposure, and liquidation thresholds are all fully encrypted using zero-knowledge tech, while transaction integrity remains publicly verifiable onchain.

Investors include Pantera Capital, CMT Digital, Gumi Cryptos, CoinShares, Robot Ventures, Cadenza Ventures, Baboon VC, and angel investors like Sandeep Nailwal (Polygon) and Mahin Gupta (Liminal).

The funding will support the development and launch of Defx’s Layer 1 blockchain for real-time, on-chain trading infrastructure of perpetual contracts across cryptocurrencies, commodities, currencies, indices, and more.

A New Paradigm: Privacy for Traders, Transparency for the Market

In most DeFi trading systems, transaction data is fully visible onchain. While this supports transparency, it also reveals sensitive trading details like order size, leverage, and liquidation thresholds. For traders managing size or running structured strategies, this visibility can introduce risks around execution and position integrity.

Defx takes a different approach. By integrating zero-knowledge proofs directly into the execution layer, Defx keeps trade intent private while maintaining full verifiability onchain.

This includes:

all transactions are publicly verifiable through onchain proofs. The goal is to protect traders’ intent while preserving trust at the protocol level — creating a more neutral, execution-focused environment for anyone participating in the market.

Purpose Built for Active Traders

Defx is a Layer 1 blockchain built for perpetual futures, the chain architecture includes cross-margin and multi-collateral trading accounts and a liquidity layer composed of vaults, liquidity providers (LPs), and market makers.

Defx has sub-millisecond matching, a central limit order book (CLOB), supports contracts on both EVM and Solana, and doesn't rely on bridges or wrapped tokens. Users can bring assets in directly from Solana, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Berachain, and more. The chain architecture includes cross-margin and multi-collateral trading accounts and a liquidity layer composed of vaults, liquidity providers (LPs), and market makers.

Vault-Based Liquidity, Built for Scale

Anyone can provide liquidity via onchain vaults and earn fees + protocol revenue. Users can stake BTC, ETH, stablecoins, or LSTs and earn protocol yield, trading fees, and rewards.

This system ensures deep liquidity for traders and passive yield for capital allocators, with full onchain transparency.

Multi-asset and multi-collateral support

Defx supports a wide range of assets across:

trades can be funded with diverse collateral options, including stablecoins, top cryptocurrencies, and yield-generating tokens while maintaining underlying asset exposure.

Team

The founding team behind Defx Labs - Darshan Bathija, Sanju Sony Kurian, and Soumyadeep Das have been building web3 businesses since 2018. They previously led Vauld, which became Asia’s largest crypto lending business, serving close to 1 million customers. Having navigated the challenges of the 2022 crypto winter through their previous venture, they learned critical lessons about risk management and the paramount importance of self-custody. These insights now inform Defx's architecture, positioning the team to redefine how onchain wealth is managed without counterparty risk.

Roadmap

Future initiatives for Defx include the launch of public incentive programs, trading competitions, additional vault integrations, spot trading, social memecoin trading, self-custody embedded wallets, native on/off ramps, and the expansion of community-driven initiatives.

Defx is bringing dark pools to DeFi. The zk-powered, privacy-first perps DEX, with real performance, real yield, and no counterparty risk.

About Defx

Defx is a purpose-built Layer 1 blockchain designed for trading perpetual futures across crypto, FX, commodities, and synthetic markets. By combining a high-performance CLOB engine with zero-knowledge proofs and a vault-based liquidity system, Defx offers private, composable, and verifiably fair onchain trading. The protocol enables encrypted order flow, multi-collateral margining, and native cross-chain onboarding without bridges or wrapped tokens.