Nftperp, a decentralized perpetual futures exchange for non-fungible tokens, just announced it raised $3 million in a pre-seed round led 1kx, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on crypto and DeFi.
The new platform allows traders to speculate on the floor prices of blue-chip NFT projects like CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Doodles, and more. Some of its features include a fast and secure trading experience powered by Arbitrum, 24-hour trading from anywhere in the world, up to 5x leverage, and real-time NFT price feeds with accurate pricing data.
Joseph Liu, founder of the platform, said that nftperp wants to have either the same or “even more volume than spot trading activities” on traditional NFT exchanges like OpenSea and Blur. He added that Blur, which could feature a similar protocol on its forthcoming Layer 2 blockchain Blast, is nftperp’s biggest “competitor going forward.” Tribe3 and NFTX are also players in the NFT futures’ space.
Liu added that when it comes to major cryptocurrencies like Ether and Bitcoin, the spread — or difference between buyers’ bid prices and sellers’ ask prices — tends to be very narrow. On the other hand, with NFTs it can range by as much as 1% to 5%. This is due to the nascent nature of NFT trading in general, but it also highlights an opportunity for traders.
While the $3 million pre-seed funding round is big news for the platform, it’s worth noting that Blast has already generated more than $750 million in user deposits. According to DefiLlama, nftperp saw just over $1 million in deposits earlier this year. In other words, it will take a lot going forward for nftperp to rival Blur.
For now, the NFT perpetual futures exchange market remains small, but with more time and investments like these, the landscape of NFT trading looks poised to grow and become more sophisticated.
Web3 Funding Rounds Are Starting to Heat Up
While the $3 million pre-seed round is big news for nftperp and could signal a growing maturation in the area of perpetual futures exchanges for NFTs, it’s not a huge number when it comes to Web3 funding rounds. That said, we’ve covered several Web3 funding rounds this year worth revisiting.
Here are some of the top headlines from 2023 about funding rounds in Web3:
- LINE NEXT Raises $140M for NFT Marketplace
- Superstate Raises $14M to Create Tokenized Investment Funds
- Web3 Restaurant Platform Blackbird Raises $24M in Funding
- Animoca Brands Raises $20M for Mocaverse Project
- Mythical Games Raises $37M Despite Bear Market
- AR Glasses Maker Rokid Closes $112M Founding Round
- Pudgy Penguins Raises $9M to Scale IP, Expand Team
From NFT marketplaces and metaverses to Web3 games and even restaurants, funds are starting to flow into a myriad of projects in the space. This latest round from nftperp could go a long way towards further developing the perpetual futures market for NFTs. If it does, it will be a win for professional traders and the NFT market in general.