SynFutures, a decentralised exchange for perpetual futures, said on Thursday that it has snapped $22 million in a Series B funding round led by Pantera Capital.
The round saw the participation of SIG DT Investments, which is owned by quantitative trading major Susquehanna International Group; and HashKey Capital, the investment arm of Hong Kong-headquartered digital asset financial services provider HashKey Group, per the company announcement.
The Series B round, which came over two years after the firm closed its Series A funding round led by crypto VC Polychain Capital in June 2021, has brought the firm’s total capital raised to $38 million. Its Series A funding round also roped in notable investors in the space including Pantera Capital, Wintermute, and IOSG Ventures, among others.
SynFutures was co-founded in 2020 by Rachel Lin, who previously served as one of the founding partners of Singapore-headquartered crypto unicorn Matrixport; and Yizhou Cao, who earlier served at international banks Nomura and Credit Suisse. Its derivatives exchange is currently deployed on multiple blockchains.
The news comes at a time when fundraising is getting increasingly difficult for crypto startups and projects, which saw the steepest fall in the number of venture deals and capital raised in Q3 2023 since Q4 2020, according to crypto intelligence firm Messari. The quarter saw a total of 297 crypto firms and projects raising just under $2.1 billion, a 36% drop in terms of both deal count and deal value compared with Q2 2023, per the report.
SynFutures is set to launch a new platform for perpetual futures in a bid to enhance trading efficiency, according to Rachel Lin, the firm’s co-founder and CEO. The new V3 platform, which the firm plans to launch in the mainnet in Q4 2023, serves as a strategic move in anticipation of several upcoming positive market events, including Bitcoin halving.
Bitcoin halving is an event that takes place every four years when the block reward for mining Bitcoin is slashed into two. These events have garnered significant attention over recent years, as past halvings have been driving up the price of Bitcoin. This is because as the reward for mining Bitcoin decreases, it slows down the circulation of new Bitcoin, leading to price changes as a result of demand fluctuations.
“Bitcoin’s inflation rate was 50% in 2011, but after halving in 2012, it plummeted to 12% in 2012 and 4-5% in 2016. It now has a 1.77% inflation rate. This means that after each halving, the value of Bitcoin increases. Every halving event has historically resulted in a bull run for Bitcoin,” per an explanatory article published by Cointelegraph.