Ithaca Finance Raises $2.5 Million in Pre-Seed Funding
Ithaca Finance, a composable option protocol, has announced a successful pre-seed funding round, raising $2.5 million. The funding round was co-led by Cumberland and Wintermute Ventures, with participation from Room40 Ventures, Ghaf Capital Partners, and angel investors Andrew Keys, Stan Miroshnik, and Georgios Vlachos. The protocol is currently live on the Arbitrum testnet and will soon launch an invite-only mainnet prior to a full launch later this quarter.
Aiming to Revolutionize On-Chain Options Markets
Ithaca is building a non-custodial risk primitive that aims to migrate billions of dollars in options volume on-chain. The protocol addresses the underperformance of on-chain option volumes compared to spot and perpetual volumes in the crypto market. It is designed to shorten the time to institutional-level scale in on-chain options markets by overcoming liquidity fragmentation and low liquidity.
The Ithaca Protocol’s Unique Features
The Ithaca Protocol utilizes a matching engine that breaks down option payoffs into fundamental building blocks, allowing for atomic matching and conditional order logic. It also incorporates replication, portfolio dominance, and collateral optimization principles. The protocol aims to aggregate cross-chain liquidity and enable optimal risk sharing across time and event horizons through permissionless purpose-built infrastructure.
Invitation to Test Ithaca Protocol
Users are invited to test the Ithaca Protocol and become eligible for the Ithaca Points Program. The team behind Ithaca has extensive experience in finance and crypto, with members having worked at institutions such as Goldman Sachs, BAML, Deutsche Bank, and BlueCrest.
Investors’ Support and Vision
Investors expressed their support and excitement for Ithaca’s vision. Wintermute Ventures believes that Ithaca’s options platform simplifies complex financial contracts and enhances liquidity. Cumberland sees the team as domain experts with the right background to bring composable structured option products on-chain.
About Ithaca Finance
Ithaca Finance is a non-custodial, composable option protocol focused on building permissionless cross-chain infrastructure for optimal risk sharing. The protocol enables the deployment of liquidity-enhancing option, structured product, and lending markets on any underlying asset. The ecosystem includes an option trading protocol, algorithmic market maker, collateral optimization engine, cross-chain interoperability powered by Axelar, and decentralized protocol governance.
Hot Take: Ithaca Finance Revolutionizing On-Chain Options Trading
Ithaca Finance’s successful pre-seed funding round and upcoming mainnet launch demonstrate its commitment to revolutionizing the digital asset options trading landscape. With its unique features and focus on aggregating liquidity and enabling optimal risk sharing, Ithaca aims to overcome the challenges faced by on-chain options markets. By providing a transparent and efficient platform for composable options markets, Ithaca is poised to make a significant impact in the crypto industry.
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