Harvard alumni-founded Ostium lands $24 million in fresh funding to scale onchain perpetuals for RWAs

Ostium, a decentralized exchange founded by Harvard alumni Kaledora Kiernan-Linn and Marco Antonio Ribeiro, has raised $24 million in fresh funding, including a $20 million Series A co-led by General Catalyst and Jump Crypto, valuing the startup at approximately $250 million. The platform, built on Arbitrum, offers perpetual futures exposure to traditional assets like stocks, commodities, indices, and FX directly from a self-custodial wallet, utilizing a quote-based pricing model that sources liquidity from off-chain venues. Ostium aims to disrupt the global CFD broker market by providing transparent execution and self-custody, addressing structural issues where retail traders rely on conflicted broker-controlled infrastructure. The company has already processed $25 billion in cumulative trading volume, with over 95% of its open interest tied to real-world assets, notably capturing over 50% of onchain gold perpetuals open interest during a recent rally. The new capital will be used to expand asset coverage and scale infrastructure.

(Source：The Block)