SynFutures raises $22 million, introduces public testnet for v3

SynFutures, a decentralized exchange focused on derivatives trading, has raised $22 million in a series B funding round.

In announcing the news, the team behind the DEX announced the launch of a public testnet for the third version of its DEX protocol.

The funding round was led by Pantera Capital, with participation from SIG DT Investments and HashKey Capital.

The fresh capital will be used to support product development and the project’s multichain expansion, Mark Lee, SynFuture’s chief marketing officer, told Blockworks.

Earlier this year, SynFutures launched its v2, where the protocol introduced “DAO futures” — enabling projects to create liquidity pools for their own tokens against ether, USDC and USDT.

According to DeFiLlama, at the time of writing, Synfutures v2 has a total value locked (TVL) of $6.07 million, with the majority of its tokens in Polygon, USDC and wETH.

Its new v3 platform will introduce the Oyster automated market maker (AMM) allowing users to bid on perpetual futures. It will also introduce a fully on-chain order book, Lee said.

“While several projects, including dYdX, opt for a hybrid approach — integrating off-chain orders with on-chain settlements — the full on-chain methodology stands out for its inherent transparency and trustworthiness,” Lee said.

According to Lee, SynFuture’s order book functions without the intervention of privileged administrators.

“This ensures the elimination of potential hidden backdoors, providing unwavering system access and championing a firm stance against censorship,” he said.

Trading features such as listing crypto assets, altcoins and NFTs in under 30 seconds will still be possible in v3 — just like in the earlier versions of the protocol — but what will be unique to Oyster AMM is its ability to integrate concentrated liquidity on-chain quickly.

Liquidity can be concentrated within specific price ranges and includes the leverage for AMMs, mitigating the need to rely on centralized administrators and off-chain systems.