Variational Raises $50M for Real-World Asset Perpetual Futures
Peer-to-peer trading startup Variational has raised $50 million in a Series A funding round led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto and Coinbase Ventures. The Cayman Islands-based company is launching perpetual futures tied to real-world assets (RWAs) like oil, silver, copper, and gold. Variational has already processed over $200 billion in trading volume since 2025. The funds will be used to expand infrastructure for routing liquidity from traditional markets, aiming to bring TradFi-grade depth to onchain perpetuals. CEO Lucas V. Schuermann believes RWA perpetuals will become the largest contract class in DeFi, surpassing Bitcoin and Ether combined. Dragonfly's Haseeb Qureshi highlighted the cold-start liquidity problem in DeFi, noting that Variational's request-for-quote model mirrors traditional finance solutions, aggregating liquidity from deep underlying markets like the CME.
Key facts
- Variational raised $50M in Series A led by Dragonfly Capital.
- Company launches perpetual futures on gold, silver, copper, and oil.
- Over $200 billion in trading volume since 2025.
- Funds to build infrastructure for routing liquidity from traditional markets.
- Uses RFQ model to aggregate liquidity from deep markets like CME.