Globe Closes $18M Round to Create Best-in-Class Derivatives Platform

Crypto derivatives, once the preserve of an elite group of risk-happy traders, have gone mainstream. Today, retail users flock to futures markets en masse, and they’ve now got one more venue to choose from: GlobeDX. The derivatives exchange is preparing to kick into high gear after closing an $18M private round that reads like a who’s who of blockchain VC.

Investors are clearly bullish on the UK-based exchange, and so are retail investors too, judging by Globe’s heavily oversubscribed presale.

The company just announced a LBP on Balancer for the GDT token.

From there, it’s onto phase two: onboarding crypto traders, from newbies to pros. That will arguably be a tougher challenge than anything that’s passed up until now, but Globe’s team is confident it can deliver.

Y Combinator Coughs Up to Fuel Globe Expansion

Y Combinator was a lead investor in Globe’s private round which also saw Pantera Capital, Draper Dragon and Republic Crypto write checks. With the likes of OKEx, CMT Digital, and Wave Financial also chipping in, GlobeDX had no trouble in meeting its funding target, paving the way for everything that comes next.

First up, of course, is the public sale on April 30, after which participants will be able to put their newly acquired GDT tokens to use, initially to secure a discount on trading fees. There are clear analogies between GlobeDX and Binance when it was at a similar stage in its evolution. That’s not to say that Globe is destined to become the next Binance, but it’s certainly gotten off on a similarly sound footing.

Indeed, Globe’s recently completed presale was larger than that of Binance, and the fact that Globe has onboarded 200 partners already augurs well for its future. “We’re working closely with our investors and strategic partners to bring innovative products for our traders on Globe. Trading defi perpetuals on an exchange built by trad-fi veterans will be a whole new experience for crypto traders,” enthused GlobeDX CEO James West.

A Multi-Trillion Dollar Market

GlobeDX has entered a lucrative market whose trade volumes routinely run into trillions of dollars per month. $2.13T of futures were traded in March, with Bybit accounting for around $300 billion of that. While it will take time for Globe to capture serious market share from its rivals, it’s on the right track, and its pledge to deliver superior UX and deep liquidity is resonating with traders.

Just as the crypto spot and futures markets create winners and losers on a daily basis, the same is true of the exchanges themselves. Most of the new platforms that launch will not become the next Binance or Bybit, and will instead have to content themselves with soaking up the long tail of crypto traders who for whatever reason have eschewed the market-leading exchanges. If GlobeDX can build up a loyal user base of its own, however, it will be primed to start luring traders away from the big two.

Featured image via Unsplash.

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