Brine Fi hits $100m valuation with $16.5m round as it launches top ranking decentralised exchange Crypto trading execution platform Brine Fi launches orderbook platform as monthly trading volumes climb to $300m, ranking in the top ten decentralised crypto exchanges.
Dubai, UAE
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September 07, 2023 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Centralised Exchanges (CEXs) that trade crypto currencies have been under fire ever since the FTX fall out. This led to a surge in interest for Decentralised Exchanges (DEXs) for traders seeking some safeguards for their portfolios. Yet these DEXs remain cumbersome for users to execute trades and manage profitability. Innovating the decentralised finance space, Brine Fi is today announcing a $16.5m series A funding round having launched its orderbook platform just weeks ago that is already running monthly volumes of $300m, becoming the top ranked DEX globally.
The funding round was led by Pantera Capital with participation from Elevation Capital, Starkware Ltd, Spartan Group, Goodwater Capital, Upsparks Ventures, Protofund Ventures and angel investors.
Brine Fi is an orderbook spot DEX and has set out to address the shortcomings being faced by crypto traders when trading. A DEX allows users to trade on-chain i.e. traders can get their orders executed on the blockchain and hold full custody of their assets with them while placing these trades. While they are the safest way to trade, many traders opted for a CEX to counter higher trading fees on DEXs, price slippage, transaction fees ($5-25 per transaction), liquidity issues, the absence of an orderbook, transaction delays and an inability to provide privacy on orders causing frontrunning attacks. These issues can impact profit margins and substantially increase the uncertainty of specific trades.
The crypto market is known best for its volatility which creates opportunities for traders but all too often the trading engines of DEX can’t keep up and fail to execute orders instantaneously, which leads to price slippage. Brine Fi is able to execute orders in milliseconds while remaining fully non-custodial and this feature has helped them onboard some of the largest hedge-funds, exchanges and high frequency traders in the world by helping them diversify their asset allocation and mitigate counterparty risks.
Brine Fi also solves another common issue prevailing in DEXs called frontrunning, wherein a user places an order of a huge value on a DEX, it becomes public to everyone and this information can be used by anyone by getting their order executed first at a better price, which might lead to the previous order not being executed. To tackle this issue, Brine Fi makes use of zkP (Zero Knowledge Proofs) technology, powered by StarkWare, which enables privacy on trading positions, so that traders can get their high volume orders executed with ease. Moreover, users can trade gasless and pay a trading fee as small as 0.05%. Users can also claim up to 50% of their referrals’ trading fee as a rebate on Brine Fi. Moreover with the launch of Brine Fi’s Trading Leaderboard, top traders can now claim USDC rewards every month.
Shaaran Lakshminarayanan, co-founder and CEO at Brine Fi commented: ““Having built one of the largest crypto exchange previously, we have had to diversify users assets constantly in multiple exchanges and venues to reduce asset loss risk due to troubled exchanges/parties, with Brine Fi we make it easy for institutions, centralised exchanges, HFT traders and retail users to reduce their counterparty risk and at the same time get the best price for their orders in the industry”.
The Brine Fi team includes former execs from CoinBase, PayPal, Venmo, Flipkart, Harvard, and MIT and are on a mission to deliver the best DEX experience possible to traders and institutions alike. Brine Fi was founded by university friends Bhavesh Praveen, Ritumbhara Bhatnagar and Shaaran Lakshminarayanan.
Paul Veradittakit, Managing Partner at Pantera Capital commented: “Brine tackles some of the most important challenges holding back institutional and mainstream user adoption in DeFi. There's an urgent demand for a self-custodial execution layer that is faster, more reliable, user-friendly, and cost-effective.”
Vaas Bhaskar, Principal at Elevation Capital commented: “We have seen Shaaran and team since Day One at Brine. The team brings together a unique blend of understanding both, complex technologies and evolving user needs. We are are excited to continue to invest in Brine, in their mission of abstracting complexities of blockchain technology and making it more accessible to end users and institutions”
About Brine Fi
Brine.Fi is the world’s leading decentralised exchange for institutions and high frequency traders. Presently ranked as one of the top 10 decentralised exchanges in the world by trading volume backed by Pantera Capital, Elevation Capital, Starkware Ltd, Spartan Group, Goodwater Capital, Upsparks Ventures, Protofund and Marquee angel investors.
About Pantera Capital
Pantera Capital is the first institutional investment firm focused exclusively on bitcoin, other digital currencies, and companies in the blockchain tech ecosystem. Pantera launched the first cryptocurrency fund in the United States when bitcoin was at $65/BTC in 2013. The firm subsequently launched the first exclusively-blockchain venture fund. In 2017, Pantera was the first firm to offer an early-stage token fund. Pantera Bitcoin Fund has returned over 32,000% in nine years and has returned billions to its investors. Pantera manages $4.7bn across three strategies – passive, hedge, and venture.
About Elevation Capital
Elevation Capital is a leading venture capital firm that provides seed and early-stage capital for emerging companies. Elevation Capital has deployed almost $2 billion of capital in over 150 companies. The firm announced its eighth pool of capital of $670 million in April 2022. The firm is led by Co-Managing Partners Ravi Adusumalli and Mukul Arora, along with Partners Mridul Arora and Mayank Khanduja. The firm has invested in over 150 companies across Consumer Internet, SaaS, Fintech, Consumer Brands, Edtech, Healthtech and Web3/Crypto and has offices in Bengaluru, Gurgaon and Salt Lake City.
Contact Details
Brine Fi
Bilal Mahmood
+44 7714 007257
b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com
Company Website
