Variational, a protocol for on-chain derivatives trading, announced a Series A funding round of approximately $50 million led by Dragonfly with participation from Bain Capital Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, and other strategic investors. The funding coincides with the launch of the company’s first Real-World Asset (RWA) markets, which allow traders to access perpetuals tied to commodities alongside crypto holdings.
The company said its protocol is designed to aggregate and route liquidity from both traditional financial markets and on-chain markets instead of relying on isolated Central Limit Order Books (CLOBs). By addressing the “cold start” liquidity challenge, Variational aims to offer access to a broad range of global assets including indices, equities, foreign exchange products, and cryptocurrencies through a single account.
Variational launched an invite-only private beta in January 2025. Since launch, the platform said it has processed more than $200 billion in trading volume across more than 50,000 accounts, accumulated over $750 million in open interest, and distributed more than $7 million in rewards to traders.
The protocol’s initial “Phase 1” RWA rollout includes gold, silver, copper, and WTI crude markets. According to the company, this phase is intended to test the protocol’s cross-margin engine and on-chain settlement infrastructure using crypto-native liquidity. A planned “Phase 2” rollout is expected to begin routing liquidity directly from traditional finance sources and add more than 100 markets on-chain during the summer.
Variational said its 2026 roadmap includes expanding the number of RWA markets available on the platform, increasing liquidity partnerships, and launching a trading API.
The company said its team includes professionals with experience at companies and firms such as Google, Meta, Virtu Financial, IMC, and Jane Street.
KEY QUOTES:
“You can’t rebuild forty years of traditional market depth from scratch on a crypto order book. Traditional finance solved this problem with the brokerage model, we’re bringing that model on-chain, aggregating RWA liquidity from where it already exists rather than waiting for it to migrate.”
Lucas Schuermann, CEO of Variational
“Order books are fine when you have the liquidity to anchor them. But for the massive universe of RWAs, more often it’s a mistake. Everyone else is trying to suck liquidity through a straw, spending millions on incentives just to end up with thin books and volatile pricing. Variational’s model sidesteps that entirely, mainlining liquidity from traditional markets directly on-chain. It’s what ‘perps on everything’ requires to work at scale.”
Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly
