As the cryptocurrency landscape continues to evolve with numerous layer 1 and layer 2 blockchains, decentralized finance The (DeFi) platform Drift is making significant progress on the Solana (SOL) blockchain.
Recently, Drift announced a successful $25 million Series B funding round led by cryptocurrency venture capital firm Multicoin Capital. This funding will help fuel Drift’s vision of becoming the “Robinhood of crypto,” according to co-founder Cindy Leow.
How Solana powers Drift operations
In a recent interview Together with Fortune, Leow expressed his ambition to establish Drift as a comprehensive on-chain financial institution. The platform plans to expand its suite of financial services, which currently includes spot and derivatives trading and a prediction market, all built on the Solana blockchain.
Founded in 2021, Drift operates as a derivatives exchange, distinguishing itself from centralized exchanges (CEXs) like Coinbase and Binance by utilizing a permissionless structure on the Solana blockchain.
This model ensures that users have full control over their funds, with no centralized authority managing their assets. While Solana hosts decentralized exchanges (DEX), Drift distinguishes itself with its diverse product offering, including lending and borrowing protocols.
Drift Labs, the company behind Drift, develops the software and protocol governed by an associated token (DRIFT) and a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).
One of Drift’s most popular products is the perpetual future, a type of derivative contract that allows traders to speculate on the future price of an asset with no expiration date.
While these products primarily appeal to more sophisticated investors, Drift restricts access to perpetual futures in the US, where only spot trading is available.
One of the key components of Drift is its cross-margin capability, which allows users to use various assets (such as dollar-backed stablecoins, Solana, and Wrapped Bitcoin) as collateral for transactions.
Drift plans to double its workforce after funding round
According to Fortune, Drift’s growth has attracted significant investment, with more than 200,000 users and more than $50 billion in cumulative revenue. Trading volume.
The successful Series B round brings Drift’s total funding to $52.5 million, with plans to double its headcount from 25 to 50 people in the next year.
Under Leow’s leadership, Drift also stands out as a female-led crypto company. She noted that Drift has one of the highest gender diversities in crypto, with about half of its leadership team made up of women.
At the time of writing, Solana is trading at $143, up nearly 12% in the past 24 hours alone, outperforming the top ten cryptocurrencies on the market, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The rally follows the Federal Reserve’s announcement on Wednesday to cut interest rates by 0.50 basis points, a decision that has so far boosted bullish sentiment in the market.
Featured image of DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com
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