- Drift raised $25 million in a Series B funding round led by Multicoin Capital.
- The decentralized finance platform plans to build an array of financial services tools, including spot and derivatives trading and a predictions market.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Drift raised $25 million in Series B funding to expand its Solana-based exchange.
The round was led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Blockchain Capital, Folius Ventures, Maelstrom and Primitive, according to a post on X.
Drift wrote on X that it would be the "first on-chain platform to offer cross-collateral margin accounts across a DeFi product suite, spanning perpetual derivatives markets, spot markets, borrow-lend markets and prediction markets."
As a decentralized platform, Drift differentiates itself from centralized exchanges in that there is no single entity in control of users' funds. Drift's protocol is governed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and an associated token, DRIFT, which has risen 2.1% in the last 24 hours to just above $0.71.
Solana is the closest competitor to Ethereum, which remains comfortably the biggest blockchain for DeFi activity.
The funding news was initially reported by Fortune.
Co-founder Cindy Leow told the outlet that she wants Drift to become the "Robinhood of crypto," and that the company intends to double its headcount to 50 within the next year.
Leow said she thinks Solana and not Ethereum – currently the dominant blockchain for DeFi in terms total deposits – will ultimately be the best venue for a platform like Drift, because issuers of tokenized assets will "look at the chain that has the highest amount of activity, the highest amount of users, and the most seamless integration."
UPDATE (19:16 UTC): Adds that Drift team confirmed fundraising in a post on X.
