Ripple-led funding round raises $25 million for Bitnomial’s perpetual futures trading platform

Bitnomial Exchange announced raising $25 million in a funding round led by Ripple, a U.S.-based technology company. The exchange also announced a forthcoming perpetual futures trading platform called Botanical for U.S. crypto traders. 

The U.S. CFTC-regulated crypto and derivatives exchange announced it has raised $25 million in a funding round led by popular blockchain company Ripple. The exchange also hinted at the upcoming official release of a perpetual futures trading platform for U.S. citizens. 

Bitnomial to launch Botanical futures platform for US crypto traders

Bitnomial is announcing the upcoming launch of perpetual futures on our CFTC-regulated Bitnomial Exchange. As part of that, we will be launching @Botanical, a platform for all investors to trade perpetual futures, traditional futures, and options.

Read more here:… pic.twitter.com/oagZNhIAxh

— Bitnomial (@Bitnomial) October 15, 2024

The exchange announced that Botanical, the futures perpetual trading platform, will offer traders in the U.S. traditional futures and options trading in compliance with U.S. regulations. The platform is under closed beta tests for final touches before the official debut, and the early access program runs futures products through Bitnomial’s CFTC-registered FCM, Bitnomial Clearing, LLC.

The announcement also highlighted that Bitnomial has allied with Ripple to offer RLUSD stablecoin as the settlement standard for perpetual futures on the incoming trading platform.

RLUSD settlement will be rendered on Botanical through Bitnomial Clearinghouse, LLC, Bitnomial’s newly approved derivatives clearing organization. The settlement process will be executed in compliance with regulatory standards and all necessary regulatory approvals.

CEO of Bitnomial, Luke Hoersten, said that the purpose of launching Bitnomial was to provide a compliant and innovative experience for crypto traders based in the U.S.

The executive mentioned that Botanical will offer a permanent alternative solution to decentralized exchanges and VPN-based walkarounds that traders use in the U.S. to navigate the Futures markets.

The press release also mentioned that Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse is joining Bitnomial’s governing board to help steer the entity. The executive commented on the funding round and the partnership, saying that Bitnomial was setting new standards for the Web3 ecology by introducing foreign trading models into the U.S. derivatives market.

“Bitnomial’s approach to bringing offshore trading models into the US derivatives industry presents a significant market opportunity as they establish a compliant derivatives market for digital assets, such as XRP.”

-Brad Garlinghouse

Bitnomial sues the U.S. SEC as Ripple intensifies RLUSD on-chain activity

The news comes after Bitnomial sued the U.S. financial watchdog on October 11th. According to court filings, Bitnomial stated the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claimed the XRP Futures product that is yet to be listed on the exchange is against federal securities laws despite the exchange receiving a self-certification from the CFTC.

Ripple has been continuously working on its stablecoin, RLUSD, for months. On October 15th, Ripple’s president Monica Long issued RLUSD’s development update stating that the stablecoin is designed for financial use cases, such as payments, tokenization, and decentralized finance.

The president also noted that Ripple will use the stablecoin alongside Ripple’s native crypto asset, XRP, for more efficient and reliable cross-border payments.

Ripple has also intensified on-chain activity surrounding the stablecoin. According to Ripple Stablecoin Tracker, Ripple minted and transferred 9,000,000 RLUSD twice from an RLUSD Treasury address to another RLUSD Treasury on October 16th.

A few hours before the two mint transactions, a wallet believed to belong to Ripple had minted 18 million RLUSD on Ethereum and transferred it to another wallet, also believed to be Ripple’s.