Rho Labs Launches Institutional-Grade Crypto Interest Rates Market

Rho Labs has announced the public launch of Rho Protocol, the world’s first institutional-grade market for crypto interest rates, on March 31. Following a successful private beta phase, Rho’s crypto funding rate and staking rate futures will now be available for trading. Built on Arbitrum, Rho has successfully transformed crypto interest rates into a liquid, tradeable asset class, providing hedge funds, trading firms, DAOs, and institutional investors with capital-efficient tools for hedging and deploying profitable rate strategies. The platform has already established itself as a leading venue for trading crypto rates, with nearly $10B in notional volume traded during the beta stage.

Rho’s launch marks a significant milestone in the maturation of the crypto ecosystem. As the crypto market increasingly mirrors traditional financial markets, rates—being the largest asset class in global financial markets—will play a crucial role in the ecosystem's functioning. The platform offers a range of products, including Perpetual Funding Rate Futures and Staking Rate Futures, which allow users to trade opportunities presented by funding rate fluctuations and hedge against unpredictable changes. Users can take positions on the funding rate of BTC or ETH perpetual swaps on various centralized and decentralized exchanges, including Binance, OKX, and Bybit.

Rho has also created the first liquid staking rates market, referencing the CESR™ (the Composite Ethereum Staking Rate). This market allows traders to take positions in Ethereum staking rates for various maturities, from one month to one year or longer. This provides traders with the opportunity to hedge against volatile rates and exploit future fluctuations in Ethereum staking yields. Rho’s Staking Rate Futures enable users to lock in fixed yields on Ether staking rewards, mitigating the risk of volatile staking rate changes and creating stable, sustainable returns.

Rho incentivizes liquidity providers to supply capital to vAMMs (virtual automated market makers) on the platform. Rho’s vAMM is a next-generation rate market-making mechanism that introduces a capital-efficient model optimized for trading rate derivatives. Unlike traditional AMMs, which rely on continuous liquidity pools, Rho’s vAMM offers a more efficient approach to market making. Additionally, the Rho Liquidity Vault generates passive returns in on-chain rate markets through a market-neutral liquidity strategy, providing market-making functions to Rho Protocol’s vAMMs. Users can deposit into the vault to provide liquidity and in return receive a portion of the trading fees that the vault earns. The vault also provides liquidity for liquidations, allowing users to earn additional fees when liquidations are actioned.

Rho Labs recently completed a $4 million seed funding round, backed by Coinfund, Flow Traders, Auros, and Speedinvest. With the new funding, Rho Labs plans to enhance liquidity, onboard institutional participants, and develop non-custodial trading solutions. Alex Felix, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of CoinFund, expressed enthusiasm for supporting Rho Labs, highlighting the platform's potential to fill a critical gap in the crypto ecosystem with a marketplace of perpetual products to normalize funding and forward rates between CeFi and DeFi. Felix also praised Rho Labs' team for their expertise in capital markets and their vision for the future of rate derivatives in crypto.

Rho Labs is the developer of Rho Protocol, offering a secure, efficient, and compliant platform for trading staking, lending, and perpetual future funding rates. The platform is designed to cater to a wide array of cryptonative and professional traders, providing them with the tools needed to navigate the evolving crypto market. For more information, visit https://www.rho.trading/