Ekiden, a Lisbon-based startup building blockchain-based trading infrastructure for professional and institutional users, has closed a €1.7 million ($2 million) Seed round at a €17 million ($20 million) valuation.
The round included investors associated with GSR, Pyth, Aptos, LayerZero, Cube Exchange, Avail, and Chorus One, alongside Unicorn Factory Ventures and P2 Ventures.
Vitali Dervoed, founder of Ekiden, says: “I’ve seen how professional traders think about execution, reliability, and risk, and too much on-chain trading still doesn’t meet those standards.”
Across the broader 2026 market, there have been several adjacent funding announcements in blockchain, digital assets and institutional financial infrastructure that provide valuable context to the ecosystem Ekiden is entering.
Berlin-based Midas raised €43 million to expand its tokenised investment infrastructure, with GSR – also named among investors associated with Ekiden’s round – participating in the deal. Vilnius-based Axiology secured €5 million to develop tokenised securities infrastructure under the EU DLT Pilot Regime. Amsterdam-based Finst raised €8 million to support European expansion of its regulated cryptocurrency platform, including the development of institutional services.
In the wider trading and capital-markets infrastructure segment, Berlin-based Upvest raised €108 million to scale securities infrastructure for banks, brokers and FinTechs, while Copenhagen-based Performativ secured €11.96 million to expand its AI-native wealth management operating system.
Taken together, these 2026 rounds point to around €176 million in disclosed funding across blockchain-adjacent, digital-asset and institutional financial infrastructure companies. The wider European market is then showing continued investment in tokenisation, regulated crypto platforms, securities infrastructure and trading-related operating systems.
Ekiden’s Seed round sits at the early-stage end of this activity, with a narrower focus on blockchain-based derivatives infrastructure for professional and institutional users.
“Our goal is to make blockchain-based derivatives a truly usable tool for serious market participants while bringing faster, more secure, and higher-performance trading to everyone – from institutions to everyday users – without sacrificing transparency, user control, or the broader benefits of blockchain-based markets,” adds Vitali.
Founded in 2025, Ekiden is developing a decentralised derivatives trading platform designed for high-frequency and algorithmic trading. The company’s approach is informed by Vitali background across traditional finance and blockchain infrastructure.
His experience spans capital markets and roles linked to Neon EVM, RockawayX, and Mango Markets.
As demand for digital assets and on-chain derivatives grows, Ekiden believes that the market still needs better infrastructure to support more professional trading. Recent research found that 73% of institutional decision-makers plan to increase digital asset allocations in 2026, while 46% cite improved institutional-grade infrastructure as a driver of increased exposure.
While demand continues to grow, data suggests that the infrastructure behind these products is still not fully ready for more professional trading. Recent research found that 73% of institutional decision-makers plan to increase digital asset allocations in 2026, while 46% cite improved institutional-grade infrastructure as a driver of increased exposure.
Rather than building another broad crypto trading venue, Ekiden looks to develope a platform designed for more advanced trading. Its model combines faster trade execution with on-chain settlement, aiming to improve performance while preserving transparency and user control.
The product is being designed for professional users, including trading firms and market makers, with integrations intended to support more advanced and automated trading strategies. The company says its goal is to make blockchain-based derivatives markets more usable for serious trading participants.
Ekiden is building on Arbitrum, which the team sees as a better fit for this type of product because of its more established trading ecosystem and more mature technical infrastructure.
Today’s capital will be used for audits, product development, team expansion, and strategic partnerships aimed at scaling liquidity.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/05/ekiden-raises-e1-7-million-at-e17-million-valuation-for-blockchain-based-trading-platform-out-of-portugal/
