After November’s collapse of FTX, decentralized exchanges have grown in popularity as users sour on a model where companies control their assets. Even as Crypto Winter deters trading, data from The Block demonstrates that the market share of platforms like Curve and Uniswap has grown compared to centralized competitors.
On Wednesday, Vertex Protocol—a DEX built on the Ethereum layer-2 Arbitrum—is launching to offer high-speed spot and derivatives trading. Initially, the exchange will offer trading only for Bitcoin and Ether, but Vertex Protocol cofounder Darius Tabatabai told Fortune in an exclusive interview that the platform plans to expand to 14 markets in perpetuals, a type of derivatives futures contract, within the next three to six months. Vertex raised an $8.5 million seed round in April at a $100 million valuation.
