Trading platform Rho Labs banks £1.8m

London-based trading platform Rho Labs has banked $2.2m (£1.8m) in a pre-seed capital raise led by Speedinvest.

Founded in late 2022, the fintech is creating a market for rates derivatives that’s built on blockchain technology.

Traders will be able to use its platform for digital asset lending, funding rates and staking.

Alex Ryvkin, founder and CEO of Rho Labs, said: “Interest rate derivatives [IRDs] represent the largest asset class in traditional finance with over $500tn (£402tn) in outstanding interest.”

Ryvkin, who was formerly the CPO at crypto firm Copper, added: “Our ultimate goal is to introduce this market to the advantages of on-chain trading while offering crypto traders the opportunity to trade the most prominent rates in the ecosystem, as enjoyed by participants of TradFi markets.”

Speedinvest was joined in the investment round by Copper CEO Dmitry Tokarev, Daedalus Collective, Re7 Capital, and Keyrock.

“Market participants across the world widely use IRDs to efficiently hedge against or to capitalise on future rate changes,” said Olga Shikhantsova, partner at Speedinvest.

“Given the apparent importance of rates to the global macro environment, we are very happy to support this project, which seeks to use technology to make rates markets more robust and secure.”

Rho Labs plans to launch a private beta before the end of the year.