Thetanuts Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol offering crypto options contracts, has raised $17 million to provide a buyer's market and expanded token list, according to an April 24 announcement by the team. The round was led by cryptocurrency inv estment firms Polychain Capital, Hyperchain Capital and Magnus Capital.
Thetanuts currently offers a DeFi options vault, a smart contract that allows investors to sell calls or puts on ether, Wrapping Bitcoin (WBTC), Fantom, avalanche and other cryptocurrencies.
The team plans to use the new funds to create a “buy-side altcoin options marketplace” to attract options buyers. The announcement noted that, so far, DeFi options protocols have focused on attracting sellers looking for steady income, rather than options tra ders looking for leverage. With the freshly raised funds, the developers hope to be one of the first protocols to offer a sufficient product for buyers in the options market.
They also want to expand the coin offering to include more "altcoins," or coins with smaller market caps, including tokens from networks that don't use the Ethereum Virtual Machine. The new options market will combine aspects of automated market makers and traditional money markets to produce a unique options trading system. It will be available in beta "soon".
Polychain Capital portfolio manager Josh Rosenthal said that as the world transitions to Web3, the upcoming market will support stable financial markets. "Functional derivatives are a key component of healthy financial markets," he said.
Traditional futures and options markets will trade more than 60.6 billion contracts in the first nine months of 2022, according to research conducted by the global trade group FIA. As a result, crypto firms are increasingly turning to futures markets. On Apri l 20, Coinbase announced it was developing a Bermuda-based cryptocurrency derivatives exchange. On April 22, Gemini announced that it will also offer Bitcoin and ethereum options oiu on non-US exchanges in the near future.
