Cube.Exchange, a yet-to-be-disclosed hybrid cryptocurrency trading platform, has raised $12 million in a Series A funding round. Cube said Thursday that 6th Man Ventures led the round, with participation from GSR Markets, ParaFi Digital, Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, Everstake Capital and others.
The new round comes just over three months after Cube raised $9 million in seed funding. Cube CEO Bartosz Lipinski, a former Solana engineer, said the company has not actively raised funds but has responded to “significant interest” from investors. “We closed the entire round in less than a month,” Lipinski told The Block, referring to the period since Cube launched early access mode last November.
The structure of the Series A round includes equity in token warrants, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told The Block. Lipinski confirmed the structure and said the seed round had the same structure.
The Series A round brings Cube’s post-mortem valuation to $100 million, the people said. Lipinski declined to comment on the valuation.
What is Cube.Exchange?
Cube was founded last year to protect traders from startup risks, particularly in response to the collapse of previous centralized cryptocurrency exchanges such as the FTX exchange.
Cube uses a hybrid model with off-chain order matching and on-chain payment capabilities. This allows users to maintain ownership of their assets without having to transfer them to an exchange-controlled account for trading, Lipinski said.
Cube boasts a multi-party computation vault that houses individual wallets for basic payments and stores assets directly on the blockchain. Lipinski said this approach allows users to view assets on-chain without relying on proof-of-holds audits and also eliminates the need for wrapped assets.
Cube is currently settling on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and Solana by default, and plans to support more layer 1 networks in the future, Lipinski said.
Cube Rewards and Tokens
Cube, currently in early access mode, is expected to be released publicly in the coming months. At the current stage, the platform provides users with points that can be exchanged for various rewards offered by Cube.
“For example, we just completed a program that distributed approximately $250,000 in value in Bonk tokens,” Lipinski said. “We are currently working on a reward pool of $GECKO tokens worth approximately $25,000, or $175 million.”
Cube plans to continue working with listed tokens to provide reward pools, Lipinski said. However, Cube added that it currently has no immediate plans to issue its own token.
cube plan
With the new funding, Cube plans to expand its 25-person team “significantly” across a variety of functions, Lipinski said. The platform also has plans to obtain licenses in more jurisdictions. According to Lipinski, it currently holds a virtual asset service provider license in Poland and a financial services business license in Canada, and currently meets “all the requirements” for spot trading operations in Australia.
As part of leading the Series A round, Mike Dudas, founder and managing partner of 6th Man Ventures, joined Cube’s board of directors, Lipinski said.
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