Rho Protocol Launches World's First Crypto-Native Rates Market

Rho Labs has announced the public launch the first institutional-grade market for crypto interest rates, Rho Protocol.

The product will go live on 31 March following a successful private beta phase, which recorded nearly $10 billion in notional volume. The service offers trading of crypto funding and staking rate futures, giving traders new tools to hedge risk and optimize returns.

Built on Arbitrum, Rho Protocol transforms crypto interest rates into a liquid, tradeable asset class, enabling hedge funds, trading firms, DAOs, and institutional investors to manage capital more efficiently. The protocol allows users to execute rate strategies with greater precision, improving risk management and profitability.

One of its core offerings is the Perpetual Funding Rate Futures market, which allows traders to hedge against unpredictable funding rate changes and take advantage of rate movements.

By enabling positions on the funding rate of BTC and ETH perpetual swaps across centralized and decentralized exchanges like Binance , OKX , and Bybit , Rho provides traders with tools to enhance portfolio stability and improve Sharpe ratios.

Additionally, Rho is pioneering the first liquid staking rates market, referencing the Composite Ethereum Staking Rate, developed by CoinDesk Indices and CoinFund, which allows users to trade Ethereum staking rates across a range of maturities, from one month to one year or longer. Traders can hedge against staking rate volatility and lock in fixed returns.

Rho’s ecosystem also incentivizes liquidity providers through its virtual automated market maker (vAMM) model, which is capital-efficient and optimized for trading rate derivatives. Rho's liquidity vault allows passive investors to earn market-making fees while also providing liquidity for liquidations, adding another layer of revenue generation.

Speaking about the launch, Alex Ryvkin, founder of Rho Protocol, highlighted the importance of interest rates in crypto trading and the growing need for structured rate markets. "Since we founded Rho in 2022, we have observed an evolution of crypto markets with rates, especially perp funding and staking, becoming a critical component of crypto traders’ portfolio returns," Ryvkin explained.

"With the backing of some of the most reputable VCs in TradFi and Web3 and some of the most respected liquidity providers in the space, we are well-positioned to execute our vision of building a robust and reliable rates market for the blockchain ecosystem, contributing to its maturity and RWA future-readiness."

Rho Labs recently completed a $4 million seed funding round, with investments from CoinFund, Flow Traders, Auros, and Speedinvest. This funding will be used to e nhance platform liquidity, onboard institutional participants, and develop non-custodial trading solutions.

"We are thrilled to support Rho Labs as they fill a critical gap in the crypto ecosystem with a marketplace of perpetual products to normalize funding and forward rates between CeFi and DeFi," said Alex Felix, co-founder and CIO of CoinFund.

"Rho Labs is built by capital markets professionals to serve the budding credit opportunity. We strongly believe in Alex and his team as sophisticated institutional players to deliver the future of rate derivatives in crypto."