DeFi Protocol Hxro Launches USDC Collateralized Marketplace on Solana Mainnet as

CHICAGO, Sept. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Hxro, a fully composable, on-chain primitive that provides core exchange, risk, and settlement infrastructure, today announced the beta launch of its derivatives marketplace on the Solana mainnet. Following a successful alpha period, the beta launch allows users to now trade with USDC collateral.

The USDC launch brings this core DeFi primitive out of the test phase and into (invite-only) prime time. The launch comes at a time when demand for cryptocurrency derivatives liquidity by both retail-facing trading applications and professional trading firms continues to surge.  As of July 2022, crypto derivatives made up 69% of all cryptocurrency market volume, up from 66% in June*.

Dan Gunsberg, Co-Founder of Hxro commented on the news: “Today’s launch represents a significant milestone for Hxro and its mission to provide global access to a more inclusive derivatives marketplace. Onchain derivatives liquidity in the digital asset space is highly fragmented across many small to medium sized derivative protocols; this leaves no way for larger trading desks to participate in these markets at scale. By building infrastructure to support the unification of liquidity at the primitive layer, application protocols and other market participants now have open access to a marketplace with aggregated liquidity, across a wider derivative product set.”

The project is supported by Hxro’s marquee lineup of ecosystem partners, many of whom have been key contributors and active participants in the building of the network including principal trading firms SIG DT (a Susquehanna International Group Company), Jump Crypto, Alameda Research, Chicago Trading Company, Ledger Prime and Pattern Research as well as contributions from firms such as Blockchain Capital, Solana Labs, Coinbase Ventures and CoinFund.

The derivatives marketplace will initially feature a BTC/USDC perpetual future and eight consecutive expiring futures markets including two weeklies, two monthlies, and four quarterlies along with associated exchange-supported calendar spread markets for each expiration. All contracts will settle in USDC with markets for SOL, ETH, and other liquid cryptocurrencies to follow.

Hxro derivatives are powered by two of the network’s native protocols, Dexterity and Spandex. Named for its flexible framework, Dexterity is an open-source collection of smart contracts that provide the base exchange and settlement framework for trading any derivatives instrument. Spandex is Hxro’s customized derivatives risk engine and is the first on-chain, real-time risk engine to use a portfolio risk-based approach to managing users’ margin and risk.

The beta launch of the derivatives marketplace will be followed by the deployment of the network’s governance, staking, and reward protocols in the near future. Following this deployment, the network plans to launch additional derivative market infrastructure to support vanilla and exotic options,…