Polychain and Variant-backed ‘neo-brokerage’ Cascade wants to open 24/7 perps trading for any asset class

4 weeks ago7 min read2 comments

In a move that signals a bold new phase for the convergence of traditional finance and decentralized markets, the ‘neo-brokerage’ platform Cascade has secured a formidable $15 million seed round. The funding, co-led by heavyweight crypto venture firms Polychain and Variant with backing from Coinbase Ventures, isn't just another capital infusion into the fintech ether.It’s a strategic bet on a singular, disruptive vision: to democratize 24/7 perpetual futures trading for virtually any asset class imaginable, from tokenized real estate and private equity to carbon credits and beyond. This isn't merely about adding more cryptocurrencies to a trading terminal; it's about building the foundational plumbing for a future where all value is fluid, programmable, and tradeable around the clock, collapsing the historic barriers between the walled gardens of TradFi and the open, albeit often siloed, arenas of DeFi.The involvement of Polychain, a fund with deep roots in foundational blockchain infrastructure, and Variant, known for its thesis on ‘owned economies’, alongside the strategic nod from Coinbase Ventures, provides a powerful trifecta of validation. It suggests Cascade is tackling something more profound than a better user interface—it’s attempting to architect a new market structure itself.Perpetual contracts, or ‘perps’, have become the lifeblood of crypto derivatives, offering leveraged exposure without an expiry date, but their application has been largely confined to the crypto-native sphere. Cascade’s proposition to extend this mechanism to real-world assets (RWAs) and other off-chain value streams is a technical and regulatory moonshot, fraught with challenges but dizzying in its potential.Imagine a world where a retail investor in São Paulo can take a leveraged position on the future value of a commercial building in Frankfurt, or hedge exposure to a private tech startup’s equity token, all with the same ease and 24/7 liquidity currently reserved for trading Bitcoin against the dollar. This vision hinges on the robust tokenization of these assets, creating a digital twin that can be reliably priced and custodied on-chain, and the development of oracle networks sophisticated enough to feed accurate, tamper-proof price data for inherently less liquid or transparent assets.The regulatory gauntlet will be immense, navigating the SEC’s Howey Test minefields for securities and the CFTC’s domain over commodities futures, not to mention global KYC/AML frameworks. Yet, the prize is the creation of a unified global capital market, a frictionless exchange of risk and opportunity that could unlock trillions in currently illiquid value.Critics will rightly point to the dangers: increased systemic risk from interconnected leverage, the potential for catastrophic depeg events in tokenized asset pools, and the ethical quandaries of allowing perpetual speculation on essential commodities or humanitarian indices. However, the Cascade backers are evidently betting that the genie of 24/7 markets is already out of the bottle, and the demand from a generation raised on instant access and global portfolios will only intensify.

#Cascade

#neo-brokerage

#perpetual futures

#24/7 trading

#seed funding

#Polychain

#Variant

#Coinbase Ventures

#derivatives

#lead focus news