Ekiden launched the first order book-based derivatives exchange on the Canton Network, a privacy-enabled blockchain platform designed for regulated financial markets, in Lisbon.
The startup closed a $2 million seed round in May 2026 led by investors including GSR, Flowdesk, Pyth, Aptos, G20, DCF God, Curiosity Capital, and Keyrock.
During its first week on Canton’s testnet, Ekiden reported 1,502 active users, more than 72,000 trades and approximately $8.9 million in trading volume.
The platform combines a central limit order book with request-for-quote execution, PropAMM integration, a professional trading terminal and API connectivity. It targets professional trading firms, market makers, funds, banks and institutional desks, Ekiden said.
Ahead of its mainnet launch, Ekiden has 11 integration partners and 12 market makers onboarded, among them Keyrock, Kappa Lab and Flowdesk.
Viv Diwakar, head of the Canton Foundation, said Ekiden’s mainnet adds order book execution, privacy and settlement into a single venue designed for professional trading. “Launches like this act as a catalyst as the network broadens its offerings in on-chain derivatives,” she said.
Vitali Dervoed, Ekiden’s founder and CEO, argued that tokenization alone does not create institutional markets. For tokenized assets to trade at scale, institutions require execution quality, liquidity, privacy and workflows that reflect professional trading, he said. “Canton provides the institutional environment. We add the trading infrastructure layer for on-chain derivatives.”
A 2026 survey by Coinbase and EY found that 73% of institutional decision-makers plan to increase their digital asset allocations.
